CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Headphone Measurements => Topic started by: ultrabike on February 05, 2015, 08:09:48 AM
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Special thanks to Danny for sending these my way! Thanks mate! :)p5
A box the size of my 4 year old showed up at the door. Inside the box was lots of paper and another box. The second box was beautiful, with nice shades of red and black (mostly black) and a picture of the TH500RPs. The picture of the cans is dramatic. The headphones seem to be floating in air. The edges of the box were silver. Inside this box there was another box. This third box was black. Not Kuro black, but black enough. Inside this last box, and in deliciously soft foam rested the awesome looking TH500RPs and a user manual in pink with Japanese, English, German, French, and what looked like Chinese. In that order. But no Spanish.
Scanning through the literature I learned that RP means Regular Phase, which seems important. It says that the diaphragm is etched copper and heat resistant polyimide film, and obviously as everyone knows, polyimide film kicks ass. Mids are described as rich and bass is said to be of good quality due to a gravity resin baffle plate that reduces resonances. There is some further important stuff, but I'll skip to the cable. Manual says it's pure copper "HiFC" (HiFC is a registered trademark of Hitachi Metals, Ltd.) for superior sound resolution.
To operate these cans one most: 1) Protect headphones from impacts, temperature, and humidity. 2) Be aware that your cans are subject to design and specification changes. 3) Don't listen at high volume levels. 4) Not use headphones when driving and stuff. 5) Avoid inconveniencing people around you by keeping volume down since these are open type cans. Following step 2) should prevent you from bitching about box of chocolate issues. Following step 5) is important if one accidentally clicks on an adult site add.
Presentation
These cans are outstandingly beautiful. They sort of remind me of the SR-007s in their magnesium + aluminum silvery color. The weight is reasonable for an ortho. The pads are fat assed and leathery black. The cable is neatly dressed and terminated in a quality 1/4" fat and long TRS tip guaranteed to satisfy the most demanding of amp sockets. The headband is black, plush and adjustable by discrete levels. Every adjustment makes a satisfying click. Chicks are positively going to try to grab your cans really hard.
(http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/img/avw/docs/647/644/fos10.jpg)
Sound
These cans are unique in many ways. The first thing that came to mind while hearing them was this clear high quality tizzy sound. Listening to Holly Cole's "Take Me Home" (https://play.spotify.com/search/Holly%20Cole's%20Take%20Me%20Home) was lusciously and naturally painful. Sweet as silvery white sugar.
Next comes Antonio Sanchez "Birdman" album (https://play.spotify.com/search/antonio%20sanchez%20birdman) that does a wonderful job on moving things around for a sense of space. Impact was very controlled and restricted. Switching to my HD600s scared the Jesus out of me with these songs. Not so with these cans. I sort of picture a bull loosing a ball.
Impressions with similar songs can be found here (http://www.cnet.com/news/absolutely-sublime-fostex-th500rp-headphones/).
Moving on to pop songs I'm more familiar with came Madonna's True Blue which I like to evaluate mids. Some slight coloration was perceived but in some cases this can provide a sort of room effect that makes things more engaging.
Measurements
These were measured on a non-leaky baffle (similar to how electrostats and thin film orthos are measured), given the pads seem to be designed for seal.
Frequency Response
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2111.0;attach=8661;image)
Distortion Right
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2111.0;attach=8663;image)
Distortion Left
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2111.0;attach=8665;image)
CSD Right
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2111.0;attach=8667;image)
CSD Left
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2111.0;attach=8669;image)
Impedance
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2111.0;attach=8671;image)
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Thanks, I was interested in these.
Are the lows really rolled off like that ?
It seems to me like a subbass rolled-off 'regular' T50RP but beautifully made, with a warm signature and the typical T50RP treble behaviour.
Based on the plots I'll skip these.
I would go for a Stratocaster'ed open T50RP instead.
The TH500RP has better driver matching than on all the T50RP's I modded till now.
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The bass is there. But it is definitively rolled off relative to what I hear from the HD600s. No sub-bass. Antonio Sanchez "Birdman" is a pretty bassy and impact filled album. It almost sound normal with these cans, so in those situations these are probably a good fit. But for most other stuff, these may sound a bit lean.
A stock T50RP has it's own share of problems. I'll be honest, I prefer a KSC75 to both the T50RP stock and TH500RP. Modded T50RP is a different story.
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A stock T50RP has it's own share of problems. I'll be honest, I prefer a KSC75 to both the T50RP stock and TH500RP. Modded T50RP is a different story.
Same here...
$600.- may be a bit too steep for the SQ it delivers, perhaps a Philips X2 makes more sense if you want 'nicely made'.
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Ok, so these look like they measure fairly well. Better than i expected based on my brief impressions. A bit of an elevated region around 10k might have been part of my issue. Bass roll-off is interesting too.
So ultra, could you go into more depth wrt your comparison to the HD600? Sounds like you're saying the HD600 has better bass impact and dynamics. Which would you describe as more natural and "musical" sounding? Do you feel one of these headphones is significantly more resolving or accurate than the other?
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LOL! Most cans from Fostex seem to be specifically colored, or "diamond in the rough", or unfinished, or whatever other perspective you may want to give it. For $600 or less I would go for Sennheiser (HD6x0), AKG (7xx), Beyer (880), Grado (SR60), and so on, unless I wanted to monkey around with the cans.
From the shoutbox:
Bill-p:
"Anyway, off topic for a second, but I'm curious about this... how come there is so little in the way of reviews and impressions for Fostex's TH500RP? Does it suck so much that people don't even have anything to say?"
There are some reviews. Gutty's "Absolutely sublime: Fostex TH500RP headphones" review says "The Fostex TH500RP may be the best sounding high-end headphone you can buy in its price class." Dunno about that.
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Ok, so these look like they measure fairly well. Better than i expected based on my brief impressions. A bit of an elevated region around 10k might have been part of my issue. Bass roll-off is interesting too.
So ultra, could you go into more depth wrt your comparison to the HD600? Sounds like you're saying the HD600 has better bass impact and dynamics. Which would you describe as more natural and "musical" sounding? Do you feel one of these headphones is significantly more resolving or accurate than the other?
Yes, the HD600s have better bass impact and dynamics. As far as accuracy, the HD600 is IMO more accurate and much more resolving. The tizziness for me gets in the way of resolution.
I do not consider these natural sounding. Too far north upstairs for that.
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These are begging for a big-ass piece of foam behind the drivers.
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Thanks G!
I rather liked the TH500RP, stylistically and comfort-wise it's quite the headphone. Not as peaky as the TH-600, which is a big plus. My hope was that it'd sound like an open TH-900, but that might have been a bit too much to ask at the cost.
If there's any other pirates interested in giving them a listen before they come back to Massdrop, shoot me a PM.
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PM sent. I wonder if this would be easy to open up and mod? Not sure if we'd be allowed to tinker with these or not, but if so... :)
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I rather liked the TH500RP, stylistically and comfort-wise it's quite the headphone. Not as peaky as the TH-600, which is a big plus. My hope was that it'd sound like an open TH-900, but that might have been a bit too much to ask at the cost.
They seem to lack that homp that the TH-900s had in them (and perhaps one of it's better attributes). They do sound open and soundstage IMO is not a problem. But they have that peakyness and it's now more obvious due to the bass reduction. I don't remember the TH-900 (or 600) being as tizzy as these ones. Style and comfort is A+.
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These are begging for a big-ass piece of foam behind the drivers.
Fostex should've made them closed to begin with.
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Maybe Ultra could try sealing off the back externally partially or fully to see what happens? Could be done very easily with zero intrusiveness.
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Will see what I can do.
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Thanks for the measurements, Ultrabike!
I didn't think my joke in the shoutbox would carry on into reality.
It's kinda interesting to see the current trend of recently released headphones to be warm, kind of bassy (mid-bassy?), and diffused/relaxed/smooth/rolled off, as opposed to before where the next thing to be released was almost guaranteed to have the tightest sound possible.
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A friend loaned a pair of these for reviewing purpose. I'll have it during the next month. Holly fuck. the high mids/low treble dip and the treble sizzle are obvious from the first listen . warmth in the bass area too. I really hear those headphones exactly like UB measurements suggest. funny.
Remind me something of the HE400 dips+peak phenomenon in the treble . both dark and bright ( tizzy and sizzling treble here ) headdhone. Not so bad (EDIT a few hours later... Maybe really bad finally poo ) but makes me cringe and want to throw the headphone through the window.
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Update : won't keep it , will return it and not review it .. Hope i'll forget this as quickly as I can. walk the plank
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I heard this the other day. That listening session couldn't have been brief enough. It sounds more uncomfortable than it feels and about as ugly as it looks worn.
Yes, it's bright--probably because it lacks a low range. It's less two dimensional in soundstage than stock T50RP but much more offensive tonally. I would take the stock version of any cheap Fostex over this any day.
Who thought it was a good idea to use narrow pads? I'm guessing that their unwillingness to put more effort into making a new driver or tuning the old one forced them into using a narrow slit or it would've sounded even worse.
Fail.
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Update : won't keep it , will return it and not review it .. Hope i'll forget this as quickly as I can. walk the plank
I heard this the other day. That listening session couldn't have been brief enough. It sounds more uncomfortable than it feels and about as ugly as it looks worn.
Yes, it's bright--probably because it lacks a low range. It's less two dimensional in soundstage than stock T50RP but much more offensive tonally. I would take the stock version of any cheap Fostex over this any day.
Who thought it was a good idea to use narrow pads? I'm guessing that their unwillingness to put more effort into making a new driver or tuning the old one forced them into using a narrow slit or it would've sounded even worse.
Fail.
Now imagine this. Although quite bad, these sounded better than the already 'fixed' Alpha Primes we had on hand for direct comparison.
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Now imagine this. Although quite bad, these sounded better than the already 'fixed' Alpha Primes we had on hand for direct comparison.
(http://troll.me/images/ahmadinejad-troll/are-you-fucking-serious-thumb.jpg)
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Now imagine this. Although quite bad, these sounded better than the already 'fixed' Alpha Primes we had on hand for direct comparison.
LOL
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TH50rp open driver measurement looks same.