šŸ”· Fostex TR-X00 Ebony

Everything you ever wanted to know about modding the TR-X00ā€¦

If you want to ask me anything personally since I have a lot of experience modding the TR-X00, Iā€™d be happy to help.

As for pads, youā€™ll find a LOT of info in that thread and a lot of opinions. Iā€™ll give you this rule. Donā€™t even think about anything perforated or anything that ā€œbreathesā€. Pads arenā€™t all about comfort on the TR-X00. The stock pads are designed very specifically for a tuning reason. If you go with anything that is going to clear the path from the driver to your ear, get ready for a treble blast. You have to do a lot of work to the headphone to get pads actually (over ear) and not destroying the tonality. It is possible, and you might even end up with something better than stock.

Congrats! Somebody figured it out!

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I think Iā€™ll do the Ori pad+ring mod in all lambskin, not hybrid. I donā€™t mind the leather and my man cave never gets hot soā€¦

Love the user name btw. Iā€™m not huge on Ghost, but I do love a few of their songs. I like the aesthetic more.

Will the pads help the low clamp, or can I do something else to help it? I want to do the mods as cleanly as possible.

Iā€™m not looking to improve the sound much, just keep it close. From my few hours of listening, they are currently close to perfect for what I was hoping for. My only issue is with those stock pads and comfort. I donā€™t think Iā€™ll mind the stock pads if I could get a little more clamp. Right now they donā€™t feel very secure on my head. Which may be due to whatever the previous person did. Although they look close to mint, and the mods are very well done. So I would guess itā€™s probably not.

Thanks though. Iā€™ll have to read through this and the other thread.

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Thicker will help a bit with the clamp. You can also be brave and do the loop-d-loop thing with the headband to add some clamp. If you do bend the headband, make sure to extend it all the way so you avoid the metal extention rods getting in the way.

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These are my ZMF universe hybrid pads I use on my Aeolusā€¦

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These DESTROY the sound of the TR-X00. Suede is beautiful and extremely comfortable but not suitable on a serious closed back headphone.

Yea, thanks for that heads up. Iā€™m not a fan of perf and cloth earpads anyway. They are fine, but leather is generally better for me. Also, opening the loop of seal on a (semi?) closed back seems like a bad idea. Even if itā€™s just what the perforations let in.

I also donā€™t mind if the treble came forward a bit, but not lasers. These are just on the cusp of sibilant for me in the mid highs, but I generally have a problem with 8k Hz. I EQ it down a few db on almost all my drivers (except my LSR305s, they are perfect speakers sent by the angels at JBL). So if the mids came up, just like 2 or 3 db, especially the middle mids, they would be better.

Note: I donā€™t really need that though. Just a cake + icing thing.

I think I might have a poke at the lamb Oriā€™s with a disk though. Itā€™s not a ton, and has the recc from a few here for same sound.

Quick question, I donā€™t love, but I donā€™t hate the headband. Iā€™d rather have a foam puck style for the headband, but donā€™t like the idea of adding glue/adhesive to anything. So a screw in strap might be better. Do you have any experience doing that?

The Ori hybrids are not perforated at all and the suede face does not effect the sound. Its pretty much just a comfort upgrade over full lambskin.


As you can see, no perforations.

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Full lambskin Ori or even protein leather Ori pads are a great option with attenuation rings. As for the headband, a strap would be possible but you would have to find longer screws to both hold the headband on and the adjustment mechanisms together. Also you would have to find someone to make a strap or make one yourself.

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Iā€™m gonna have to check these Ori pads out soon. Iā€™m fielding lots of recs for them. My bank account needs to do some serious recovering first, though :flushed:

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So I have had the X00 for about a year and I really enjoyed them a bit, I bought the Ori pads for them. So for the last couple of months I havenā€™t been using them, I been using my TYGR and DT 900 for gaming. I just recently went back to the X00 and notice that they sound kind of hollow and real spacious. When talking to a a NPC in a game it sounds far. I switched to the original pads and it made it sound brought in a bit.

I was thinking of trying the TH 900 mk 2 pads but there $100. I was curious if anyone has any suggestions of some pads that are not as wide as the Ori pads that might not make them as hollow sounding.

That would be the dekoni X00 sheepskin pads. They are about $80 (still pricey, I know) and you have to email dekoni to order them since they where intended to be a ā€œmassdrop exclusiveā€ but they are more comfortable than the stock pads and sound very similar if not a bit better imo. Also most pad swaps need attenuation rings to sound proper, so if you havenā€™t, try those first. You can make your own if you have some roughly 0.5mm thick plastic that you can cut with an exacto knife. Here are some pictures with measurements if you want to make your own.

So I have the attenuation ring already, Is the dekoni pads ear hole bigger then the stock? The stock pads destroy my ears. I have pretty big ears so I would like pads that donā€™t really sit on my ears.

If you have very big ears they may still be uncomfortable, but the ear hole is bigger than stock. How long have you been using the Ori pads? Maybe you just havenā€™t gotten used to the wider sound stage yet.

Iā€™ve had the Ori pads on it since Iā€™ve had the headphone. I purchased the headphone and came with the stock pads and the dekoni velor elite hybrid I think. whatā€™s the hole was still kind of small for my ear I would have to cram my ear in it and then on the backside of the pad in between the pad and the cloth material.

Well I guess itā€™s time to get some Lawton cups then (Iā€™m kidding but not entirely).

One thing I forgot to mention is that larger ear holes seem to result in a less warm/bassy sound and a larger sound stage. So TH-900 pads are most likely not the way to go.

The only other pad I can think of that might work is the eikon since it has about the same sized ear hole but is a thinner pad. It might fit a bit loose since it has a larger diameter but it should still fit. I havenā€™t tried it myself so I canā€™t confirm anything.

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That hollow sound you are hearing is the mids, which disappear when using pads other than stock. You may want to try ordering TH610 pads as the pads are almost identical to the THx00 stock pad, but has a slightly wider ear opening.

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Something else I just thought of, you could try an if zen dac or hip dac since those are both supposed to be rather warm Amp/DACs.

Hey guys, i just received my Ebony, found an used pair on head-fi. I am curious about how the Dekoni attenuation ring affects the sound with stock pads, specifically how does it affect the bass response?
Cheers

Stock pads already have the attenuation ring (in fact almost every specifically designed aftermarket pads except Dekoni) so you donā€™t need one. Its for Dekoni pads which donā€™t have it to compensate the reduction in bass

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Thanks for the reply, follow up question. Is there an aftermarket pad with more ear space that will not destroy the Ebonyā€™s sound signature and will not reduce the bass impact?

Yes, the Accessory House Global (AHG) pleather non-perforated pads on Amazon, or Fostex official TH610 pads. Other pads are probably a bit further from stock pads

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