T50MKIII

It'd be nice to get. But I already have a planar, and it'd feel like midgradeitis.

 

Tyll's stock T50RPmk3 measurements are up. Mk2.

 

The distortion seems to be all over the place and both treble and bass has significant roll off. I was so damn hyped for these.

 

Yeah, the driver seems to be working harder to reach the same SPL in stock configuration, less damped driver and leakier pads it would seem. Don't think you can achieve a better performance than the Mk2 after the usual mods.

 

Well the sensitivity would seem to suggest this is true as the old mk2 reached 90dB SPL at 0.116 Vrms where as the new mk3 take 0.203 Vrms. Interestingly it seems the impedance is also a bit higher despite having supposedly the same driver.

 

I think it's still a better modding candidate than the Mk2; better baffle with better pad fit, cushioned headband, ear-side damping foam, more modding combinations available due to the hole in the paper, lesser 4KHz dip on stock configuration...

 

RE; Tyl's measurements

Wow , they are similar in some ways to a headphone I really liked for a while, the Sony MDR-7520. Both have that little bass hump with gradually rolling off low end as you go down, a scooped mid and then a run up to the presence range, sliding down on the lower treble with a little bump up before fading.

 

open them up, let's see how the drivers, baffle, and vents compare to the T50rp MkIII's

 

Absolutely no need, I'd wager my right ball they are exactly the same except for the felt covering the cup vents, just like the Mk2.

 

Of course they sound different, they are damped differently, but they are otherwise identical.

 

I ordered the T50RP Mk3 from Japan (hard to find in Taiwan) and they should be here in a week or so. Really like my ZMF Blackwoods, so was hoping I'd get a similar sounding phone at a budget price, but the bass roll off is a bit disappointing to see. Guess I can EQ them until someone figures out a mod.

 

The mods are already figured out?... The pads leak, the driver is underdamped. Get a pair of ZMF pads, use more aggressive damping on the back side of the driver than usual (2x felt pieces instead of one perhaps) and you will be set.

 

I've got 2 pairs of Zach's pads I'm not using with my Blackwoods that I plan to try. Where does the felt go? Behind the drivers in the cups? I've mostly seen plasticene type mods to the [edit: back of the baffles].

Just got notified my set are in country and I should get them in a few days.

 

There's a couple of huge threads over at Head-Fi detailing many different mods, my guess is they will translate almost 100% to this new iteration.

This revision has seemingly thicker damping paper but a hole cut through, one of the basic mods of any ortho consists of using a piece felt of some kind over the back side of the driver, in this case, over the stock damping paper. You may need more than that one layer. Pads go first, try the ZMF pads before you even open the cups, make your observations, compare with the other pairs. If you find the mid-bass overpowering the mids, poor sub-bass extension, and a giant suck-out past 2 KHz, then you need further damping behind the driver.

 

So I got the Mk3s a couple of days ago and they sound pretty good out of the box. Smooth and balanced tonality, sub-bass wasn't as lacking as I expected from Tyll's measurements. But the pads are too thin and after 20 minutes they start pressing against the frames of my glasses uncomfortably.

I tried the ZMF cowhide pads which are plenty comfy, but mid bass gets a big boost bleeding into the mids, and highs get accentuated as well. I taped off the cup ports except for 3mm of 1 slit and put 4 layers of Kirkland 2-ply over the drivers. Still a bit of mid-bass bloat, but that's likely a personal thing as I found the ZMF Omni Cherry needed a 3dB cut from 100-150dB for my ears.

If it wasn't for the thin stock pads, I'd probably be OK with just a couple of sheets of TP to smooth the treble.

One thing I noticed when I first swapped the pads was if I put them over the cups as they are on the Mk2, the sound became very "closed in". Inserting the rim of the pads into gap opens the sound back up. I only did this once as the ZMF pads don't stand up that well to repeated rolling, so I'm not 100% sure of this. The inset for the foam pad on the baffle actually vents out in all directions, so it seems the pad/baffle assembly is designed to be leaky. You can see this in @MrTurtle's photo.