Fostex 812 Review

[Emigdio Binet]

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When those models were discontinued, I remember people being disappointed and lots of them started searching second hand headphones, their actions bringing the prices up. When Fostex TH900 and TH600 were announced it lead to high levels of excitement in the audiophile communities.

The first thing that I noticed about them was of course their very well finished and nice looks. You can tell immediately that these headphones are not cheap. They manage to give a very nice and luxurious vibe.

TH-900 was a delight on this song. The instrument separation and soundstage were very good for closed headphones. Actually, I take the last part back. The soundstage is good for any type of headphones. What I absolutely loved about the song was the viscerality shown by the chords and other instruments. The level of details was impressive as well. The treble very well extended with good details and sparkle attached to it.

I thought that TH-900 could have very nice potential to rock and roll. On this song the treble was sharper and more annoying than on HD800 which was considerably more enjoyable here. The voices and guitars were recessed on the Fostex. Adding the piercing cymbals, I could not listen to the song till the end.

The mids are detailed but are kind of recessed compared to the other frequencies. The voices are also pushed in the back but still manage to be enjoyable through their colored and pleasant tonality. TH-900 has a V shaped frequency response and you can easily hear that.

The soundstage is atypical to closed headphones as TH-900 manages to give quite an open and airy experience. The instruments have their place in space very well defined showing good layering and imaging as well.

These headphones are not slow at all. The attack is quite strong followed by a controlled and natural decay. Some instruments, especially the guitar strings, have a full and visceral extension that give energy to the sound.

The bass on TH-900 goes deeper, showing more present sub-bass, while LCD-X has a stronger kick. Both headphones have good control over their bass, but the bass from LCD-X is faster, while the one in TH-900 is a little more detailed and better textured, especially on the mid bass and sub bass. I find the bass in LCD-X to be more natural and closer to reality than the one in TH-900 which is too colored in my opinion but can get to be very enjoyable on some music genre, especially electronic.

The mids are more present on LCD-X and you can hear this in the first seconds after you switch headphones. The voices are the first thing that pops into attention as they have better presence and textures. You can notice this with the instruments too, except with some guitar plucks which are more apparent and sparkly on TH-900.

Considering TH-900 is a closed headphone, its performance in this section was remarkable as it was quite comparable with LCD-X in this section, sometimes offering a little more air on top and a wider soundstage, while the one on LCD-X was deeper. The imagingis good on both headphones, but LCD-X is better in this category.

I would say that TH-900 wins overall in the bass section having a more present sub/mid bass that leads to better impact especially on electronic music. Besides this, TH-900 also seems to have a blacker background than HD-800. I think that this happens mainly because TH-900 is a closed headphone and the isolation helps a lot in achieving that.

Except the above, HD800 wins the game in all categories from my perspective. However, the winning sections of TH-900 are not to be under-estimated, as they are very important in some music genres and it might be enough for you to prefer them to HD800.

TH-900 was quite a nice surprise as it managed to be considerably better than the old Denon D7000. The review got me through a very nice audio journey and they proved to be a fun and worthy companion.

However, combined with a recessed midrange and peaky treble, TH-900 offers a colorful sound that can be quite enjoyable on some songs, but distract your attention on others because of a too powerful bass or piercing treble.

I would have loved them even more if not for the recessed midrange and sometimes piercing treble. If you like rock music, they might not be the best solution as the cymbals were painfully screechy in my opinion.

i had the TH900 twice, and for this can to sound the best a lot of the people had to go with some tube amps, not the warm typical types ofc, i had it with the WA7 EH tubes and it sounded nice, the problem for me it was leaking the sound out, and my room mate was annoyed, it was like a small speaker, i mean for a closed headphone thats quite sad, ended up selling it twice, and thanks to some TOTL new CIEMs i were able to forget about the TH900.

Nice review of the TH900. I am using the TH900 at my office and it fares better at isolation due to being closed-back. However, as you (and many other reviews) have mentioned, it is not completely sealed and still leaks sound not it is of course still better than say an open headphone.

That is a very accurate telling of how Slogic functions and why I enjoy it a lot. If you like the 11, stick with it, because this TH909 is an upgrade to the TH900 in fidelity, but tones down the harshness and physical strike impact. But, I still consider it slamming, while I consider the 11 much more soft.

Awesome review. I am extremely curious to know how the Ultrasone Edition 11 compares to the Fostex TH909. I have been using the Edition 11 for a bit now and have used EQ to bring the lower mids up a bit, I reduced mid bass slightly and brough up the sub bass. It is a complete beastsl of a headphone ?

Imaging on the TH909 is better in terms of realism, however the headphone is more fatiguing than the Edition 11 in my short time with it. I would want you to take this with a pillar sized grain of salt and not even listen to me on this though, because my time with the Edition 11 was short.

IMO, Slogic is more user friendly to the ear and helps with width and height factor, however against the TH series? That imaging experience is more naturally extensive and realistic, it is easy to pick the TH909 for most genre applications. It responds very well to EQ as well.

I owned the TH900 for a long time, moved to the TH909 when I got to review this as I felt it was a better headphone overall. I would place the Edition 11 more along the TH900 line, than the TH909 which I feel to be a superior model.

The elegant look of wooden shells, the comfort of pads and headband and the high class of sound for two and a half thousand zlotys. (Polish currency). Wide and deep stage, with high-end level of sophistication.Read the full review here.

...it is most certainly a dependable, reasonably accurate workhorse, powered speaker. Highly efficient, the 6301N excels in cleanly cranking out midrange/voice-centric material: broadcast TV/radioand PA/theatrically oriented audio, etcetera.Read the full review here.

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Firstly I would like to thank Matt at SCV distribution (Fostex UK Distributor) for lending me these models for a comparison, I always try to write honest reviews. These have all been burned in, no real differences were noted.

The packaging is quite simple, a card box with a picture on the front and info and specs on the back, these do not come with an elaborate fancy box, but again they are studio headphones so no need. Nothing special here, but the box does protect the headphones during shipping.

The build quality is great, they feel like they are built to last with solid metal sliders, a metal headband and the use of high quality plastics. The earpads are soft but very flat with a small opening for your ears. They use a locking detachable cable mechanism, which works well and again shows they are made to last. I have no issues with the build quality.

Accessories are not many, all you get in the box is the headphones and 2 cables, 1 long black 3m cable with a 6.3mm jack, another short orange 1.2m cable with 3.5mm jack for portable use. I would have liked to have seen a carry pouch, but not a necessary accessory and for the price I cannot complain, these are all about the sound.

Isolation varies between the models due to their design, but on the whole none of them isolate very well, they isolate enough to block out mild outside noise but if you require isolation go with the T40 out of all of them due to their closed back design.

Because the T50 are semi-open back and T20 are open back, both leak more than the T40 and are not suitable for use in very quiet environments where you may disturb others.

Well these are not easy to drive headphones. I highly recommend using a powerful amplifier to get the best out of these headphones, using them out of a portable device usually tends to make them sound thin, and even distorted in some cases. With a powerful amp you can turn them up to unlistenable volumes without distortion.

All have a similar base sound, with a few differences between the models, I find the sound of the TXXrp headphones to be smooth, full and very coherent. The mids are incredibly detailed, and the whole range is well reproduced. A well rounded, do it all headphone, with very quick and responsive sound.

These are a great model to get if you are looking at Orthodynamic headphones, they give you a taste of what they sound like, without hitting your wallet too hard, and online you will find extensive mods that you can do to make them even better. Below are the key differences:

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