Fostex Amplifier

[Meri Thilmony]

Thehighlight moment came when I was working on the Bakoon HDA-5210mk3 review. You can read about the Bakoon and Fostex pairing on the review, but this was the amplifier that displayed what the two Fostexes were capable of. And on this amplifier, it is beyond doubt that the TH900 would be the headphone to get for me, if I have some $5,000 laying around for the TH900-Bakoon combo. Bye bye, Sennheiser HD800.

More quantity, more slam, more emotions from the bass, AND add to those the fact that you get far more improved bass detail and layering from the TH900. There is no competition here. All you HD650 fans: weep (unfortunately the TH900 will soon go back to its owner and I would be forced to return to the HD650).

I have been thinking about Audio Technica and Fostex headphones since I read your review on the TH600 and TH900 headphones. I listen to mostly J-pop and J-rock music on FLAC. So what do you recommend for headphones, amp, and DAC on $3.5k budget?

Someone on another forum recommended the Burson Soloist as the headphone amp. Still need to look into a DAC. Is the Musical Paradise MP-D1 or Resonessence Labs Concero good DACs to use with the TH600 or TH900 headphones?

Hi there Mike. Amazing review! I got in touch with foster, the parent company of fostex and they confirmed that both Denon D7000 and Fostex TH900 contain the same top-of-their-line driver. I can only assume that TH600 has the same one or a very similar one. Another assumption is that the difference in sound is indeed caused by the different material used for the enclosure. The setup you have used for the review looks pretty awesome! Could you by any chance compare the D7000 with the TH900/600 on this very same setup? That would be much appreciated!

Well just like in a speaker set up the speaker box and the room acoustics affect the results a great deal more than just the drivers. In a headphone set up the housing and the pads make up that box&room factor and use a big factor to the sound.

Tyll measured the Grados and found that these have a spike in the mid bass and in the lower mids. An attempt to negate the Munson Fletcher effect when listen to music at low volumes. In the good ole days, amplifiers had a switch known as the loudness compensation. Music is thin when listen to at low volumes. It is best played loud to get full impact of the music and that is the reason people like to listen to their headphones at very high volumes.

What is your take on this controversy ? You are the foremost expert (sincere compliment) in these areas and after reading almost all your reviews, I have great respect for your opinions. Please tell us more.

After the recording process/chain, there is of the reproduction chain. The DAC, the Amp- tubes or transistors, class A or class AB or D, the interconnects- copper or silver, balance or single ended RCA, the power supply conditioners to purify the dirty electric supply, the power cables, the solid anti vibration base, 101 tweaks etc will affect the sound and then finally that pair of speakers or headphones all with its different sound signatures that vibrate the air with sound that finally hits the tympani of our ear drums.

The new king is the Abyss AB-1266 US$5,499. Magazine writers poured lavish praises for this HP. They claimed it betters the HiFiman 6, the LCD 3 and even the Stax 009 in mid and lower bass. They hyped praises on the bass slam which they claimed betters the LCD 2 or LCD 3 and the Fostex TH900.

In reply to your question posted on FB, yes you are right that these are great headphones. Thanks for your very educational, informative and reliable (accurate) articles. If in doubts, I always turn to your reviews. Your opinions are among a few I trust. Keep up the good works in furtherance of this absorbing and passionate hobby of ours.

Hi Mike, do you have a portable amp recommendation to go with the TH-900? I just purchased but my Macbook>Jitterbug>Dragonfly Red will be my rig on the go. I know its been awhile since you reviewed but do you have some ideas? Thanks:)

PM0.3H/dH is the latest model of the reputed Fostex PM-series that features Hi-Resolution reproduction up to 40kHz by the improved amplifier circuitry and the soft dome tweeter. The combination of the dedicated 3" LF and 3/4" HF drivers together with the built-in D-class power amplifier delivers unparalleled audio performance in this class. The PM-3H/dH, inheriting the familiar cosmetic design of the best selling PM-series, is ideal for space-limited desktop home studio, PC audio, TV audio as well as smart phone and digital audio players.

2-way system with the reputed 3" fiber glass cone woofer and new 3/4 silk dome tweeter drivers

Quality matt finished front baffle with a choice of black and white

Wooden enclosure box of rear bass reflex type for best audio performance

Compact yet highly efficient built-in digital amplifier of 15W each channel

2 x inputs: RCA (L,R) and stereo mini

PM0.3dH with Energy Saving function complying with European ErP directives is available in selected countries

Although not obligated Syntec may upon request consider giving a refund of the purchased product, less a re-stocking fee, being 15% of the total value of the product, if contacted within 7 days of purchase. Note that the refunded amount will not extend to any freight charges incurred during the original purchase of the said good/s. In addition, any costs to ship the said good back to Syntec will be payable by the party requesting the refund.

Selling Lake People G111 black in new condition.Bought end November and less than 5 hours of use (almost an open box).I'm the first owner and can provide the invoice (2 years warranty).In original box with all original accessories.Shipping not...

I think they will do a pretty good job for the time being and match fairly well. They can scale higher, but the jump would most likely be in that 1.5-2k range to get a really strong upgrade for these headphones.

Just to add an update the iFi micro iDSD Black Label proved to be a success. Have a set of Dekoni fenestrated pads and the Yaxi pads which offer two distinct flavours to the sound. Preferring the more open sound from the Dekoni pads with just a little EQ to add some bass impact. Annoyingly the Yaxi pads seem to flutter against my ear when the volume goes loud which proves to be an irritation.

If a th909 was @$300 below average retail (puts it @$75 less than the th900) would that make it more attractive than a th900, if you were considering one or the other? Especially if you knew you already had a Fun signature closed back Fostex, even if the drivers were not as good technically?

I guess it would all depend on what you thought you were after, as if you wanted to have a more direct replacement for that fun use case, than the th900 would make more sense, but if you wanted an upgrade in a slightly different use case and direction but still share some characteristics, if you felt satisfied with your current fun fostex, the th909 would make more sense

On the front panel, there's LED metering, and a precision stepped attenuator for each channel, both useful features in the control room. The first five LEDs are scaled -40 to 0dB, and these refer to 775mV (also known as 0dBU and 0dBm). Because the scaling is relatively course, these LEDs are useful mainly for confirming that the amp is on, and for giving some idea of the instantaneous power level. For instance, a 10dB voltage change represents an approximate 10 fold change in power, so the -10dB LED indicates some 27 watts referred to full power into 4 ohms (270 watts). Checking the meters for accuracy, we found errors of between 1 and 3dB on the four lower LEDs, so don't try using these lower level indications for line-up.

By contrast, the 0dB and red 'error' (Overload) LED were found to be accurate within the vital fraction of one dB, and retained this accuracy relative to a variety of loads. This is significant because accurate overload detection can help save you a lot of blown speakers. It's also interesting to note that the clipping levels into 8 and 4 ohms are +2.5dBU (1.0V) and +2dBU (975mV) respectively. In other words, the 0dB LEDs light somewhat below full power, and the red error LED corresponds to the exact clipping point, which is normally taken to be the real zero level. This is a good feature, but it's one of several details that the instruction leaflet leaves you in the dark about. The one failing of the meter section is the location of the level presets. These are readily accessible with the lid removed, but this could prove very annoying with the unit rack mounted, as you'd have to remove it from the rack to re-align the meters. Ideally, Fostex should make these adjustments accessible from the front panel. Failing this, two holes neatly drilled at the front of the top cover plate would ensure easier access; you'd only need to withdraw the amp about ", instead of removing it outright.

The stepped attenuators are top-grade, custom-built units from Alps. Accuracy is their keynote, because regardless of setting, each channel is kept matched to within 0.25dB, this figure being confirmed by our measurements. Compare this to a standard stereo pot gain, which at low levels can fling one channel 6 or 7dB out-of-balance. Resolution is a sensible 1dB, over a 20dB range. This alone won't permit a dead accurate balance. However, once the balance has been set, and with a little practice, you'll be able to make speedy adjustments to levels with the Fostex, without having to reset the balance. A nice touch is the infinity position at the last step, below the -20dB setting. This is handy when you want to quickly, precisely and totally mute the input without turning the amp off. Unlike conventional pots, there's no feedthrough at the channel 1 signal to both outputs minimum setting; the input is physically disconnected. I'd also like to stress that these are real attenuators, and bear no relation to the 'click stop' pots (which are imitations) found on some music centres.

Mains switching is with a pushbutton, with a red LED to confirm 'power on'. Moving on to the rear, power enters on an IEC (Euroconnector) socket - which incidentally sports exposed terminals on the inside. The mains fuse is also inconveniently sited at the back. Of course, this particular fuse shouldn't blow unless there's a serious fault, but fuses do have a habit of breaking spontaneously after a while, and pulling heavy power amplifiers out of racks is no fun! Short of moving the fuse-holder to the front panel, you could wire the mains via subsidiary fusing on a readily accessible mains panel.

The audio terminations are relatively generous, facilities for both jacks and XLRs being available at the input. On the XLRs, pin 2 is wired hot to the IEC standard. Link-out connectors are provided as well, so the input signal can be daisy chained (linked from one amp to another), whether cables have jacks or XLRs. However, it seems unlikely that you'll want to do this in a control room; it's really a PA feature.

Next door, there's a mono/stereo switch. Again, this is a facility which should be accessible on the front panel. If for any reason regular mono/stereo switching is part of your routine, it'll be necessary to make other arrangements. Also, the instruction leaflet fails to describe the mono/stereo switch 'logic'. It doesn't power bridge, but overrides channel 2, sending the channel 1 signal to both outputs according solely to the channel 1 gain setting, ie. the other attenuator is overridden.

Lastly, the output connections are made via gold-plated binding posts. These terminals will also accept 4mm banana plugs, but the RS type usually used in the UK make less than perfect contact, so you may prefer to clamp down bared wires under the terminals. Parallel XLR outputs would certainly make life easier, in this instance, if it's necessary to be able to detach the amp quickly from its 'moorings'. Fortunately, there is an easy solution at hand, for assuming that you're unlikely to need the XLR link-outs (male connectors), it's easy enough to rewire these to their respective outputs.

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