I just got these today and i gotta say these are full legit headphones for 150$. I got the Elex, Aivas and Koss 95x, they are not in their class but they’re close, very close. Theres so many flawed headphones ive bought and sent back but these are keepers. Especially since i can send them in to be modded.
They have a lots of treble, a little too much, good bass, good imaging but they can get a little muddy on some tracks like early Simple Minds. However on later Simple Minds they sound good, really good.
They look like old fashioned headphones. They sit on the ear not over it, which is a little annoying, i thought they where over ear. They are Semi-open headphones which is my favorite kind of headphone over just open or closed. They are well made headphones with nice tilt and swivel and good friction headband adjust.
Some People say they are hard to drive but using my Schiit stack modi and magni i had no problems. Volume was fine and i didnt have to turn it all the way up.
I’m impressed with them. They have a lot of potential. they just lack implementation. Leave it up to a big company being shortsighted. These could have been a great headphone. but for so many companies its:
1 Do as little as possible to your product (keep production costs cheap).
2 Sell for as much as you can. (Inflate the price).
3 Profit.
So i understand why they are modded so much. They are legendary for modding. They have some shortcomings, and for 150$ its not to dear to play around with it with mods. I think this is why so many of the Fostex products are modded. I suspect they where out there early with the cheapest Planar Magnetic headphones, which as we all know are great. and then, internet.
Fostex is a old company. Started in the 1940’s and where an early adapter of Planar Magnetics. So i think they really know what their doing. Their RP series are very popular, offering 3 sound characteristics. The T20RP is open deep bass, the T40RP is closed focused bass and the T50RP semi-open flat and clear sound. The T50RP seems the be the most popular and thats the reason i bought it
So the question now is, should i send them in to be modded? Zeos is crazy about the Modhouse Argons. He goes on and on about it in his videos. Modhouse will mod them for 90$ without pads.
They offer lambskin, Protien, Cowhide or Eikon pads, im not sure of the sound altering properties of each. Maybe someone can enlighten me? You can also get them Balanced for 35$. Since im getting a THX789 i think i’ll add this. All together it will come to 175$, a little steep.
All in all im excited about getting these modded and seeing how theyve improved. I think they will be great headphones to add to my growing collection.
