đŸ”¶ Fostex T50rp

yes Zen Dac can power the T50, problem is why T50? These headphones didn’t age that well. For electronic I guess it is fine, but the issue is that out o place bass. It is not really a bass oriented headphone, but is like music is happening 
 voice, cords
 whatever, and out of the blue the low bass makes a steps out of the melodic line. It’s not huge, but it becomes annoying and you will find yourself reaching for headphones like HD600 or DT880 so much more that you will see no reason to even have T50.

I mean, nobody buys T50RPs without modding them. I did my own mods on mine and now they’re perfect for me. They’re incredibly “versatile” as they can just be treble murder (stock), U-shaped if you mess with the foam, dark with Shure 840 pads, etc
 or obviously, if you ask Modhouse to mod em.

Edit: Perfect for me with everything. Electronic music, jazz, metal, female and male vocals, youtube videos, whatever.

Reach for the Dynamic driver HD600 with rolled sub bass? Why?
Bass notes do not just jump out as these are feedback devices/transducers and replay the input.

That’s just odd. There are also atleast a dozen versions of the T50 MKII and III some of which has many tuning profiles and my graph reflects my particular unit and other MKII do not graph like it.

Being planar it slams when it is supposed to and at no other time and unlike a DD it can recover without any Senn veil

3 Likes

maybe that is the issue. Planar are so fast compared to dynamics that is easy to brake melodic line, and sounds become kind of isolated. I noticed the same thing with Arya and frankly this makes me rethink my future upgrades to totally exclude planar. You picked up on HD 600 because reduced bass, but ignored the fact that DT880 has a more coherent sound, and that is my 2nd most use headphone for music, with Arya on 3rd and T50 4th. In fact they only time I use Arya is on new gear out of curiosity, and T50 not even that lately. It is easy to go: “Oh this headphone just a little better/worse here and there” but when it comes to actual use time with options on the table, the bad investment becomes apparent. n aside HyperX, I still preferred those to T50, with all that cheap sound

You might be one of those rare bass-sensitive people like my father. :man_shrugging:

Kinda like buying a Harley. You know you 'aint leavin there with a stock machine! :sunglasses:

1 Like

Anyone here tried putting modeling clay into these? Because I’ve had trouble finding anything on what it actually does apart from a vague “reduce mechanical motion” and that tells me nothing about effects on detail, imaging, or tone.

Okay this is sounding salty. But I was dissapointed by how putting in cotton made them sound really thin and hollow (compared to just using Dekoni sheepskin pads), and feel reluctant to unscrew them again, even though I already got some Newplast clay to try out.

I’m thinking about entry level planars. Does someone have both T50RP and HE400SE? Can someone compare them?

1 Like

T50RP are excellent, but unless you are planning to mod them or send them in to be modded, get the HE400SE. The T50RP are excellent, but have sort of a vale over the sound, the ear pads are extremely uncomfortable (must replace) and they are only single ended out of the box so you could never expand the to balance unless you mod them. The HE400SE are clear and neutral, almost to the point of being boring in my book, I need a bit more base and warmth, but that is what your getting, no need to mod, and balanced.

There are now plenty of other choices out there for beginner plannars that I would say are better choices.

1 Like

Huh, never saw T50RPs as having a “veil” over their sound
 Anyway, Hifiman 5XXs are also well-regarded (no mods required either).

But, is it really a good thing? Lol. If you have time to “mod” headphones, and by “mod” I mean, just buying another pair of pads or messing with the foam a little bit for example, the versatility of T50RPs can really impress you. It’s like buying 3 or 4 headphones at once, really.

3 Likes

Have you ever listened to any of the T50RP mods? Its like opening your eyes for the first time and seeing clearly. I went from stock to the Mayflower Mod and it was like waking up. In the mean time I send my headset in to be Argons, but I still have my Hifiman.

3 Likes

which version would you recommend for pc gaming and so that I could hear myself talk? I figure the T20s?

Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a company in EU that does the mods


There are plenty of videos that show you how to, Mayflower sold a kit and has a tutorial up, you can just get stuff that’s needed.

Oidio in the UK does, but only accept brand new T50

1 Like

Sennheiser PC37X :stuck_out_tongue: you won’t hear yourself talk much with T50RPs, or any closed-backs (or semi-closed backs).

T20RP are open, though


In terms of the t50/40/20 it’s open, but that’s still not very open compared to most headphones

1 Like

I bought a T50RP MkIII that arrived in the mail today! First day with it, but I swapped out the stock pads for Dan Clark Alpha pads and added a ZMF head strap. (I listened to the stock pads for like 5 minutes and kinda hated them.) But yeah, this thing is a lot of fun! I also kinda love that it just looks like some weird science project headphone with its bright wires randomly dangling off of the sides. I’ll probably wear these during my weekly work video call meeting tomorrow to just see how goofy they look to other people.

Switching between the T50RP and my other daily driver headphones, it’s pretty obvious that the T50 is not especially detailed/resolving, but the bass and width is enough that I think it would probably get a decent “wow” reaction from a non-audiophile. (I feel like the bass elevation is just over the line where it does sound bloated, but it doesn’t bug me in most songs.) Also, the T50 definitely sounds better at my desktop than it does on anything portable that I own (including my XD-05 Plus, which is 1w/32ohms), but at the same time, it’s also not nearly as hard to drive as maybe I expected? My Quicksilver amp is like below 10-o’-clock.

Anyway, the T50RP was $160, the pads were $60, so while I need to spend more time with it, it seems pretty worth the $220 asking price.

To people who would know, what are the major changes for turning this into an Argon or a Open Alpha or whatnot? I feel like I’ve already gotten a lot for just the pad swap.

2 Likes

A change into Argons may give you a substantial increase in soundstage and an improvement over resolution, tighter and more bass. If you don’t want the wait time and want to experiment with a little something, try the tuning kit from Mayflower Audio (Ofc it won’t be an Argon but it can show you the modding potential of T50). Open Alpha is sth I wanna try too but my understanding is the MrSpeakers tuning is pretty neutral so quite different from the v-shaped Argon.

1 Like