Fostex TH-X00 Measurements and Subjective Impressions

Man, cannot believe how much fun and engaging this HP is. In 2014 I bought and sold the TH 900 and I was second guessing this for a long while. At less than 40% of that price, I get this - lovely low-end without disturbing the mids and certainly not as sibilant as the 900. Pairing it with the BW is comparitively more neutral than is pairing with the Liquid Carbon (my two cents).

 

Anyone knows comparable measurements of x00 vs. 900 which were done on same rig?

 

No idea if anyoen has remeasured the th-900. @purrin @Hands - is this on anyone's list of things to do?

 

Looks like Pete Millet has Butte enclosures back in stock on his ebay store again, and I'm wobbling on the edge of placing an order for a board and chassis. Then I started thinking about the possibility of a ckkiii build (or used purchase if I happened to stumble on one for sale), and I'm wondering if all discrete, no feedback ss might be even more to my liking with TX-X00's in mind. Any chance you have heard a ckkiii vs. your butte? It seems like they are in the same approximate category of highly regarded budget ss diy amps designed by some of the best in the business. Butte would be a much easier build, but there are some ready made Chinese ebay chassis that reportedly house a ckkiii quite nicely per one of misterx's posts.

 

After owning these longer now and swapping out stock earpads for brand new Alpha pads I must say these are very very good headphones. No doubt they are more detailed than the Alpha Dogs and have a punchier bass. The Alpha Dogs have a different bass presentation altogether, very deep but lacking some rumble.

Also with the stock pads I felt my ears would get sore and uncomfortable due to the hardness of the stock pad. Also with these stock pads they seemed to lack cup depth to give a good soundstage. With the Alpha pads the cup depth is better and the angle is steeper than the stock angled pads. The soundstage depth is now there. Bass sounds tighter to my ears with less bloom at the end or slower decay

I'm hoping to get another plastic mounting ring so I can fit my stock pads around it and do easy swaps for a better comparison. I'm basing this off my original memory of the stock sound versus initial impressions of Alpha pad swap. Then I will give a better comparison when I can interchange them back and forth without having to go through the annoying process of stretching the pads around the plastic ring.

But so far, TH-X00 w/ Alpha Pads > Alpha Dogs. I felt the dogs were a bit too dark and with that typical T50RP lacking upper end sparkle or detail in the high frequencies type sound.

 

I am currently comparing the Fostex X00 with my modded LCD 2.2. Set up is Gungnir Multibit into BW1 through ISO-MAX (Balanced for the Audez'e and SE for the X00).... Call me crazy but the Fostex kills the 2.2 in the lows and overall soundstage. Funny thing, for the same level on the volume pot the volume in the 2.2 is about 75% as that of the X00. Any thoughts?

 

You're not you're crazy

I had 3 different pairs of LCD-2 in the past and overall I think that I prefer the TH-X00.

 

Very nice man! That's awesome to hear, I actually had a chance to get my pair fully balanced and I found it sounds even better and cleaner than when I was running it SE out of my rig, I was a little skeptical when I saw how fairly clean the TH X00 was in the CSD, but after 60 or so hours and a full recable and pairing with my balanced amp, I can really appreciate how clean these headphones really are. I'm hoping to get my own measurement rig here soon, so I can do a proper comparison of the TH X00 Alpha to my LA D5k,

still though, despite what people say the TH X00 has a slightly more mid forward tuning than the D5k, an I rather like that about it! It takes the best of my W1000X [Purrin Modded] and the LA D5k and kinda throws em together

so I'm still skeptical the D5k an TH X00 use the exact same driver

 

So basically TH-X00 proves how most headphones are overpriced... I've never liked planars anyway. I've tried lots of them and they just sound weird in one way or another. Their tonality is weird, not like real music. Good dynamics headphones sound more like live music in my opinion.

 

Well you know how HF goes, it's a hive mentality there at times. Either way, the TH X00 is what brought me here to this forum and your impressions are what sold me purrin!

and yea I agree that with the price of the TH X00, we get to see how excessive markups can get, I think the HE X is a good example. The $400 TH X00 is built better than an $1800 flagship :/

while the $1800 HE X sounds better than the TH X00, there's no excuse for the lack of build quality

 

Auditioned Audezes and owned some Hifimans before... I prefer good dynamics to them. Tastes differ, obviously...

 

I was really into orthos for awhile. After awhile, I found a lot of them sounded similar, and the bass didn't really have...well, oomph to it on most of the time. I eventually scratched the mid-itch with the modded HD650. Haha

 

Out of curiosity, and because the drop is still active, has anyone tried these out of Ragnarok's 1/4" jack?

I'm not considering buying them and rewiring them for balanced XLR, and Rag's the only amp I own at the moment.

And, what's everyone using for a (trans)portable amp with these?

 

I tried this out. What specifically is your question? Just looking for impressions?

 

Yeah. I'm reading a lot about how these need a synergistic amp and wondering if Ragnarok fills that requirement.

 

Gotcha. Well, I personally found the Rag a bit more forward and dry than I preferred with the headphone. As you're aware, the rag isn't romantic per say, so the slightly rough treble on the TH-X00 was rather noticeable to my ear. The bass was well controlled and tight, though it was certainly emphasized (referring to the headphone's inherent response - the Rag is neutral). Resolution was pretty solid - a small notch behind the HD6xx's in terms of low level detail, but still quite satisfying. Spatially it was comparatively compressed vs. the HD6xx's, but not terrible for a mostly closed headphone. Jumping between the HD800 and the TH-X00's makes them feel a bit claustrophobic. I'm sure converting to the 4-pin would help in this regard (which I didn't do), but it wouldn't fundamentally change the experience. I was running it with Yggdrasil as well, if you're curious about what source I was using.

I didn't end up keeping them, if that gives any indication of what I thought at the end of the day. I felt the tuning was good for a colored headphone, but it wasn't my cup of tea. They just weren't quite neutral enough for me and the Rag wasn't quite the match I hoped for. I actually preferred them out of my Glenn OTL tube amp, which is more liquid comparatively.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Indeed. Thanks!

 

I've got Leckerton UHA-6s MKII and a GO450 at my disposal, and I have these Fostex's coming my way in a few weeks.
would they work alright with these?
I also have my Asgard v2 and Assemblage DAC (transDAC basically) but was thinking of having these by the computer rig.