Fostex TH-600 Review

[h264]

 

So this is one of the only brands of headphones that a lot of people spoke highly of which I didn’t own a headphone.  By that brand, I mean Denon, but of course this headphone is not a Denon headphone.  I’ve heard a lot about the Denon AH-D2000, 5000, and 7000 even before I got into headphones.  Unfortunately, I decided to buy AKG headphones instead and found out the hard way that many of these headphones can quickly slip into the past once tastes change.  Denon decided in early 2013 to completely drop their line of “high performance” headphones and instead released a line of decidedly beats-like plastic garbage from China.  While I can’t speak to the drivers, the “music-maniac” line is not something that interests me as it looks exactly like most modern fashion headphones: cheap.  The online headphone fandom is decidedly a world of brand fanboys, and it’s no secret that this sudden discontinuation has driven the price of new in-box Denon headphones up sky-high until recently.  The only alternative to scouring Ebay and the flea market to find a pair is to buy a model from their OEM manufacturer who in this case is Fostex.

 

What really got me interested in Fostex was the T50RP, which was one of the most popular mod-able headphones up until it’s discontinuation a few months ago.  I tried out a pair of Tyler’s modded Fostex for about 8 hours last year, and while I found it to be very bass heavy and not to my taste I liked the overall build of the headphone, so I thought I might give another pair from them a try.

 

The Fostex TH-600 is indeed a well-built headphone, and it had better be at an MSRP of $1500, and a common sale price of around $500.  I has a very thick headband that terminates into two solid pieces of machined metal that float on two pegs offset to the very rear end of the headband.  It’s a very unique design for providing that extra degree of freedom to the cups, which are themselves machined metal as well.  The only two things I know for sure are plastic on the whole headphone are two clips that contain screw holes on the headphone and the ring on which the swivel braces are attached.  The ear pads are pretty comfortable, but it’s not exceptionally comfortable or anything.

 

The sound is a pretty traditional v shape, with very well defined highs and lows and pretty subdued mids.  The music sounds farther away and yet the bass and treble are pretty “in your ears” so to speak.  The bass complement is about the only thing overly bassy about these headphones, so I get where they come from when they say this is a bass heavy headphone, but I don’t think it’s exaggerated except for around 600-800 Khz.  Highs are ironically this headphone’s strong point, but I’m afraid at this price point you’d expect a little bit better, even from a closed headphone in controlling the bass complement.

 

Overall this headphone is priced fairly … at the super Massdrop “Inventory clearance” price of $520 I paid for this pair.  I hear razor dog audio offers coupons that bring it down to $500 plus shipping, but either way it feels like I actually paid full retail price for this headphone at a 66% discount.  I think it says something pretty jarring about just how high the prices have risen on boutique headphones since 2008 and the introduction of the $1500 price locked Sennheiser HD800, that another headphone could come along 5 years later with the same MSRP and not even be a flagship design.  My great fear is this headphone bubble is about to come crashing down on itself and in the process take with it some very worthy headphone companies that bet too much on the audiophile and fashion headphone craze.  It may already be happening, even, given some of the steep discounts and the advent of Massdrop’s group buying.

 

NOTE:  I've seen at least 5 different MSRPs for this headphone, but given head-fi's original images of the headphone specs from the website it seems the ORIGINAL MSRP was $1300.  It's a big difference, I know.  Massdrop may be telling the truth still, so I won't say they artificially jacked up the MSRP to make it seem like a bigger deal, but you're thinking it now, aren't you?

[SSL]

My great fear is this headphone bubble is about to come crashing down on itself and in the process take with it some very worthy headphone companies that bet too much on the audiophile and fashion headphone craze.  It may already be happening, even, given some of the steep discounts and the advent of Massdrop’s group buying.

 

Probably. Hifiman just released their $300 planar.

[KaminKevCrew]

Well, the original msrp for the th-900 was well over 2,000 dollars. The new (current) msrp is 1,400 AFAIK.

[craigsolo]

Lol. Is there any other brands as I'm looking for a quality brand as it will be hugging me ears?

[KaminKevCrew]

Lol. Is there any other brands as I'm looking for a quality brand as it will be hugging me ears?

You should start a new topic and post your budget. Then we can help without thread-jacking!

 

Edit: I have the Denon AH-D7000!!!