Fostex T50RP MK3 Professional Studio Headphones, Semi-Open

Imaging is very very good. Very accurate sound at high volumes. Punchy. Nothing is out of place just nicely balanced clean dynamic sound. Ear pads are silly thin and will get you by for a while but they will want swapping by most people to get a better, deeper fit and a slightly richer sound profile.They are 50 ohms but need alot of power to reach their potential. 1w at 50ohms is enough to get a great sound out of them but 1.5w at 50ohms would be perfect. I run them on a fiio k5 pro at about 3 'o' clock on the dial, so not much left to go at all and it's not silly loud but it's enough to damage your hearing long term so it's perfectly acceptable running on a k5 pro. Honestly, if you have a good amp already, these are well worth the money.

Once I'd figured out how to lock the cable into the headphones ( there were no instructions) they were perfect for home studio monitoring.

I've slowly been building up a headphone collection over the past few years. I started with some Grado SR80s which I absolutely love though sadly I need to do a cable replacement on them which I haven't got around to yet. After having the Grado's for a year people at work started to get annoyed with how much sound they leak. Then I picked up the AKG K7XX from Massdrop around this time, I also purchased a Fiio E17k DAC/AMP to drive them, these have a neutral, punchy sound, not as exciting as the Grado but a lot easier to listen to. Then I discovered the Beyerdynamic DT990 PRO Headphones - 250 OHM which ended up replacing my AKGs for day to day listening, very comfy, full and warm sound, a friend of mine described them as a "big, warm, hug of sound" which I definitely agree with.The T50RP MK3 are a completely different experience to my DT990s, I'm still using the Fiio E17k to drive them on the +12dB setting with a listening volume of "29" (almost 50%) which is enough to drown out things going on around me, I've not really had to EQ them for most of the music I listen to e.g. Above & Beyond/Anjunabeats, London Grammar, GoGo Penguin, Hybrid (aka Hybrid Soundsystem), Koan Sound. For this type of music, you get a precise, exciting sound, their dynamic range and response is brilliant. If you try to put anything through them like Slipknot, Alter Bridge, Porcupine Tree (their heavier tracks), the Low-Mids, where most of the guitars and vocals lie, start to sound a bit muddy and require some EQing. Though if I'm going to be listening to this type of music for the day, I'll probably switch back to the DT990s. I do see myself using these headphones more day-to-day though.I do have a few gripes with them. The ear-pads they come with are very uncomfortable so I have put the Shure HPAEC1540 Headphone Replacement Ear Pads on them which have made them very comfy, especially for extended periods of listening, I easily spend 4 hours a day listening to music while I work.Also, the right-angled 3.5mm cable they come with is cheap and just seems low quality, the cable already causes crackling if I put any tension or adjust the connector, so I have bought the BlueRigger Angled 3.5mm Male to Male Stereo Audio Cable as a replacement, I should hopefully receive this on Monday.So even after spending the additional cash on mods for them, I'm still happy with them. I just count the mods as the total cost of the headphones.

extraordinary Clarity for the price...terrible earpads...replacement needed at least the brainwavezs(without angles)...make sure they are thin...anyways the imaging is amazing ... not so wide soundstage but suddenly somethings sound so far sometimes.... bass is tight and fast and so well placed...these forced me to research and buy more costly LCD2 classic... Plannar is way to go...