[gurubhai]

hi people,

After following this thread for past few months, I finally managed to get a Fostex T20V2. I received it yesterday.

Stock, they lacked the bass & treble extension.The fabled mid-range of ortho was apparent though.The vocals sounded almost life-like. They are even more difficult to drive than my HD580.

I tried the Faust2D mod (with replacement locally available items). The bass is much better after the mod & the clarity has also improved. I am firmly an ortho convert now.

I am looking to replace the pads since they are a bit worn & don't provide a proper seal. Can someone help me with a suitable replacement?

regards

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurubhai /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am looking to replace the pads since they are a bit worn & don't provide a proper seal. Can someone help me with a suitable replacement? regards

Welcome to a new addiction.

ourfpshero had an awesome idea for his T20v1s, and it might work for the v2s. Try turning the stock pads inside out! On the v1s they fit perfectly and all of my T20 pads that were shot on the outside were in good to great shape on the inside.

Any other pads will change the sound sig, but hands down the best aftermarket pads for orthos is the Stax SR-007 MkII pad. The kick in the balls is that they are $90-$130 pair new. Another option that I need to test are AT W11 pads. But they're pricey too.

Edit: If your pads are really beat up on the outside, when you turn them inside out, you might want to use a rubber cement to mount them to the bezel. It will help seal them off and minimize bass loss. I've found it's less damaging to the pads and seals better than double-sided tape, at least compared to my heavy duty 3M DS tape.

 

[gurubhai]

^^OMG! Fantastic idea.Thanks to you & ourfpshero.

I would need some pads though & the O2 pads are out of my budget. I would probably go the custom leather way.
May be a knock-off O2 pads

 

[Kabeer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurubhai /img/forum/go_quote.gif ^^OMG! Fantastic idea.Thanks to you & ourfpshero. I would need some pads though & the O2 pads are out of my budget. I would probably go the custom leather way. May be a knock-off O2 pads

If you manage to find knock off's please direct me to some too

 

[gurubhai]

I plan to get them made locally. I know a couple of handy leather workers.
Now, if some one could help me with the dimensions & material for stuffing. ph34r

 

[Pyriel0]

I just recently got a fostex t20 v1 and I have noticed that these respond very well to eq'n in the foobar player. Is this the same with pretty much all ortho phones?

 

[mypasswordis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kabeer /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you manage to find knock off's please direct me to some too

The J$ Denon pads should fit, if I remember correctly.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurubhai /img/forum/go_quote.gif I plan to get them made locally. I know a couple of handy leather workers. Now, if some one could help me with the dimensions & material for stuffing. ph34r

You only need one dimension set, the inner ear opening. You have the stock T20 pads, use those dimensions for the diameter and lip size. The Stax pads taper back to front about 15mm thick at the thinnest spot in the front to a max of 28mm-30mm at the rear. You can of course mod this since you're going custom, but I wouldn't exceed 35mm or it will cause fit issues. Max ear opening height is about 65mm and about 55mm-57mm wide, and definitely shaped like a rounded "D". Part of their magic is the screen material used to cover the bottom over the whole pad which protects the driver, but has very limited if any audible influence on the sound. No clue how to replicate it, but a speaker mesh may come close, however it could be very irritating to ears, so test different material if you can. I have used very open weave velour in the past inside ear pads, but it does knock off the highs just slightly, though usually in a positive way to my ears.

Material inside is a low compliance foam, so it crushes easily, but pops up fast, no shape memory. Ideally it would be cut with a hot wire knife to keep the tapers correct and even. There are alternative stuffing materials you could use, so get creative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis /img/forum/go_quote.gif The J$ Denon pads should fit, if I remember correctly.

They fit the cups, but they're a very different sound signature and not nearly as comfortable since Jeremy copied the small ear openings of the OE Denon pads perfectly. They are much thicker pads over all too, so fitting adjustment range is greatly reduced.

Not knocking the pads at all, I'm a huge J$ pad fanboy and have (3) pairs of the Denons and up till recently, (4) pairs of the AKG K240 pads from him.

If he made O2 pads, they would probably be in the $85-$105 range (unless he can get a significant volume of pads on a pre-order group buy), just as a guess, but his leather will be much more durable and they need to be broken in like ball gloves. I could share my secret for breaking in Denon pads in days, but that needs to be done via PMs as this is a family site after all.

 

[gurubhai]

thanks for the info. Just what I needed.
is that screen material required though ?
These fostex pads have none.

 

[mypasswordis]

Where do you buy K240 pads? I don't see them listed on his site.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyriel0 I just recently got a fostex t20 v1 and I have noticed that these respond very well to eq'n in the foobar player. Is this the same with pretty much all ortho phones?

It depends on how well they're damped. Most (but certainly not all) orthos from the '70s and '80s tend to have a very broad resonant peak centered somewhere in the upper bass, the severity of which is indicated by the way the headphone sounds before any modifications are done. Reducing this peak using a parametric EQ, or by using thicker earpads, will work, though the problems of resonance (e.g., the lack of good diaphragm control) remain.

Speaking very broadly, the rest of the frequency range of an ortho is comparatively free of resonances, so EQ tends to work well there.

Anyway, keep listening and let us know if the foobar EQ continues to sound good as your ears become accustomed to the sound of the T20.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Where do you buy K240 pads? I don't see them listed on his site.

Buy them?

Email him, he has them. His stock may be low or out. They were the same price as the Beyer pads, $55/pr IIRC.

 

[iQEM]

darn, get lost again on the Dual DK830...

so, whose got it ?

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iQEM /img/forum/go_quote.gif darn, get lost again on the Dual DK830... so, whose got it ?

I did not get it, but it's an intriguing design mix between the Dual 720 and the PMB80. It has the cup of the Dual 720, but the baffle and pad size of the PMB-80. What driver it uses is as usual with PMB a gamble. You never know what you are going to get!

Before the right side of the PMB-80 cut out on me again, I compared it with an AKG 240 Monitor to hear how flat it was. But I almost couldn't compare them, because the difference in tone is so dramatic. The PMB-80 sounds so much more natural that I am very happy I only paid 5 euro for the AKG. Less bass though, but drums actually sound like drums, and Bob Dylan sounds like he should. The 720 (with all the sealing-up tricks done, converted to open back, and with yellow fiber glass damping) has no lack of deep bass. It's strong and good. Instead, there is less Zap. If I remove the pads and only keep a thin leather circle, there is still some bass left, but plenty of Zap.

I hope someone around here got the Dual!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I recabled my NAD RP18s with Soloz Audio's latest yet to be named cable creation. It's a 4-wire design, 24awg solid conductors, with solid silver wires for the negatives and solid copper for the positives, currently terminated to a Neutrik TRS, but it will be reterminated to Neutrik 4-pin XLR once my F5s are built.

I also modded the dampening scheme to be closer to what I did on the T10s that sounds so nice and tested the RP18s with the AT W11JPN, J$ Denon, and Stax O2 pads. The resulting combo is very, very good. I'm in between the W11 pads and O2 pads for the RP18s. They leak a surprising amount of sound out the back, but do not have the open can feeling of the K401s, SR-Lamda, or HE5s. With the W11 pads, the bass is reduced and they sound more open than with the O2 pads. I can tweak the dampening to get the bass back but the worst part of the W11 pads is mounting them as they have almost no lip. That said, the W11 pads are wickedly comfortable with the big RP18s and I get more adjustment range. I'm happy with the cable and it's about 30 hours into a recommended 72-80 hour burn in. Final mods and tuning will occur after it's burned in.



I had planned to use the W11 pads on the Kenwood KH-82 electrets, but I tried them with the O2 pads and their bass and overall sound improved over the W11 pads. I think with a piece of new, more open felt in place of the shot foam, they'll be really nice cans, even without a Stax cable and transformer bypass mod. I am going to use a new TRS plug on the stock cable and see if that gets them a little more power or voltage, but I still think the small transformers are the issue, so...

Now I'm now eyeballing Kabeer's Teledyne transformer box for them... Mod it to run off the speaker inputs or a TRS plug, bypass the bias boards, and make a custom cable with Stax plug on it. I think it will have less peak voltage than our DIY SRD7 boxes (which is the goal in this case to protect the driver) and I don't want to mod my SRD6 on the low probability I ever have to sell my SR-Lamdas.



T20v1s are nice. I like them better than the T20v2s simply for comfort. The reversed stock pad mod ourfpshero came up with works brilliantly to get a nice, new pad that seals properly and has the light weight and comfort. The v1s are a little weaker in the bass than v2s I have, but not enough to long for it and it's a sacrifice I'm happy to make in exchange for the nicer mids through highs that come with the smaller cup design. I think it's strictly from a lack of resonance of ringing in the cup, but it be a little more complicated acoustics physics too. A vibration dampened v2 may end up sounding the same with better bass, but then it still has the awful hair-pulling headband to put up with. A leather wrap would eliminate that, but, eh, I have better projects to focus limited time on but if J$ would step up and make them, then I'd reconsider and grab a set of new T20s to play with.