Fostex TH-600 Premium Reference Headphones Review

The Fostex TH-600 ($999.00 USD) are sort of nice headphones.

The first thing we recommend you do is replace the headphone cable, perhaps with the headphone cable of the AKG K550 Closed Back Headphone ($389.00 USD). *f 69 If you do replace then, be sure you pick up a second pair, or else have the work done, professionally. [You may be able to find one - though we are unaware of the AKG part - price for $50.00 USD.]

We'd recommend you pair them with low-grade Earthworks Microphones, for your musicians to wear - they might cost more than their guitars - so that you can bill them a bit more.

Many consider the Fostex TH-600 ($999.00 USD) to be a premium headphone.

The AKG K550 are also billed as such - Reference Class Headphones. Fostex? ... Ah, yes.

What about the Fostex TH-600 attracts us? Well, it's 1/2 of THX 1138 by George Lucas.

You can wear them as you would wear a scarf, and they would come down to your knees. That would leave the flashy bit, dangling.

1138 is pretty close to 1200. That's George Lucas for you.

Let's look at inflation.

Let's look at the Fostex TX-600 Premium Headphones ($999.00 USD). Would any reasonable person buy them?

Today you can buy the Sony MDR-7506 for $99.00 USD. That's a SRP of $130.00 USD. It's equivalent in price to the diamond amorphous diaphragm earbuds by Sony we used as a high school student back in the day. We like the Sony MDR-V6 ($109.99 USD) at this price, also. Today, those headphones would (the diamond) go for $217.00 USD. That's ignoring audiophile inflation.

How would you like your Fostex?

The ear cups come off rather worse than HiFiMan, we would say. In terms of looks and subjective quality. In terms of mounting arrangement, also. How about the Stax? They are much better on it. They are soft however. How about the driver on the Fostex? It's fine, but no Beryllium. You'll slightly ruin the ear cups by taking them off, and putting them on, we've discovered.

With the ear-cups off, it looks fine. You'll want to remove the headband, then however. Then, it's a wonderful match.

We purchased it for Kurt our RDS Mascot (a Sennheiser MKE 2002 Binaural Head). Previously, Curt wore a pair of AKG K550 Closed Black Reference Class Headphones for inspiration. You'll want closed-back headphones if you are recording music with vocals and wish to wash out background.

We'd like to say we'd like the Fostex. It could use a new cable.

Is the quality worse than a golf ball?

No, it's somewhat better, but the technology is not so refined.

We are talking audio here. It's 1950's technology. The driver we would say is equivalent to a fine driver on an in-car audio system. Something called premium by the manufacturer.

How about the cable? The cable is very poor. It's good enough for the back of an instrument, but not good enough for a front panel. The cable on the AKG K550 is superior. It's equivalent to the Enercell you might use to plug Boss Dr. Rhythm, in a matte finish.


Let's look at that here.

We paired it with the Audio Alchemy HPA v1.0 Headphone Amplifier, Korg's T1 Music Workstation, once used on the Arsenio Hall Show, and some interconnects by DG Roland. How's that for history?

Now Fostex have been in the game for a very long time, just as Arsenio has. Some would consider giving Fostex wood. That's an attractive proposition.

For us, we settled / made do with the Korg Korg Voice T-Series TSD-10 disk.

It's a pretty bad thing.

You can find this today as part of the Korg Legacy Collection, as of version 1.6. It's downloadable, you could say. Now the Fostex are very fine headphones. They do not detail well like the Stax 007 Headphones, nor image like the Sennheiser HD-800. They do present bass remarkably well.

We like a bit of bass in our range. [Ariana Grande]

Wearing of course an RDS Baseball Cap, our model, was happy to see them. Had the Fostex TH-900 Premium Stereo Headphones ($1,999.00 USD) come with such attractive ear-cups, we'd have purchased them, instead. The AKG's (the K550's) had done well enough, but we, like Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit, were in a mood for a change. Let's go Jack Ryan here.

Now, our model doesn't like Cartier. She prefers Ray Ban any day of the month, or week we should say. For a $1000 headphone, $200 eye-wear is good enough, generally. We were going to suggest a Cartier Galaxy with Brown Temples, Brushed Platinum, and Brown Polarized Lenses ($930.00 USD), which makes a sharp contrast to the Fostex '600 should you wear them.

Let's talk about shadows and fineness.

Playing the shadow war, and not the league of shadows, we re-loaded the Korg T1 Music Workstation then in full-data, after having configured the HPA to boot.

The Audio Alchemy was bleeding as we settled in on the Korg T-Series TSD-10 Voice Data. Oh my.

Let's look at the data, then.

2) WaterWork - The voice (after-voice) was fine with C5 of WaterWork. Very Michael Bay.
3) Hi**Split - C1 was fine with Hi**Split, although octaves lacked authority (Duu, Piano 2   8', BigBtmBass). Polyphony.
7) BubbleSplit - C1 was fine with BubbleSplit, although C5 had more pop (voice x-over).
8) 5amFrost* - sound is too closed-off. HPA's process improves it!..
10) Night Mom - the sound is fine. Audiophile enough.
14) In TooDEEP - C1. C2. The sound is fine.

You'll find a better deal should we publish.

Playing
9) Vocatoo

We realize that if you wish a studio headphone (for non-voice work), we recommend at the $1000 USD mark, the Audeze LCD-2 Headphone ($999.00 USD). INSTEAD.

Should you be a home user, and like a bit of depth in the catalogue, the Fostex TH-600 should work well.

Let's see if you can find a place for it in your home, then. FOSTEX.

Should you be a home user, you'll get wonderful value, should you be laticent. Or latescent - only 125 lattes (@$8/ea) will get you this premium product.

Yours,


JP 2016/07/14
www.hifiart.ca

PS The best thing about the Fostex TH-600 honestly is - that you can give it some upgrades, and give it some wood.


System:

Korg T1 Music Workstation
Audio Alchemy HPA v1.0 Headphone Amplifier
Roland Interconnects (included with Roland Sound Canvas SCC-1)
Fostex TH-600 Premium Reference Headphones

System Purpose:

Our pick of headphones, the HiFiMan HE-1000 Planar Magnetic Headphone ($3,499.00 USD) requires a "headphone skirt" - 2-3" open at the bottom of either cup to open the sound up. You'll thus, looking up it, see some lobes. On the other sort of skirt, you'll see some lips.

We'd say:

You can give us wood should you want to be one of our underwear models.

Now.

We can't conscionably place our models in semi-nude positions. Yes, they're twins.

But, like the Babas of old, this Ganesh must have his way. To the Liont to the Trunk.

So, send all nude photos, then, to... HiFiArt!

You'll find your love of modelling.

We'll find we'll love our new collection. :)

Photos are the best place for a premium collection. :)

Yours,


JP 2016/07/14
www.hifiart.ca