Fostex TH-X00 / TR-X00 Modifications - Attenuation Ring - Pads - Cable

[Acerun]

I'd love to hear any feedback on the mods available for the wooden Fostex-Drop headphones. Curious if anyone has been through the process of adding the Dekoni attenuation ring and lambskin pads, or attenuation ring and ZMF pads (which ZMF pads), or any of the Lawton stuff. Also any experience with replacement cables since the TR-X00.

I have the Ebony TR-X00, and it comes with with a removable cable.

Thanks in advance.

 

[phrwn]

I did the DIY Lawton mod to my TH-X00's and I honestly don't think I could tell the difference, other than the technical quality being reduced further than it already was - I also had the Yaxi Alcantara pads on, which probably didn't help. It's the sort of mod that's incredibly difficult to assess, without having two pairs of headphones on hand to switch back-and-forth, but it added no value as far as I could tell and I sold them in the end.

Having gone through a number of alternatives since then (Elegia, U12t, T50RP, Argon, QC35II, HD-25, HD-599, Ananda, MH751) I have ended up with E-Mu Teaks which are all the fun of the TH-X00, but with better separation and a touch of the refinement I was missing. I don't plan to mod these, or any headphones, ever again.

The Teaks are not perfect; I could use some isolation (these have literally none), and maybe a more robust build as they feel a bit delicate, smaller earcups, and competent wirelessness would be great, but they're the best I can find for my purposes for now. I wonder about Airpods Max, Sony XM4, V-Moda M-100, Focal Celestee/Radiance/Stellia, and Audeze Mobius, but don't think any of these are going to beat the sound of the Teaks.

 

[304290]

I use to be a heavy modder years ago. I've modded just about every closed headphone( and some open) I've own. To be honest, there's a lot of r&d that goes into a pair of headphones and for the most part the ones designed by "competent" engineers, really didn't leave much performance on the table. This was something I failed to realize back then. Most mods does very little to improve a headphone. Many actually makes the response worse. Pad rolling is one thing. At least for many pad rolling is more of a comfort thing, and is completely reversible. But opening a headphone up because someone who isn't an engineer thought they may be smarter than the actual engineer that designed them well......I'll leave it at that.

If the sound isn't to your liking, I would suggest eq vs trying mods.

 

[mechkbfan]

Owner of two Purple Hearts TH-X00s with a Drop M9xx DAC/Amp.

TL;DR; Stock is best

I ordered the following pads, Lawton's mod and attenuation rings

- ZMF Oval Earpads - Cowhide
- Ori Pads - Lambskin
- Eikon Pads - ZMF Suede

I basically tested the headphones side by side on different songs, trying to pick out where each was better / worse.
Songs were a mix of bass heavy EDM, prog metal and female vocals. (Music Iisten to the most)

Did the pad rotation first, then did the Lawton mods with original pads, then rotated through all the pads again.
Unfortunately I've lost my specific notes but remember the general vibe.

A bunch of the pads made the treble worse to point that it was piercing (I don't have this issue with stock with my DAC/amp) or it thinned out the sound to point of being hollow.

Also read elsewhere that having no cups would give you more bass, but that just ended up trashing the sound.

A couple of the pads were a real struggle to fit / bad fitment too. So be careful there.

Finally the Lawton's mod subdued the bass, so it kind of removed what made these headphones so special.

Unfortunately one pair of my original pads are gone (got eaten by cockroaches in storage, my bad), so I'm likely ordering the Yaxi TH900/610 Alcantara pads. Not because I expect them to sound better but because they look comfy.

And take note of your headphone output impedance. I loaned these to a friend with a tube amp that has high impedance, and he kept complaining about how much the treble hurt his ears. I'm assuming it's the damping factor but due to COVID we haven't been able to catch up to try some blind testing.

The headbands were a bit of a poor fit too. So unless your original ones are dead or cause pain, I'd leave it.

As the above author says, use EQ to tweak the sound. Just remember if you want more of something, then take away from the other frequencies to avoid clipping. While it was fun experimenting with it, in the end that's $100's of stuff that's going to waste, as I'll likely remove the Lawton's mod.


I've been looking for best of both world headphones of Aeon Flow's and PH's (my two dailys). I'm tempted to LCD2 and EQ the bass to get to PH levels but it feels like a high risk. The other is the Campfire Audio Cascade but really wondering how different/better that will be for almost double the price I paid.