FOSTEX verus BEYERDYNAMIC versus LEAK
FOSTEX T50RP 50 ohm FR - 15Hz - 35KHz
Modified by Mike. Shure Pads, Sheep's wool, plasticine, OFC cable and headphone socket removed.
BEYERDYNAMIC DT770 PRO 80 ohm FR - 5Hz - 35KHz
Unmodified as far as I know? Ian (Rabbit) may tell me otherwise.
LEAK 3000 ISODYNAMIC 70 ohm FR 40Hz - 14KHz
Repaired drivers, new OFC cable
Equipment used:
MUSICAL FIDELITY X-RAY CD PLAYER (Unmodified)
MUSICAL FIDELITY X-CAN V2 (Highly modified with Russian 6N23P-EB valves
MUSICAL FIDELITY X-PSU (Unmodified)
I enlisted the help of my Dad to subjectively compare the above headphones. I wanted him to help me because his type of music is totally different to mine, he mainly listens to classical music and I do not. Although he is 83 and his hearing is not as good as it used to be, he spent a lot of time studying music when he was younger and he played the classical guitar. I just listen to music and I either like it or I don't.
Also he has not been influenced in any way by this forum.
He only knows that the Leak headphones have been modified (being his phones).
I asked him to bring six tracks to listen to (all were classical).
I tossed a coin to see which headphone we should audition first, second then third. Result:
Track 1 Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5 Track 6
1. BEYER FOSTEX LEAK BEYER FOSTEX LEAK
2. FOSTEX LEAK BEYER LEAK BEYER FOSTEX
3. LEAK BEYER FOSTEX FOSTEX LEAK BEYER
I made some note sheets so that we could write down what we thought about each phone on each track to compare at the end.
The first task was to set the volume level, I let my dad be the judge of this because I tend to listen too loud and in the end they were pretty much similar and we left the volume alone at 5 to 12 for all tracks.
The comparison took four hours, my Dad would listen to one track fully with one headphone and then the same track with the next headphone and again same track next headphone. I would then listen to each headphone in turn using the same track, both of us writing notes as we went along.
It was more difficult for me to assess the phones because I did not know any of the tracks (I don't listen to classical music). Having said that the phones did the most of the work for me indicating good or not so good sound quality.
It soon became clear to me that it was a two horse race between the Fostex and the Beyer's with the Leaks showing their age /specs and possibly my repair work on the drivers?
I won't bore you all with a blow by blow of each track, but we marked each phone on a basis of 1 - 5 for the Treble - Mids & Bass - 5 being the highest and adding any comments in the overall sound column.
Comment's on the Leaks included (narrow soundstage, sounds closed back, muffled and distant)
Comments on the Fostex included (Excellent, distant & slightly congested, superb, sounds closed back, voices more refined.)
Comments on the Beyers included ( Mids weak, First class, Superb, better separation, good subtle detail, sounds open backed)
It was thirsty work and Dad had black coffee and I had Green tea, so it was a tea total listening session.
At the end of the session we both agreed that it was a very enjoyable afternoon and that it was very, very interesting.
Before we compared our notes I said to him "If you had to go out and buy just one pair of these headphones which one would it be". His answer was "I would most definitely buy the Beyerdynamics" - I said "That would be my choice too".
I said to him I knew you were going to say that, he said how did you? I said every time you had the Beyerdynamics on a big smile came on your face and at the end you would say something like "Very nice indeed, or that was superb".
He said he didn't even realise he had said those things.
Total score for each phone from my dad's sheet:
Leak 72.5
Fostex 80.5
Beyerdynamic 83
Total score for each phone from my sheet:
Leak 52
Fostex 77
Beyerdynamic 85
Overall total:
Leak 124.5
Fostex 157.5
Beyerdynamic 168
So the winner is - BEYERDYNAMIC DT770 PRO 80 ohm
You can see from the marking that it was very close and we both agreed that we would be happy with ANY of these phones. We really enjoyed the afternoon and there can only be one winner but the quality of ALL the headphones was excellent and ALL of them were extremely comfortable for a 4 hour listen.
I felt the Fostex and the Leak got better as they "warmed up" and decided to have another listen to some of my music the next day but only to the Fostex & Beyer's and at a bit higher sound level.
The result was pretty much the same in that the Beyer's sounded better to me.
Considering the Beyer's are closed back and the other two are open backed, they sounded the most open backed of the three to me with a lot wider soundstage.
So that is the conclusion of our 3 way listen and one that I was not expecting, I would now like to thank Mike for so kindly sending me the Fostex to listen to and it certainly was a pleasure to listen to ALL the headphones.
This listen also confirms to me that you need to listen BEFORE you buy and what sounds good to me may sound totally different to someone else.
Chris