Fostex T50RPMK3 Professional Semi-Open Headphone, Black

These are an incredible, planar-magnetic headphone which will cross genres without blinking. If you can stand the slightly annoying clamp force they'll sing for their supper no matter what you're listening to!The sound is awesome. Close, but very smooth and detailed. I can hear people shuffling in their seats and turning pages on their music sheets on Starcraft: Wings of Liberty's opening track when the music enters the second movement. Very impressive. They're also a very forgiving headphone. I listened to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow at 128kbps and it wasn't too bad, so these tend to gloss over bad recordings to make them sound better imo. Awesome for casual listeners, a bother for sound designers. Not terribly revealing of bad recordings.Sibilance can get a little surprising at times, but not painful. There is more bass than I was expecting! Very, very clean...Not thumpy enough for bass-heads, but most people will definitely be pleased. They're also very adept at mids...which is probably why I like them so much (mids man all the way here)Point to note: They NEED replacement pads. The stock ones get pretty uncomfortable after a while. If you can get ahold of them, I recommend the Shure Alcantera pads for the 1540. They're the only pads I know of that will do the trick. If you can't secure those pads, then keep watch until you can. The Brainwavz pads (hybrid or otherwise) increase the distance between the driver and your ear, which will increase the sibilance exponentially and make the headphone painful to listen to.That said, if you've got 130 quid, can get ahold of the Shure 1540 pads and don't mind your headphones not looking like a fashion accessory you. Will. Love. These.

You need a good AMP and DAC for these. If you're purchasing them to plug them straight into your PC sound card then think again, you'll get nothing but a whisper from them. My pair are powered by an SMSL SAPII amplifier, which gives more than enough volume at 12 o'clock on the dial. The DAC I use is a Topping D10, which is a brilliant DAC for the price.Mine are now modified to my liking and they're the best headphones I've ever owned. The soundstage is not massive but just right for semi-open. Listening to 24bit FLAC songs on these is just a treat for your ears as you can hear everything you're supposed to and the detail is unreal.I added dampening foam to the housing, some cotton to rid of the mid-bass hump which was really nasty and some clay around the driver. I only added a small strip of stiff felt to the back of the driver as fully covering it caused the treble to soar and killed the bass entirely.These also give a much better gaming experience than your generic headphones with 'gaming' written on the box.Pros: - The build quality is great. - They sound amazing. - The headband is comfortable for me. - Extremely moddable. The options are endless.Cons: - Stock cables, ugh. - Stock earpads, ugh. - Dirty mid bass hump when unmodified. - Hard to drive.

An absolutely beast of a headphone. But buy with caution.Pros:The crispiest sound you will hear from a headphone at this priceYou will hear things you never knew existed in your music, harmonies. The instrumental will be clear without meddling with the vocalsGreat build qualityBUT, and this is a HUGE BUTCons:The pads are the thinnest you can find around, comfort is absolutely garbage if you have bigger ears.Changing out the pads is an option but imo makes the sound quality take a dive. I tried the shure valore one which made the mids too muddyPlanar magnetic. Translation: you NEED an amp to use this. YOU CANNOT PLUG IT IN YOUR PHONE/ LAPTOP/ PC AND EXPECT IT TO WORK, it will sound like TRASH.I use dragonfly red/ fiio k5 pro the drive it and it sounds great.

I like these a lot after not much listening really.setup:Lehman reference amp - ess9038 custom dac - ifi spdif reclocker - usb to spdif from pcI find the sound very exciting. The bass thumps in a way I quite like. I don't even really dislike the stock pads. I find this headphone fits like an on ear headphone and I wear glasses and really don't find them uncomfortable. I may try some other pads on them as I have a few sets around, but if it changes that lovely exciting sound then I'm going striaght back to the pancakes!These headphones for me present a large exciting soundstage with nice tops and nice bass. The mids aren't spectacular but the overall sound for me is good.I have a few pairs of headphones - the usual candidates, DT770 250ohm, ATH-M50x and HD600's. To be honest, I think these will replace most of the listening I do on the 770's. They do the same thing I like those for, they play down low and sound exciting, but I am quite liking the semi open back while still maintaining good bass. I keep using the word exciting but that's how I describe listening to music I've listened to a million times before with these headphones.they do lack the real lows you get with the 770s, but the presentation of the slightly higher bass and the thump, I find it really quite addictive! I nearly bought a pair of 990's as my next set but wanted to have a planar set, really glad I picked these ones up.

Son mis únicos auriculares por encima de los 100 pavos (aunque los conseguí por menos de segunda mano echándole paciencia al asunto) junto a los inevitables M50 de Audio Technica. Entiendo la fama de los M50 para la cosa profesional porque me resultan mucho más planos que estos, pero también infinitamente aburridos en comparación. Estos por otro lado también ofrecen mejor escena y detalle en los agudos y representan mejor el carácter general de cada grabación (estudio vs. directo, por ejemplo). Transparencia, detalle, pegada en las percusiones, presencia en las voces, bajo extenso y agradable sin realces artificiales...un gustazo en general. Sí que para la clásica resultan algo impredecibles. Y muy chulos con ese aire setentero, o diferentes, como mínimo, me han de reconocer. No me han resultado TAN incómodos, pero es que yo soy un tipo duro.

Fostex est une marque japonaise ancienne que les audiophiles ayant de la bouteille connaissent bien pour leurs enceintes à haut rendement à plusieurs voies ou leurs fabuleux haut-parleurs à large bande. Autant dire qu’en acoustique ils n’ont rien à apprendre de personne… Depuis quelques années Fostex a lancé une gamme complète dédiée à l’écoute au casque, auparavant il fabriquait les casques haut de gamme pour d’autres marques (comme Denon AH-D2000, 5000 et 7000, ou E-MU Teak)Le fabricant Fostex est aussi connu des DIYeurs spécialisés grâce à ce T50RP que tout le monde essaye d’améliorer tellement la base de ce casque est géniale et peu chère. La Raison ; ce casque à 160 euros est basé sur deux transducteurs "Regular Phase" qui, si la marque ne le dit pas, sont en fait des transducteurs orthoplanars ! Sachant que la ticket d’entrée pour ce genre de technologie est d’au minimum 400 euros (hifiman) on comprend pourquoi les audiophiles sont excités… Pour le prix c’est cadeau, car ce casque est un OVNI doté de qualités musicales totalement inhabituelles. J’ai plusieurs ténors du marché, mais je reviens le plus souvent vers lui tellement le son est parfait.Ce casque est léger, robuste, endurant, fonctionnel et pratiques. Dommage que les coussinets soient un peu plats et que, selon moi, il faut tout de suite les changer pour des Shure HPAEC1540, les meilleurs pads du monde mais cher, ou des Brainwavz. Hormis cela il est plutôt laid, mais on s’en fout un peu, on écoute…

ein genialer Kopfhörer für das Geld. Angenehm überrascht.Eigentlich zum "Spielen" als Modding Objekt gekauft, ist der KH bereits in der Werksabstimmung überraschend gut. Insbesondere die sensationellen Mitten fallen positiv auf. Stimmen und Instrumente in dieser Tonlage klingen extrem detailiert und sauber, da kann er mit so manchem KH, der 10x so teuer ist, mithalten oder sogar übertrumpfen. Auch die Hochtöne können sich hören lassen.Typisch für einen Magnetostaten ist die schnelle und präzise Wiedergabe. Dadurch werden aber natürlich schlechte Aufnahmen oder minderwertige MP3 Ripps gnadenlos offengelegt. Was auf dem Tonträger ist, wird dargestellt. Nicht mehr und nicht weniger. Einzig an Tiefbass mangelt es, was man aber mit einschlägig bekanntem Modding, oder mit Equalizereingriff beheben kann.Zu erwähnen sei, dass der Fostex recht leistungshungrig ist. An meinem Laptop reicht die Leistung zwar, aber mit meinem kleinen DAP oder dem Smartphone reicht die Leistung nicht aus. Da sollte man über einen separaten Kopfhörerverstärker nachdenken.Comfort:Die Ohrpolster sind nicht besonders dick und über mehrere Stunden gesehen nicht besonders komfortabel. Deshalb habe ich mir in China (für 8 Euro) dicke, angeschrägte Ohrpolster bestellt. Als erste Hilfe, bis die Polster ankamen, habe ich von meiner Frau eine dickere Kordel stibitzt und tief nach hinten in die original Orpolster geschoben (siehe Foto). Das erhöht die Dicke der Polster und somit den Abstand zur Membran, was den Komfort und die (klangliche) Räumlichkeit steigert. Dieses Modding ist durchaus als Dauerlösung tauglich.Zusätzlich hat mir meine Frau noch ein Kopfband genäht und spätestens jetzt ist der KH stundenlang tragbar.Fazit: Out of the Box nicht unbedingt für Bassheads geeignet, wer aber auf Jazz, Singer/Songwriter Musik, Klassik usw. steht und einem eine saubere und klare/natürliche Darstellung wichtig ist, der ist hier sehr gut aufgehoben.

I have modded these headphones with the Mayflower Electronics kit, upgraded the earpads to soft lambskin with memory foam & will eventually upgrade the cable to a vmoda, along with making my own headband for added comfort.First impressions: these things demand and crave lots of power. I have a 50 watt tube amp that still isn't enough to drive these. I will be upgrading my amp soon to at least double those figures.The sound profile is MASSIVE. Lots of low without distorting the mids & highs. The high end is impossibility defined with a crisp bite; beware of higher volume levels on your ears.These are amazing value for the money, made with quality in mind and can be modified to any sound profile you desire for your audiophile needs.

Partiamo dai difetti: la costruzione lascia a desiderare, le plastiche non sono di altissima qualità, out of the box la cuffia è molto piatta come resa e presenta qualche risonanza, i pad sono anche abbastanza scomodi. Ulteriore neo la scarsa sensibilità quindi necessita di un piccolo amp dedicato per tirare fuori il meglio.Ma i difetti di questa cuffia impallidiscono nel momento in cui ci si mette mano e si apre per modificarla come suggeriscono le migliaia dithread sui vari forum di appassionati, con 10€ spesi tra feltro e plastilina la resa audio è migliorata spaventosamente, le risonanze scompaiono, i pad diventano molto più comodi, e cosa più importante ora sono davvero entusiasta di questo acquisto.Le frequenze medie sono il forte di questa cuffia, avvolgenti e dettagliate, le alte squillanti ma mai taglienti, i bassi morbidi e comunque assolutamente personalizzabili aggiungendo o togliendo feltro oppure ovatta nella parte interna della stessa.Una volta modificata il rapporto qualità prezzo diventa spaventoso: non credo che ci siano rivali nella stessa fascia di prezzo, un piccolo e quasi sconosciuto gioiello giapponese.Consiglierei a tutto l'acquisto, se si ha voglia di metterci mano dentro e (purtroppo) invalidare la garanzia.