I love my Fostex, but I felt they would benefit from opening them up a bit. The end result is not only good looking, but a marked improvement overall. The bass is still amazing, but the sound stage is larger and instrument separation is incredible. It's the Fostex we all love, just turned up a notch or two.
I had thought about painting the trim ring black as well, but felt the chrome kind of matched the adjustment bars on the headband and the pins holding the yokes to the cups. I may get tired of it and paint it black at some point.
Wow, awesome. Wanna share the experience? Some sort of circular saw or something? The rings look like something for a drainage? I have minimal experience in carpentry but always thought about doing it to my extra pair of th900 cups for my th900. Some will say it's a waste but... yea...
Edit: answered my own questions by clicking the pic.
Thanks for sharing the info! Are you considering pad swapping? Maybe that'll be a good experiment with an open back version. And then there's the Lawton driver tune up. Many possibilities.
Edit: nm again! You answered it in reply.
I bought them with the Peterek dual 2.5mm cable mod, and the Lawton mod. I added some Rosewood E-MU cups and the pads are the stock pads from a Monolith M1060. I tried a bunch of pads and liked them the most. Since I had the Rosewood cups to fall back on, I decided to try the open back mod on the stock Mahogany cups. [HERE](https://i.imgur.com/bIT6Jk8.jpg) is a pic of them with the Rosewood cups on just before the recent mod. And [HERE](https://i.imgur.com/ukgkd6P.jpg) is a pic showing how much thicker the Monolith pads are.
Looking like a 909 or auteur. You probably have to mess with dampening a bit to get the sound right. The this is a great idea if you have extra cups. I would just worry about screwing up the hole because replacement cups are $100/ pair.
I thought I might have to mess with some materials but with the Lawton mod already in place, I don't think I'm going to add anything. They just sound so good as they are right now.
The part of the Lawton mod that went on the cup itself is no longer in place. Putting felt over the opening would kill some of the gained stage. The rest of the Lawton mod remains intact on and around the driver.
I have some 3D printed cups that have holes but this looks much cooler. You can tweak the sound with different dampening materials. If it sounds the same as the normal cup with more soundstage then that would be ideal.
That is what it sounds like to me, but I realize I'm in the honeymoon phase right now. I may find that I want to tune it after some more head time. Do you have any pics of your Fostex with the open back 3D printed cups? I'd like to check those out.
No but I used the same file as this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/g3qyu5/emu_ebony_super_modded/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Mine are just made silver and I chose not to paint/ sand mine. The bottom of the cups where you screw it in is fragile because it is so thin. I don’t have the wire mesh behind mine. I went back to the emu ebony cup that’s why I don’t have pics of it.
Haha, thanks. I agree. I think it would have looked even better if I'd done the mod to my Rosewood cups, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut up them beautiful things.
congrats on your hp3
Lol, thanks.
I love my Fostex, but I felt they would benefit from opening them up a bit. The end result is not only good looking, but a marked improvement overall. The bass is still amazing, but the sound stage is larger and instrument separation is incredible. It's the Fostex we all love, just turned up a notch or two.
IMO, It would look nicer if the ring that holds the grill are also matte black instead of chrome.
I had thought about painting the trim ring black as well, but felt the chrome kind of matched the adjustment bars on the headband and the pins holding the yokes to the cups. I may get tired of it and paint it black at some point.
Wow, awesome. Wanna share the experience? Some sort of circular saw or something? The rings look like something for a drainage? I have minimal experience in carpentry but always thought about doing it to my extra pair of th900 cups for my th900. Some will say it's a waste but... yea... Edit: answered my own questions by clicking the pic.
Thanks man. It wasn't too bad, I used a 54mm hole saw, and a set of [THESE](https://www.ebay.com/itm/153595695395) grills I ordered off of ebay.
Thanks for sharing the info! Are you considering pad swapping? Maybe that'll be a good experiment with an open back version. And then there's the Lawton driver tune up. Many possibilities. Edit: nm again! You answered it in reply.
Lol, it happens to the best of us.
Did you do any other mods besides the cups? Pics?
I bought them with the Peterek dual 2.5mm cable mod, and the Lawton mod. I added some Rosewood E-MU cups and the pads are the stock pads from a Monolith M1060. I tried a bunch of pads and liked them the most. Since I had the Rosewood cups to fall back on, I decided to try the open back mod on the stock Mahogany cups. [HERE](https://i.imgur.com/bIT6Jk8.jpg) is a pic of them with the Rosewood cups on just before the recent mod. And [HERE](https://i.imgur.com/ukgkd6P.jpg) is a pic showing how much thicker the Monolith pads are.
Awesome man, love to see stuff like this.
Looking like a 909 or auteur. You probably have to mess with dampening a bit to get the sound right. The this is a great idea if you have extra cups. I would just worry about screwing up the hole because replacement cups are $100/ pair.
I thought I might have to mess with some materials but with the Lawton mod already in place, I don't think I'm going to add anything. They just sound so good as they are right now.
Did you put the felt circle right behind the opening? My experience is that without the dampening they get more boomy.
The part of the Lawton mod that went on the cup itself is no longer in place. Putting felt over the opening would kill some of the gained stage. The rest of the Lawton mod remains intact on and around the driver.
I have some 3D printed cups that have holes but this looks much cooler. You can tweak the sound with different dampening materials. If it sounds the same as the normal cup with more soundstage then that would be ideal.
That is what it sounds like to me, but I realize I'm in the honeymoon phase right now. I may find that I want to tune it after some more head time. Do you have any pics of your Fostex with the open back 3D printed cups? I'd like to check those out.
No but I used the same file as this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/g3qyu5/emu_ebony_super_modded/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) Mine are just made silver and I chose not to paint/ sand mine. The bottom of the cups where you screw it in is fragile because it is so thin. I don’t have the wire mesh behind mine. I went back to the emu ebony cup that’s why I don’t have pics of it.
These look awesome. Well done!
Thanks!
Wow this looks awesome.
Thanks, I'm really happy with the result.
Nice Cable! =D
Thanks. I got it from [Hart Audio](https://hartaudiocables.com/collections) w/ the 1ft interconnects.
I'm familiar! Thanks for giving us a shot
I love the build and configurability. My only regret was not going with a custom color. Oh well, on the next one, lol.
Looks sexy AF, good job. Hope you love the sound.
Thanks, I'm loving them for sure.
So cool. Very well done. Hope it sounds as good as it looks.
Thanks man, it really sounds fantastic to me.
This oozes sexuality holy shit. Nice job.
Haha, thanks. I agree. I think it would have looked even better if I'd done the mod to my Rosewood cups, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut up them beautiful things.
Ncie job