[gurubhai]

^ I suppose they work pretty well in the context too.
 
Well said, RD

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

i would do this if it was me if the headphone originally uses a 4-core cable scheme. just gonna have to figure which is left and right negative/positives though if you have no idea on the headphones wiring schematics and so forth.

 
I stand corrected: Even though it's a 5-pin plug plus shield, it looks like the standard for DIN 45327 headphone connections is pin 2 left, pin 3 right, pin 4 common ground. In that case, you'll have to cut the plug if you want a four-line connection, regardless of how the headphone itself is cabled.

 

[RexAeterna]

if it's just 3-core wire then it might need a complete rewiring then. the common ground usually counts as a negative connector as well in some cases. that's why most amps negative outputs are grounded as well. if it needs rewiring then i personally would choose a 4-pin XLR instead. you can do dual 3-pin xlr as well but if you want to keep it single ended a 4-pin connector might be much better choice.

i'm no expert at wring or anything. i just do it for fun and as a learning experience.

 

[200poundsofamp]

Wow, the Fostex T20v2I is really good! It's kind of embarrassing how I've spent hours using plasticine and paxmate on a T50rp and never gotten it to sound good, but I spend 10 minutes doing really half assed felt dampening on the T20v2 and it already sounds far better! Solid tonality, nice imaging, and the ortho smoothness and speed, I'm really liking these.
 
Think I'm going to have to steal this dampening scheme for the T50rp and see what happens.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Do you mean the T20v2 with round drivers and "excitingly chunky frame" or the new T20mkII with square drivers?

 

[200poundsofamp]

"excitingly chunky frame" sound about right! Drivers are very round.
 
They even sound better stock, it's surprising. That piece of packing foam they stuck in there must do wonders.

 

[rhythmdevils]

They both have that frame, I just said that cause I wanted to use the expression.    So they have some yellow writing, not orange like this pic?  http://www.lnlrecording.com/images/Headphones/T20RP_MK_II.jpg
 
Yeah the stock foam in the T20v2 is really useful, it has a nice even damping effect adding treble in an even way, but it does eat up bass. 

 

[200poundsofamp]

Yeah, it's the old yellow nastier looking one. I put the t50rp pads on it too.
 
I'm using the Faust setup without that chamois stuff.  Sounds a little underdamped right now but I'm OK with that. Top octave isn't there but the bass sounds pretty neutral but really punchy, if I can keep that but get the treble dialed in these things will be golden.

 

[wualta]

Smeggy deserves great credit for hearing the Call of Potential in the T50RP from far, far away. I certainly didn't hear any easily-snatched audiophile-grade goodness [read: bass] in it, but he spotted it and and lunged for it like a rugger forward, and the result is popularity so great Fostex can't seem to keep up.
 
But it's not an easy climb to get at the T50RP's inherent goodness, which is why I've always pushed the T20v2 forward, even though it's harder to find. The problem is that there's no quick recipe to get the sound that will please a given person. The upside is, there are many ways to make it sound pretty good. It doesn't back you against a wall the way the T50RP does-- there's lots of room to maneuver.
 
Now, many of the viscoelastic mass-loading and constrained-layer damping and foam-absorbent techniques used on the T50RP may prove useful on the T20v2, so the many folks working on the T50RP are doing us all a big favor by cutting and trying and trying again, gradually eliminating the dead ends and the excesses. So 200lb, I wish you luck. [executes snappy RAF salute, snags hand on button]
 
We gotta watch the terminology, though, since Fostex's own is too confusing, and we have to write for future orthoheads doing keyword searches. "T20 Mk II" sounds too much like the T50RP's little brother, the T20RP Mk II. The T20v2's box doesn't agree with what's silkscreened on the 'phone itself, so long ago we decided to call it T20 version 2 or T20v2 for short.
 
The newer T20RP Mk II at least has the box match the product. And maybe one of you will hear The Call from within said T20RP Mk II and we'll have a whole 'nother round of threads 'n' mods for it.

 

[200poundsofamp]

For sure, makes that Thunderpants kit way more tempting! The T50rp is a total PITA, at least with the V2 the things I've tried so far haven't sounded perfect, but at least they've all sounded pretty good.
 
But at least this gives me more tools to work with on the T50rp. Maybe some weird combo of the damping used on these two will work out, who knows?
 
Quote:

 
We gotta watch the terminology, though, since Fostex's own is too confusing, and we have to write for future orthoheads doing keyword searches. "T20 Mk II" sounds too much like the T50RP's little brother, the T20RP Mk II. The T20v2's box doesn't agree with what's silkscreened on the 'phone itself, so long ago we decided to call it T20 version 2 or T20v2 for short.

 
Okay, fixed. I'm just confusing myself now!

 

[ludoo]

This is turning into a Fostex fan thread.
 
And I'm joining the masses with the latest report from my rescued-from-the-bin-resoldered-recabled t20v1. The previous scheme (thick felt discs held in place with double-sided tape) was pretty awful as expected, so I tackled the problem in a saner way: I found some foam of the right thickness, and used it to keep firmly in place against the driver a disc of Moorbrook cashmere wool, the pixie dust of us yammy lovers.
 
Results are pretty good: the t20v1 have gained low bass, there's not a lot of it but enough for my tastes, and very clean; highs are surprising for an ortho; the general sound is clean and fast. The only things lacking are a bit of soundstage, and the lush mids of the yamahas. Other than that, the t20v1 are great mid-level orthos. And there's still some margin in the damping scheme (eg by cutting holes in the felt disc) to further improve them.

 

[gurubhai]

The soundstage can be improved somewhat by circumaural pads(e.g. O2 pads) like Don suggested. The better sealing pads would give the lower bass a boost too.

 

[ludoo]

Quote:

The soundstage can be improved somewhat by circumaural pads(e.g. O2 pads) like Don suggested. The better sealing pads would give the lower bass a boost too.

I don't doubt it, but putting O2 pads on a cheap headphone seems a bit excessive. I'll probably just sell it, as using it as a portbale would mean destroying it in the long run. And connected to an amp I much prefer my Yamahas.
 

 

[sachu]

Quote:

The soundstage can be improved somewhat by circumaural pads(e.g. O2 pads) like Don suggested. The better sealing pads would give the lower bass a boost too.

Guru, if you need anything from the US..let me know. Will be visiting home next month.

 

[wualta]

Fostex does deserve some credit, since they [arguably] rescued the British patents and kept them alive in various iso/ortho forms from ~1975 until the present day. I don't have any of the RP microphones (they're terribly spendy), but I do have a set of their coax RP-tweeter monitor speakers.
 
Interestingly, though the T20v1 and T20v2 have many fundamental similarities, including what looks like the same driver, mounted the same way, they sound very different, partly due to their different outer cups and different pads. Though they remained aimed at the same market, the v2s were evidently meant to serve different ends in the studio, while sharing a confusingly similar model name. Another case of "I wish I knew what they were thinking". The v1 isn't among my favorites, but I'm glad to see people continue to work on and, with the help of a little ortho-pixie dust, improve it.