đŸ”¶ Fostex T50rp

Headphones [Official] Open Back
21

Not sure yet, we’ll see
 but I’m sure I’ll keep the T50RPs. :slight_smile:

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Also now you gotta think about what the t50’s could do with more power

23

O5ZGrS3

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I got 5/6 on the test with these, nice.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

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There you go, I really don’t understand when people say that you can’t tell a lossless from a high quality mp3 or other lossy format

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It’s probably way harder with 100$ than with 1000$ headphones, heh.
Still, I’m glad to say the T50RP owner (on a review site somewhere) who said “if you buy these, prepare to delete your entire mp3 collection because it’s now worthless” was wrong. Currently enjoying mp3s. I can hear the difference, but it’s definitely not “night and day”.

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Yeah, unless you are using something like 128kbps mp3 or really low quality lossy files, it won’t be that bad

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Man the accurate sub-bass with these (and Shure 840 pads), holy sh**
!

I even got nausea yesterday, I’m pretty sure zero PA speakers (dancefloor/rave/etc) can reproduce sub-bass this low. Obviously not a problem with non-electronic music. It’s just perfect with non-electronic music. But I’ve done, and listened to, electronic music with HD280 Pros (allegedly they go down to 7hz), for 10+ years, and I never had this problem.

Well, you’ve been warned, lol.

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If you can’t find the stock pads, Shure 840 pads + crush them for one night on a speaker or a pile of DVDs or something.

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I actually got Denon AHD2000 angled pads which are perfect. Stretching them over the cups covering the vents gives them a bass boost as well.

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Amps are odd. I got two headphone amps here, well, an old AVR and an audio (recording) interface (Edirol FA-66, for home studio).

The recording interface headphone output sounds clean even at 100%. And even at 90%, wow for the bass, the clean transients (peaks), the skull-shaking electronic music "drum"kicks. To achieve the same volume level, my AVR headphone out is at 65%. And can make me deaf (75%+ is pain). But has less transients.

Apparently my recording interface has as much HP (volume) as it has torque (power for transients), and my Denon AVR has a ton HP but not much torque.

Odd find: Setting “source level” to +12dB gives a bit of a boost (torque! cough transients) to my old AVR’s headphone out (yes, I’m not talking volume, just transients here), without adding any distortion. As if the HDMI or Optical in was -12dB by default.

I still think that, compared to the “cleanliness” of my recording interface, my AVR adds something to the sound. Envelopes me with the sound
 the “benefits” of rusted wires, probably. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Also, I was looking at another AVR, and I wanted to use the front headphone out for my T50RPs (no, not for critical listening or whatever), and I found this: 80 mW (32 ≠, 1 kHz, 10% THD)

Uhhh, no thanks. :confused: Yes, 10% THD for a headphone out in something Pioneer made in 2017. Ouch. I mean, I know they don’t care much, but
 I’m absolutely certain my 10-year-old Denon AVR has less than 10% THD for a headphone output. Definitely less than 10% THD @ 1khz even!

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Yeah most avr headphone outputs are afterthoughts these days. If you look at old and vintage receivers they typically have more serviceable headphone outs. Or amps that advertise how good their headphone out is

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Yup, sadly.

On the subject of T50RPs, man, planars are hell of a drug. Lol. :ok_hand:

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What’s your next planar going to be?? :thinking: You gotta fuel your addiction somehow

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:sweat_smile: I don’t like kraft dinner enough to buy planars every two weeks, lol.

Dat planar bass/kick slam though, re-discovering old electronic music songs and holy shiiiiiiii- I think I don’t need coffee anymore.

They’re so effing dangerous for me though. I don’t know what does this and why, but, I cranked them to test my amps and I realized my “pain threshold” is like
 20dB higher with T50RPs than with my other headphones. Strange thing. But yeah, my amp needs to be at 50%-ish. Higher than that and it’s dangerous. Fun, but dangerous. Avoid.

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They drink that power up and do magical things with it. With an insane amount of mods, you can get an insane amount of bass extension. Like sub bass appears in songs that you didn’t know existed.

I’m deep into the Open Alpha mod. Modified drivers, wave guides ect. I have two pairs of MK3’s that are just over the top and voiced very differently. One is a bass extension machine that is super fun to listen to. Clear but forgiving and fun without fatigue. The other is a microscope that draws a very defined line in the sand between good mixes and garbage recordings. Both of them take a lot of power to drive because they both have a lot of dampening to shape them into what they are.

The sound pressure on these cans with the volume knob on 9 is similar to my HD58X’s on 5. So just hard to drive really. One side effect of this hard to drive situation is that a lot of amps go up in THD with volume. I have a Valhalla 2 and when I want that tube sound I crank it, then use the preamp outs to a Magni 3 on high gain that can drive them much better and it sounds great. I have a FIIO e18k that struggles to drive them and when you crank it to 10, trying to drive these cans it just falls flat on its face. I can’t quite describe it, but it is almost like the louder bits are being flattened off because there is no headroom.

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This gives you impressive detail, though (with stock T50RPs anyway). They just can’t “box” your ears with that planar kick slam, etc.

The little manual that came with it says “resistance to high level input peaks of up to 3000mW”, so, there you go, lol. Three watts!

39

I wrote, and re-wrote, and changed pads, and bent the headband, and un-bent the headband, and here’s my review, finally.

Fostex T50RP MK3 Review (with Shure 840 pads): Hard hitting, cold precision.

First: Way too much treble, stock. Shure 840 pads are mandatory if you want to hear bass/drum kicks, etc.

They’re my first planars. What are planars? With planars, let’s say the music hits, hard. And fast. And stops fast too. And not only the bass hits. Everything hits. The snares, the cymbals, etc. You know, when you listen to, let’s say, an uplifting 140bpm trance song, and then after a bit of silence, there’s the kick and you go “oof!” Well, prepare to clearly hear the silence (yes), and then go “oof” 140 times per minute with T50RPs. Lol. Fun stuff for cranks, haha. If you wanted to sit back and relax with scotch on the rocks and T50RPs, nope: You will be dancing on the carpet after 2 minutes. If you press play, that’s because you want to feel all the energy that was in the studio. And they’re really analytic. So smooth jazz will be as relaxing as being there
 lying right next to the drummer and the saxophonist. Because planars are relentless, and T50RPs can be really, really dynamic.

-Bass (again, with Shure 840 pads): I’ve never heard this much precise, strong and accurate bass and sub-bass. I already talked about the kicks/drum kicks, too. Skull shaking stuff. I even got nausea one evening after listening to electronic music at high volume. Just once, but still. I’ve listened to electronic music with HD280 Pros (they allegedly go to down to 7hz) for years, and never experienced this. Some people have the same problem with subwoofers, apparently. Well, it makes sense. T50RPs planar technology hits hard, and goes low. I mean, you can even hear the bass in Metallica - And Justice for All! :wink:
-Mids: They’re neutral, but they seem a bit V-shaped. That’s because the “high-mids” are all there, but
 not often. Maybe T50RPs are just “too dynamic” : There’s obviously no drum kicks, bass, snares or cymbals in the high-mids. But with violin strings, or when a girl screams, it’s glorious (uh, yeah, I’m still talking about music, guys
).
-Highs: They don’t extend all the way up to 20khz, but, huh, there’s not much there to hear, obviously. They sound really clear, because they have treble but lack “high-mids”. So, what the hell are “high-mids”, you say? Well, I’ll be more precise, I found a graph at Changstar: Just look at this hole from 2khz to 5khz (see below) compared to HD600s. I don’t have HD600s, but everytime I try to convince myself T50RPs are neutral all the way, I plug my HD58Xs and realize there’s something missing. This lack of “high-mids” can make 'em sound thin, or “cold”, especially combined with the precision of planar technology.

t50rp_hd60000e9
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Oh, and ignore the -5dB @ 20hz: It’s definitely fixed with Shure 840 pads.

The precision of planar technology.

I probably shouldn’t confound “thinness” and “precision”, but I’ll say that anyway: these planars can sound “thin”. T50RPs are the exact opposite of my HD58Xs, in which everything sounds “fuller” and “warmer”. And with overdubbed, compressed songs destroyed by the “loudness war”, they can even sound like you’re listening to exploded speakers. Yup, that’s what compression sounds like. And, in my opinion, that’s all what T50RPs are meant to be. It’s just “the price to pay” for precision. As I already said here, I got 5/6 on this test (.mp3 320kbs vs .wav files). Everything is there. Everything is detailed. Everything jumps at you. You just don’t hear “reverb” or “soundstage” when there isn’t.

So, no graph could have predicted that, not even CSD graphs, but I now have two “complementary” but neutral(-ish), studio-ready headphones. Between T50RPs and HD58X, I was just expecting “more of the same”. Boy I was wrong. I really can hear this planar technology. I’m really lucky!

And now, with a smartphone:

“Too dynamic” doesn’t sound fun for some, but I only said they can be “too dynamic”. Yup, T50RPs can sound thin, even mechanical
 Try giving these LESS power (!). With lower power, like with a smartphone, T50RPs suddenly become smooth, low-volume critical listening beasts! Detailed, analytical. Way less dynamics, exchanged for way more detail. Behold T50RP, the Japanese mech engineered to devastate all your bad studio mixes
 with your damn smartphone.

I don’t have a 1 watt yeet cannon (copyright Zeos), so I don’t know if they’d be the same with a lot of power. All I know is, my jaw dropped when I heard a ton of unheard details and hiss, with what most – well, especially Zeos, would call “not enough” power.

P.S.: No “planar crinkle” even with beard and long hair. I still don’t know what “planar crinkle” is (they’re a tiny bit “open-back”, though, and I heard it was something about pressure – not a problem here).

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Nice review :+1:

The driver is fairly small compared to other planars and there is some venting, so that shouldn’t be an issue

Also just get a basx a100 already lol

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