🔷 Lawton Mods for Fostex Biodynamic-Driver Headphones

Yes Im enjoying the kicking bass of the 1’s and the tightness of the 4s which still kick, just not as warm.

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When I explained my love for vocals he recommended the 3’s and maybe the 2’s and 4’s.
I am thinking maybe the 4’s and the 3’s or the 2’s.
I don’t think the 1’s or the 5’s are for me.

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If you like vocals the 4 are great, the 5 even better but you give up too much bass in the 5s.
1’s are definitely not tight, but they are fun and warm, 2 might be better. I couldnt see a 2 i liked that he had in stock.

I can highly recommend the cups for sure. I was going to buy another pair of headphones. Now Im glad i didnt. I was even considering the Stellias which are $4500AU and there’s no way Id ever consider them now after the Lawton cups.

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Last I looked he still has a really nice set of sepele (type 3) cups available. I’ll add the picture if I can find it in my email.

Edit: it’s the middle one

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Hmm
You don’t make it easy for me guys.
Lcd 2 Classic ordered and still on the way.
And if that’s nothing then a hefty Lawton mod.
I have seen that the cups apparently do not fit on the D2000.
If that’s the case I’ll have to find a second D2000 and put the Ebony mod on it so I can do the Lawton mod on the tr x 00.
My decision of the cups was already fixed but the gibts probably no longer.
Were the rosewood cups.

Now would really be the question where next year the journey will go.
Am curious how it continues @Hilton.
Thank you for your insights can not be repeated often enough, :blush:.

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I recently acquired a pre-owned Lawton modded (D5000) headphone, and it was literally within a few hours of listening to it that I started getting these tingly urges from the “I wonder what if” syndrome I am afflicted with.

I started reading through this thread from the beginning and all that did was fuel the fire. “Man if I like this one so much, what if I did my own? I could customize it even more to my personal taste and man, do these cats seem to be having a lot of fun tweaking and tuning on their headphones”.

So here it is, a humble beginning and the start of my “Lawton mod” journey.

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Having purchased a pair of modded D5000 via Mark I can only agree with this statement. He really made them shine and to date I think they are the best closed headphones I’ve ever owned, much more comfortable than the LCD2 CB, but it’s been so long I have no fresh memory of the D5000 sound and I’ve never done A/B between them.

Since then though the cable has broken and the earpads have deteriorated. So I’m thinking of having him do a level 3 makeover on the headphones some time in the future.

Having read and seen all the pics from Hilton, I’m probably going for a pair of Tier 4 cups, those both look amazing and they would fit my preferences quite well.

Fantastic thread so far.

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Stock TH610 Walnut Cups - 1.4oz / 41grams - Type 1 - Janka Hardness 1010
LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

Lawton Black Limba Cups - 2.3oz / 65grams - Type 1 - Janka Hardness 490 > 840
LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

Lawton Flame Marbled Walnut - 2.4oz / 69grams - Type 1 - Janka Hardness 1010
LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

Lawton Wild Chechen - 3.4oz / 95grams - Type 4 - Janka Hardness 2250 > 2300
LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

Lawton Wild Ziricote - 4.1oz / 115grams - Type 5 - Janka Hardness 1970 > 2200
LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

LAWTON_Cup_Weights by Hilton, on Flickr

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Wild Chechen Type 4 definitely my favourite overall for refinement and versatility.
Tighter bass that extends low, still has good impact and force and a nice timbre and not boomy.

Sweet top end that shimmers but doesnt bite and still extends nicely.

Mid range is forward and full but not in your face.
Just my perfect kinda headphones!

Was listening back to back with Flame Marbled Walnut / Wild Chechen and the Walnut has a nice warmth but with double bass in Jazz it can be a little fuzzy sounding, while the Wild Chechen just sounds natural and full with great impact and articulation with just the right amount of warmth.
(Diana Krall - Look of Love & also Jeff Hamilton Treo - Live from San Pedro)

The walnut is great with dance and rock and just about everything else but the Wild Chechen has got me. :slight_smile:

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Red Wine and TH610 Lawtons?? Why not!

18 year old Shiraz? You bet!! by Hilton, on Flickr18 year old Shiraz? You bet!! by Hilton, on Flickr

Wild Chechen TH610 Lawton Cups by Hilton, on Flickr

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For those of you that enjoy using Roon - I’ve created a desktop companion app called Roon Web App to create a mini player widget on your desktop.

roonweb-landscape by Hilton, on Flickr

roonweb by Hilton, on Flickr

roonweb-desktop by Hilton, on Flickr

Works in Transparent stay on top mode.
roonweb-ontop by Hilton, on Flickr

And as a game overlay. :slight_smile:
roonweb-gameoverlay-ontop by Hilton, on Flickr

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I think this is all pretty good stuff. I do think it should be noted again that you are not using the Lawton pads, just so the readers understand this. The Lawton pads drastically change the sound signature of the TH610.

I too am using stock pads on my Lawton TH610 as every other set of pads I’ve tried caused too much of a recession in the mids around 500 Hz to 2500 KHz.

Happy that you’re enjoying your headphones. :slight_smile:

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And for reference - here’s how my home room measures. I do run with a little more bass than this normally, about 3db more @ 70hz… This is raw uncorrected in room response. A slight downward tilt upto the highs. I think the Lawton mods sound almost as good as my room system. :slight_smile: And I’ve been trying to get that for years in headphones!!

1-24th-smoothing by Hilton, on Flickr

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So I have been going back and forth with trying different pads on my Lawton Moddex TH610. I really like the comfort of the Lawton pads, but the treble was way too hot/bright. I was just messing around with some mods mentioned on a different forum and found one to my liking.

Shelf liner mod. Use the foam ring to shape the shelf liner, but cut it a bit larger than the foam hole. Treble is still bright, but not as fatiguing.

Yes, my circles aren’t cut perfectly…I am going to correct that issue now that I know I like the mod results, lol.



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Hmm,
Certainly not a bad idea.
When I made my Emu Ebony mod with the Ahg pads and Dekoni rings I also found it a bit too pointy and a bit less bassy in tuning.

By chance I found the Yaxi pads which were offered in two variants.
And have decided for the Alcantara version, because the just again emphasizes the bass and tames the treble something.
And the effect had been exactly right.Was also a bit of luck, I must say.

Have tried it with Dekoni rings and without, and with was best with the Yaxi pads.

Later I asked myself why?
On the Emu Rosewood mod has fit directly on the first go.
My explanation would be if you want to tame the treble something then it is recommended to take what where in the pad modulation is wrapped with fabric.
At the moment I can only think of two manufacturers that deliver excellent results, that would be Yaxi for the price conscious or the Zmf pads for the Usa people mainly.
With the yaxi I have to say that like the Ahg pads they tried to keep the original sound as good as possible.
I burn on the Zmf but the import for pads is unfortunately too expensive for me.
I know there are Dekoni but they do not deliver good results unfortunately.

What else can I say about the mod itself.
As soon as new cups are mounted the signature changes so that a pad rolling is almost inevitable if you still have certain preferences.
Between the Emu mod from Rosewood and Ebony the differences were quite glaring.

So it would be quite at the @hilton his cups he has presented us this week still a good piece to get out of the Lawton mod and could still adapt according to his preferences.
Sure it is in the end again a question of money to invest in pads and try.
But the results also deliver for the most part.

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@Hazi59’s post got me playing around again because I think my treble sensitivity is increasing with time (getting older sucks some times…) and my type 4 wood cups + X00 drivers were getting a bit sharp in the treble. I had a similar shelf liner material on hand and put a disc on each side as Hazi did. I also went back to Lawton pads (from ZMF Ori Lambskin hybrid) because of hearing that as pad depth increases with these Fostex-based headphones the frequency response tends to get more peaky. My base headphone was a TH-X00 and that driver has a bit different damping than the 610’s has so I didn’t quite get the same result. Just the shelf liner + Lawton pads was still really bright and peaky in the treble. Adding Dekoni attenuation rings back in helped but didn’t quite eliminate that treble sharpness. So I cut some discs out of a piece of microfiber cloth used for eyeglass lens cleaning. I sandwiched one layer of that between the attenuation rings and the pad mounting rings such that none of the plastic of the attenuation ring was exposed directly to the drivers.

Results? It’s early but what I can tell already is I can put my MLP’s pot at 11:30 - which is normally death range volume-wise - and the treble is NOT splitting my head open. The Lawton pads seem to even out the overall FR so the mids aren’t as recessed. But, the Lawton pads also do not deaden the physicality of thes cans as much as the ZMF Oris did, meaning that this is becoming a more tactile experience. The bass still digs deep and hits hard and I feel the vibrations much more than I do with the Oris. It’s still too early to say if this will be my new normal for the time being, but I’m encouraged by the results so far.

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So, were the stock pads a no-go for you?

Yeah. Very narrow Soundstage and I didn’t find them particularly comfortable.

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I’ve been using the Black Limba all day today and am really enjoying them.

Something I’ve noticed is the treble and upper midrange is slightly more gentle on the Black Limba. The Wild Chechen has a slightly harder edge to it so the Black Limba is very nice and punchy and warm but without the edgyness.

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I sat down today and started listening to take notes for the big write up I intended to do for my Lawton chambers, and as I listened I realized all I really had to say was this:

The Lawton Waterfall Bubinga chambers are basically just the stock Purple Hart cups but better in every way (accept maybe looks, I find purple heart to be VERY pretty). Whatever aspect you want to compare, the Lawton chambers are at worst just as good as the stock cups, are more often than not superior, and are sometimes astoundingly better.

Some side notes that I want to mention, the bass is huge, but that’s only with the extra thick (0.8mm) custom attenuation ring I’m using. If I wanted less bass all I would have to do is use the normal thickness (0.4mm) rings or even no rings at all, and the bass is never less than stock cups even without rings. I should also mention that the bass, despite being so huge, is never too much (for me). It seems to only boom and rumble when called for by the song and is almost polite the rest of the time. Also pads make a huge difference in the sound, so feel free to pad swap to your heart’s content (I prefer the ZMF Ori hybrids and also like the Lawton pads for a more neutral type of sound). I can’t seem to find any kind of music that these don’t sound great with. These are the first headphones I’ve been able to hear a clear and Identifiable difference between sources with. For those curious, I tested between my D10/Asgard 3 stack and my XD-05 (original). The differences were mostly in the bass extension/impact (better on the Asgard) and treble clarity (also better on the Asgard). There was also some sort of difference in the mids but I can’t really identify what exactly.

Another thing is just how helpful Mark Lawton is. I asked what felt like way too many questions and he was willing to answer them all and his answers wher exactly what I needed. He is also a great help for deciding what kind of wood to get. He knows what he is talking about and is very good at getting you exactly what you asked for. If you have the $300-600 to spend, it is absolutely worth it get some Lawton chambers.

That’s all I have to say for now.

Edit: pics

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