Fostex X Massdrop TH-X00

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by Rotijon, Nov 24, 2015.

  1. Roarke

    Roarke New

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    What cups are those on the left? I'd love mine to have a matte finish like that.
     
  2. %20 Oddity

    %20 Oddity Friend

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    Aren't those just the regular TH610s?
     
  3. wahsmoh

    wahsmoh New

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    This thread sort of sparked my reinterestin the THX00. I like how your impressions sound so far with the Dekoni fenestrated sheepskin. I have been using Alpha pads on them for a year and I have to echo your same thoughts. Alpha pads = boosted everything basically. More highs, more bass, slightly similar mids but more open sounding than stock pads. I will have to take a shot at those Dekoni pads since I cant stand wearing the stock THX00 pads. My head isn't shaped right for them and my ears start to hurt after awhile. So I am back to HD600 listening until I can figure a way to get the best of both worlds out of the THX00. Seems like Dekoni pads might be what I need
     
  4. elguapo

    elguapo Gringos falling from the skys

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    The shape of the Dekoni is the same as stock. They just have a bit more padding and are softer. Neither one worked for the shape of my head. YMMV.
     
  5. Gruss Gott

    Gruss Gott Almost "Made"

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    I'm considering these as an alternative to my Aeon Flow Closed which, so far, I find too neutral and a bit clinical/analytical. Basically I'm loooking for a fun HP that sounds good on the mojo. I do have some B&W P9s on the way due to a great deal and 60 day returns ... if these worked as a fun armchair HP it would open up some $$ for maybe a Modi Multibit/Jot to drive them ... decisions decisions.

    In any event, anyone have any thoughts on the TH-x00 compared to the Aeon Flow Closed or the B&W P9s?
     
  6. Vanheim

    Vanheim Acquaintance

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    I come from a bitter experience with the hifiman 400i’s (too harsh, lack of bass; although gorgeous mids), a disappointing one with the ZMF Ori’s (almost perfect but not enough subbass presence and dat t50rp harshness/grain and really f'ing heavy/bad weight distribution on my twig of a neck).


    My preferences are def not neutral. I am a lush mids person, a closet basshead and despise anything fatiguing (be it bass, mids, or highs). My set up is a Magni 2 and Modi Multibit.


    I just recently applied the Lawton Tune-up kit (driver damping only, the cup dampening kills too much bass) on my purplehearts which already had the fenestrated
    sheepskin pads on and after a few days of listening I think I can safely say that, to me at least, both of them are a noticeable improvement.


    Compared to stock, the dekoni fenestrated sheepskin earpads

    +positives:
    • Made them much more comfortable to wear,
    • Clearer and more focused sound
    • Brought out the middle mids and lower treble just a tad
    -Negatives:

    • Fatter bass
    • The lower mids and upper mids were still too recessed compared to the middle mids
    • There was this lower treble ringing
    • Hard to turn the volume up to get the vocal fullness and shimmer back as it made the overall sound too fatiguing.
    • $80 bucks with the attenuators! are you serious? (I got them used for $57 shipped, so can’t complain as much.)
    For lower volume listening, (after fighting myself very hard to stop caring about the mids issue) was rather remarkable. It was nicely detailed and fun. But it was a love and hate relationship with hate being the defining factor more often than not.


    Here comes in the Lawton Tune-up. Immediately after applying them I was rather disappointed to be honest. I felt that earpads were a bigger improvement. But after giving it some time, i began to understand what it did so right. It scratched that itch I couldn't reach with my hands.

    +Positives:
    • The harshness was gone. I could turn it up without being impaled by snare hits
    • The mids felt more even?
    • Sounds more detailed and cohesive?
    • With a bit of EQ I can feel the closest to the euphoria the mids of the hifimans gave me but without cringing from the treble or feeling unsatisfied with the bass.
    • Bass had improved as well. I could finally differentiate the different bass notes in Doin' It Right by Daft Punk.
    • [Maybe this may be a result of the dampening making the headphones isolate from outside noise more, but the opening of Tear You Up by Pineapple Thief and the guitar strums of Monday by Deadmau5 gave me the chills that I had only previously experienced with the hifimans.
    • Get the chills I first got when listening to the first drum impact on Harmony Korine by Steven Wilson, with the hifimans (the hifimans could only do that after some serious EQ, which killed treble and details; also had to turn them up very loud, rip my ears.). I do not know what more I can ask for.]
    • So, a fuller sound and more emotionally engaging?
    -Negatives:
    • Mids still recessed for my tastes. But now, unlike before it can be mostly fixed with EQ***.

    • Not as wide as my Ori’s, but imaging is no slouch.

    • Still not cheap at $45…

    Concluding thoughts:

    While these two are different mods for the th-x00 and do different things, I do believe they both complement each other amazingly and help the th-x00 new heights.


    They are not cheap, totaling at $125 excluding shipping. The modded th-x00 are not perfect, they certainly cannot differentiate the different drumheads, micing techniques, compressors, and drummer heights between Rumors and Ride the Lightning. My ears aren’t even trained enough to notice them even if things like that were handed to me on a platter. But it gives me what I liked about the Ori’s and the 400i’s without much of the flaws both of the cans had.


    I do not know what more could I ask for at this point, they made me go from wanting to get rid of them so badly to being thankful I made the purchase decision.

    ***EQ goes:
    577 hz, +3 db, Q 1.64
    2500 hz, +2.5 db, Q 1.41
    4000 hz, -1.5 db, Q 1.41
    16000 hz, +2.56 db, Q 1.41
    20000 hz, +3.84 db, Q 2.99
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2017
  7. AudioThief

    AudioThief Acquaintance

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    I am sorry if I am hijacking the thread or going off topic, but I see you discussing the Dekoni pads - Have anyone tried them with the TH 900 ? My TH 900 stock pads are unraveling at the seams, I'm looking to get the fenestrated sheepskin ones, but uncertain about its impact on the sound. Thoughts?

    Thank you
     
  8. ilcg1

    ilcg1 Acquaintance

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    I’ve tried Dekoni Elite ones (not fenestrated) and to me they degraded sound quality/were not as comfortable and I has thrown them in for free with my TH600 sale.

    I tried them on both TH600 and TH900 and couple of points that really bothered me:
    - the is less space around ears comparing to the original TH900 pads;
    - the trable became too harsh.

    I didn’t do any in depth comparison as these two issues were more than enough to get rid of them.

    YMMV, but I used them for one day only and sold. To me original TH900 pads are the way to go for now.
     
  9. AudioThief

    AudioThief Acquaintance

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    damn, brutal. I like the sound of the stock pads but they deteriorate so quickly.
     
  10. ilcg1

    ilcg1 Acquaintance

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    Yep, that’s my only grief with stock pads - they don’t last long... I wish there were other alternatives (exactly the same ones size wise), but in sheepskin.
     
  11. Zbells

    Zbells New

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    Circling back to this long-dead thread because, well, y'all are the only ones I really trust o_O. How does the TH-X00 handle higher output impedance amps that don't follow the 1/8 rule (lets say a 10 ohm output)? I have a work set up and have been itching to try out the Aune X1S, but I use the Fostex and on paper it doesn't seem like a great pairing. That being said, I know some cans handle this issue better than others.
     
  12. Robert777

    Robert777 Acquaintance

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    This is quite interesting actually and I have been thinking about this myself recently.

    I had the Schiit Valhalla 2 (OI at high gain = 14Ohms) headphone amplifier for my HD800's and an Audio-gd amplifier for my TH900's. One day, out of morbid curiosity, I plugged my TH900's into the Valhalla 2 and I did not care for the sound at all. it sounded thick and slow and congested. I figured this makes sense and this is the bad synergy people talk about between the Valhalla 2 and low impedance dynamic headphones.

    Well, fast forward to today and I have recently sold off loads of gear. All I currently have hooked up to my CD player and living room DAC (I have a Modi Multibit / Magni 3 stack feeding computer speakers) is my Valhalla 2 and, to my suprise, I am really enjoying the TH900's from it. I guess my brain adjusted to the sound and I now think it sounds right and enjoy listening.

    So yeah, the Fostex dynamic cans do not pair great with high OI amps but they still make sound and, once you adjust, that sound, at least in my case, can be very nice indeed.
     
  13. aufmerksam

    aufmerksam Friend

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    Is it possible you were listening to valhalla2 on different gain settings between then and now? It is much lower OI on low gain mode.

    As to the general idea of the fostex variants on high OI amps, I suppose one might develop a taste for it, but I wouldn't experiment with it on anything expensive. They are generally bass-tilted and have a reasonably flat impedance curve (compared to say HD6X0), but the impedance is SO low that you basically have to plan on losing resolution.

    EDIT: I briefly owned valhalla2 and did not enjoy th-x through it, especially compared to jotunheim
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2018
  14. Robert777

    Robert777 Acquaintance

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    That makes sense. Thank you for the insight. And yes, it is highly possible that the first time I tested the pairing it was on high gain and then recently it has been on low gain.
     
  15. MrTurtle

    MrTurtle Facebook Friend

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    So, the measurements of stock pads vs Dekoni sheepskin I promised earlier. All on Mahogany variant.

    Stock TH-X00
    [​IMG]

    Sheepskin without attenuation ring
    [​IMG]

    Sheepskin with attenuation ring
    [​IMG]

    The sheepskin pads seem to worsen the dip at 500hz by quite a bit. Attenuation rings add way too much of a bass hump. I sort of like the pads without the rings - a leaner take on the TH-X00 sound. Upper midrange does sound relatively hotter though. Not for people who don't like HD600 or diffuse field tuning.

    Comfort is good, better than stock. The sticky feel of the pad isn't really to my liking though - prefer Brainwavz sheepskin texture.

    Stock vs sheepskin (no ring)
    [​IMG]

    Stock vs sheepskin with ring
    [​IMG]

    Sheepskin with vs without ring
    [​IMG]

    TLDR: Get the sheepskin pads if you want less bass and don't mind the tradeoffs too much. Skip the attenuation rings. Fostex got it mostly right the way they've done it.

    P.S. Anybody know where to get stock pads for cheap?
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2018
  16. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    Anyone able to share measurements with Lawton mods and/or fenestrated sheepskin pads?
     
  17. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    So as I've been whining about for a few months now, my X00s got busted but I managed to get spare parts from Massdrop (I f'ing love you guys, thanks!). Haven't managed to fix it up yet, just waiting 'til term ends so I don't have anything weighing over me.

    I recently remembered that I had the effed-up headband languishing somewhere on my desk, decided to dig into it to see if I could take the thing apart without damaging anything. I found out a couple days back that the gimbal screws are thread-locked into the shaft lock piece thingies (this: http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/539593-Fostex-1420606309) with blue grade Loctite that, ffs, acts like red.

    Taking a Philips to it is a bad idea— I'm confirming @JK47's suspicion that these use JIS screws, which bear some resemblance to Philips but have an appreciably different taper to them; using non-JIS risks stripping the screw heads, as I learned the hard way some time ago with the old headband. Get the proper tools.

    While blue can reputedly be overcome merely by exerting enough force, heat does seem to help, as per my tinkering. 40W soldering iron to the rescue.

    Fostex really needs to redesign their base TH series assembly I think. Or I need to baby these a lot.


    P.S.
    Any tips on removing the polyurethane coat? The one cup got a bit mangled when the headphone popped off my head when the one screw broke months back, thinking of just going with a matted finish. Kinda want to keep the Fostex logo intact, though, so I'd rather not bust out the sanding tools.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2018
  18. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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    There is no method that I am aware of where a sane and reasoning person in full control of their faculties would use to chemically strip poly off a wooden object.

    I'm not saying that there are no methods to chemically strip poly off wood, just that you might dissolve a limb during the process. (And probably dissolve the wood too while you are screaming and writhing in pain.)
     
  19. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Yep, all you can do is sand it down and refinish with something similar, as it's seeped way in.
     
  20. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    HAHA! Since you put it so nicely, I think I'll leave it be and treat it as wabi sabi then. Also, pardon the ignorance on polyurethane, just goes to show just because I play with wood sometimes (not like that!) doesn't mean I can't still be dumb about it on the regular :))

    I probably had another kind of coating in mind when I typed that out, still have no idea what it is. Ah well.

    And thanks @Taverius! Basically, try the avoid the foil while sanding down and just reapply, aiming to keep an even surface? Gotcha.
     

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