Thanks for sharing your thoughts. A few questions:
Do the classics have any sound stage?
As far as imaging and detail, how well do the Classics work in those regards?
I know the Argonsā bass bleeds into the mid-range some. Is that the same on the Classics?
As Iām starting to get more into this hobby, my taste is definitely starting to refine. Iāve found I like a much more detailed headphone with great imaging than one with a massive sound stageā¦if I had to pick. Obviously, I would want both in the best of worlds but itās hard to find a headphone that is great at everything that doesnāt completely break the bank.
Mine just arrived 2 days ago. Iām still getting used to them. Powering them balanced off of a THX 789 and Grace SDAC. Big soundstage, deep subbass. A little hot around 10khz, and occasionally sibliant. Also voices have a bit of a muffled sound like if you set the crossover on your subwoofer too high and you can make out the bass notes of a voice, sort of like bass bleeding into the mids or something. Sound a bit better after eq -3db at 10 kHz and -5db at 166hz, and +4db at 3khz and +2db at 6800hz. Iām currently burning them in with pink noise, weāll see if anything changes
Josh Valour did comparisons of T50RP mods. Canāt remember if the classics weāre included but Iām pretty sure he has at least 3 of them (t50rp mods) compared.
From my review - āFinally, sound-stage is, well, awesome. Very close to the Argon MK3 (if I had to put a number on it, itād be ~15% smaller); spacious enough so that you feel entirely surrounded by the music with room to breath. However, the sound-staging of the Classic appears to be very circular, even, and large whereas that of the Argon is extremely wide left and right, but not as deep as the ZMF is front to back.ā
Imaging is really good, as with pretty much all t50rp mods. Not quite as good as the Argons though as the ZMF use more frontal damping. Detail is there but not amazing.
The ZMF Classic have a mid bass elevation with a slow roll of into the mids. While this is certainly a bleed into the mids, the midrange is forward so it does not detract from vocals et cetera which are pushed back slightly with the argons. Bass is also more āoverpoweringā and less tight on the Argons versus the ZMF.
These are all my opinions, I try to only talk about things that Iāve heard when I have objective evidence to back my theories
The Argons are indeed very interesting and fun sounding
And if youāre not an Audiophile they can be a great daily headphone for some genres of music
But if youāre a true enthusiast when it comes to musical fidelity, the actual t50rp driver made by Foster is very flawed.
They canāt do Subbass
The 30hz sine wave measurement is very unnatural
The driver is slow and never settles showing that itās not properly dampened (look at the impulse response)
The bass distortion at 90db is massive and at 100db it rattles so much that itās unusable
The highs are either super shrill stock or veiled in mods
If you havenāt heard anything better than HD598s theyāre fun but compared to true Audiophile headphones theyāre a joke
Now those are my impressions of the stock T50rp mk3s
But most of these issues cannot be resolved with any dampening modifications
This is my setup (one of them, at least). My only complaint is that the Topping is longer and doesnāt stack well- the back feet hang off the back of the Atom.
