Ah, so THOSE are the Thunderpantseses. Are those the ones you were wearing in the airport, Colin?

Indeed they were.

That's better than those silly things he was wearing when I saw him at the airport...

Oh, Vicki also had the Shure 840s for a little while. For 120$, may as well give 'em a shot while you're waiting in line for your ThunderPantses.

**BRENT**

Ok, gang. The short short list appears to be thus:

Thunderpants

D7000

Shure

I consider the CD3000 one of those phones I'll just buy if I have the opportunity so they don't really count here.

Blast, Mark L gets the snub again /shill

In all fairness, I'd like to give him way more than just a snub.

To be fair, I never owned the D7000's, only tried a pair at CanJam after having owned a pair of D2000 for some time. Basically, I didn't feel that they were that much better than the D2000. If you are interested, I would be happy to lend you my DX1000's.

^^^ This. IMO the D5000 and D7000 are not significantly better than the D2000. All of them are comfy but the D2000 are the comfiest because of their weight.

That's helpful. I sort of recall thinking the same thing at CJ08, but my memory is not exactly to be trusted. I have a line on the 7000, but I don't know if I can get them for less than $600 and that money seems better spent on Thunderpants. Perhaps I should get a D2000 for a little bit.

have you considered K1000s and rohypnol?

Interesting idea. Instead of all this "woodied" FOTM stuff, someone should offer "roofied" phones.

This is my pair, Fostex T50rp woodied by Smeggy.

What do these (T50rp's) sound like out of the box? Worth playing with for cheap closed phones, or are the mods transforming?

What do these (T50rp's) sound like out of the box? Worth playing with for cheap closed phones, or are the mods transforming?

They sound somewhat more balanced than the vintage orthos, both stock, but the level that can be achieved with modding (sticking with the stock enclosures) is substantially less than with most other vintage orthos. tl;dr all it takes is a couple of discs of felt for the vintage Fostex to wreck it. IMO.

What do these (T50rp's) sound like out of the box? Worth playing with for cheap closed phones, or are the mods transforming?

Actually, if you want stock closed, you should go for the 40's -- same drivers, closed design. And yes, they're worth playing with.

The shure is only like $130 compared to the $550 for the thunderpants.

The thunderpants better be much better!

Well the D7000 is like $650ish, but it was being considered in the same pile too :S. Headphone prices seem to go up exponentially with performance.

The Shure is better than its price definately so its a bargain.

But thunderpants are a good deal better in my opinion, a good planar has something over a good dynamic in my opinion. And in fact they like the Shure are a GREAT deal for their price, if this was a commercial product it would surely be in a higher price bracket.

That MB Quart colin mentioned is a v.good competitor to the Shure as well.

What do these (T50rp's) sound like out of the box? Worth playing with for cheap closed phones, or are the mods transforming?

Yeah I agree with Dusty above. Well the T40v1 is a good option. T50rp, doesnt shine modded in stock housing, well it can sound good i think, but it would take a veryyy masterful effort to get it there. The extreme mods (ala Smeggy) are what really transforms it.

Update: There will indeed be thunder in my pants, but the Pantsmeister is understandably not able to crank these out on a moment's notice. So until then, I am going to bridge the gap with either the Shure or the Denon 2000. The 7000 is just too much $. I remember hearing it on Yikes's rig and not loving it.

So between the Shure and the 2000, what say you wise ones?

What do these (T50rp's) sound like out of the box? Worth playing with for cheap closed phones, or are the mods transforming?

They're not that great out of the box, but with a few simple mods I enjoyed them for how little they cost.

T20v2 (can't remember if it is closed or not?) is also good with some basic dampening, but the price has sort of risen on these since they're OOP.

So between the Shure and the 2000, what say you wise ones?

My CD3000 or T1 (on loan).

The Shure is a good "beater" headphone, you'll want to keep it as a backup.

I'll vote for the Shure.

Sure, Shure.

I have owned both the Shure and D2000. I have thought about buying another pair of the Shures. I cannot see myself buying the D2000 again. With that said, the coiled cord on the Shures drove me crazy.

My CD3000...

You should try these. I think you would like 'em. I did.

I agree with Shelly on the 2000. I gotta try the Shures.

Another vote for the Shures. I preferred it over the D2000 stock.

Yet another vote for the Shure, I bought Vicki's and use them at work. Not super, but fun, very cheap used, and indeed much better than the price indicates.

If you can find the CD3K's, though, I say go for that. They sounded REALLY nice out of Colin's Millet that I have. I know you wanted a mint pair, Dinny, but I did sell mine for $375 You could have had great sound on the cheap.....

Yet another vote for the Shure, I bought Vicki's and use them at work. Not super, but fun, very cheap used, and indeed much better than the price indicates.

If you can find the CD3K's, though, I say go for that. They sounded REALLY nice out of Colin's Millet that I have. I know you wanted a mint pair, Dinny, but I did sell mine for $375 You could have had great sound on the cheap.....

Can you still find pads, spare parts for that headphone?

3rd party CD3K pads show up on the 'Bay with fair regularity.

I bought some Sony pads for mine awhile back and now I have no idea where they are. Some French guy on HF -- leeperry? -- had a bunch of them.

Can you still find pads, spare parts for that headphone?

AudioCubes2

If you have a medium or small head, then forget about the W5000, they really do sound like crap if you don't get a proper fit/seal.

I dunno, man. I have a mediumish head I think (7 3/8 with full-on mop) and W5000s work fine for me.