[mrspeakers]

Listening to Remain in Light right now, the new 96/24 remaster, and have to say these things kick ass.  I am not ready to say the blow away the LCD-2, but man are they fantastic.  Can't wait to hear your set...

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Can't wait to hear your set...

 
Just let me know when you will be in town...
 
There is a local guy who also wants to listen them soon.

 

[deadspider187]

Can anyone answer my question?  Does anyone know?
 
Quote:

By removing the felt on the ear-side of the driver, does any hair get into the diaphram and distort the sound, ala 'grado grattle', or is this pretty safe?
 


 

 

 

[mrspeakers]

I've not had an issue, but on the ear side, you should be sure to leave the super-fine screen that is under the black felt in place when the felt is removed. Also, many of the ear pad upgrades like the Shure or Stax pads have a nice loose black fabric that provides an additional layer of protection.  

 

[deadspider187]

 
Quote:

I've not had an issue, but on the ear side, you should be sure to leave the super-fine screen that is under the black felt in place when the felt is removed. Also, many of the ear pad upgrades like the Shure or Stax pads have a nice loose black fabric that provides an additional layer of protection.  

Thank you!

 

[Centropolis]

I am a junior Head Fi guy and just starting out.  Have a pair of Grado SR-60i's.  I want to know would the T50RP give me something different than my Grado's?  Or are the sound signatures similar?
 
I only have a pair of SR-60i's and I want to expand my headphones lineup but don't want too much of overlaps.

 

[Mad Max]

T50RP will be very different indeed.

 

[LFF]

Quote:

T50RP will be very different indeed.

Indeed. Even in its stock form, the T50RP will be a different beast than the SR-60i.
 
 

 

[Synkro]

Excellent review. Looks like I have another set of cans to put on my "To Buy" list.

 

[Megaohmz]

I'm about ready to buy a pair of these. Thanks for the review. I will definitely enjoy modding these in the future. I'll probably use some Gepco wire on them since I had such a great experience with that wire with my Koss Portapro 25ths.

 

[LJH01]

Hello All,
I just received my pair of T50's and I have to say reading the OP's thoughts made me laugh because they were very similar mine.  I am relatively new to this whole thing but have been enjoying mobile audio for a year now and have tried a number or IEM's including RE0's, DBA-02's, HF5's, and EX600 and have been really enjoying checking out different phones and the ability to enjoy high quality music during times of the day that it would not be appropiate to be blasting music .  A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to check out a pair of cans and in doing my research I decided to try the T50's.  Lat night I got home and the box from B&H was sitting there so I quickly dug into it and plugged them into my iphone4>JDS CMOY  and turned them on and at first I was like Huh.....these do not compare to my EX600's or my HF5's for that matter.  A little dejected I plugged them into the home stereo and let them play for an hour or so till me went to bed and up in bed I tried them again and they had gotten noticeably better but still not what I would call great.  I listened for an hour or so and I was starting to appreciate them some more but then it was time to go to sleep so I plugged them into the stereo to let them play over night.  I am working from home to day and just plugged them into my Ipad2 with the JDS CMOY and these things are pretty darn impressive.  I am amazed at the sound stage and how instruments sound like they are coming from different elevations and depths....I am liking these a lot, the whole sound signature fits me well and I am surprised at the amount of bass, well maybe not the amount but the impact. 
 
I have to say I was worried how the CMOY would run these but there is a night and day difference between running them straight out of the idevice and using the AMP.  I am sure they could use more power and I am ordering a Maverick Tubemagic A1 to use as both a headphone AMP and a small speaker AMP so I am sure they will be even better when run with some real power but the CMOY is cutting it right now.  I find a comfortable listening level to be about 45% of volume travel where as I use about 25% for my IEMS.
 
All good here.
 
Cheers,
Jim

 

[musedesign]

 
What is the best inexpensive tube amplifier for the T50RP?
 
Little Dot III - $159, plus $65 shipping, $224 ebay ?
 
Thanks!

 

[Smugsie]

I'm just going to put that out there, I've been fascinated by the Fostex T50RP's for a number of reasons
1) They're orthodynamics
2) Apparently they are fast and natural mid-ranged headphones
3) They're cheap

As a student, a $150 headphone is quite pricey. I even spent months researching on the first headphone that would cost me over $200. Yes there are people like me who exist that don't want to take apart their headphones. However I really want to buy the T50RP's, but I DON'T want to take them apart like some of the hardcore modders I've seen around here.

The Fostex for me to buy is around $130, I don't mind spending another $50 for the Alpha pads if it really does improve the sound quality.

 

 

[edform]

I bought myself a pair of T50RPs a few weeks ago and tried running them direct from the headphone-out of my HRT Microstreamer - not a success. The sound could only really be called mediocre. Bass can be brought up by crushing the cans hard against the head to improve the seal round the ears but the midband was lumpy and could not be called good by any measure. HF quality was poor and notably lacking in detail - percussion instruments had no character and there was no silkiness on strings. The biggest negative was a tendency to sound clipped on female voice and piano - as though the Microstreamer was unable to supply the required drive.
 
Connecting the Microstreamer into my valve amp's headphone output gave a fuller sound but the clipping of high voice and piano was no better. The sound still had to be called muddled with hard brass rasp but no joined-up picture of the brass instrument and still very poor HF character.
 
Unpluging the T50s from the headphone socket switches the amp's output back to a pair of Stax SR Gammas connected with an SRD-6/SB transformer driver. To be blunt the Stax's simply leave the Fostex cans for dead - no voice or piano clipping and a clear connection between instruments and their overtones - HF is discernibly real with things like cymbals shimmering and real. Snare drum sounds are filled with character and hard percussive events like rimshots are detailed with all the correct rattles and snicks plainly part of a single event.
 
So here's the question. Why has no one tried modifying T50s to true open back running? The driver definitely doesn't like being enclosed in a cheap, microphonic plastic canister and, if the diaphragm is doing as it's told by the signal, the cans ought to sound reasonably in the Electrostatic league.
 
I'm going to modify mine with very solid baffles, good sealing between driver and baffle and big comfy ear cushions and a wide open rear protected by wire mesh - will report back.
 
Ed Form

 

[edform]

One other addition to my brief Stax v T50 post - bass detail and slam on the Stax is from another planet altogether - I'm listening to the track 'Ride me Like a Wave' on Janis Ian's 'Breaking Silence' album and the Fostex cans have nothing that can be called bass detail or slam - a great disappointment.
 
Ed Form