Dekoni Premium Ear Pads for Fostex

Dec 21, 2016

Wow everyone. I see your ingenuity has been sparked by our lack of inserting the plastic ring! I will say that we demoed a few versions with and without the ring and, while there is a difference, we didn't feel that it was great enough to warrant the extended cost the ring being sewn into the pad would incur and also didn't think that the ring just placed in the back of the pad would be good enough so we opted to leave it out all together. Boy did we read our fan base wrong on that! I want you all to know that Dekoni is here and listening and, as our stated goal is YOUR listening pleasure, we are going to look into having the rings manufactured and available either here on Massdrop or on our own site in the near future. Future iterations of the pad MAY have the rings inside. We have to do a cost analysis and manufacturing analysis to know if it's viable BUT the fact that everyone here seems to be OK with the DIY I think it might be a good idea if we just included them in the box for people to use in the pads or use as coasters for their drinks. I can't imagine it will increase the cost as much as it will increase your listening experience so I'll let you know what we find.
I want to thank you all for trying our products and for giving feedback. I'm sure a lot of manufacturers don't listen but we always have our ear to the ground to hear the beat of our customers. My priority is your satisfaction and if you ever have any ideas or suggestions you can always reach out via our website and I promise to return each and every message if warranted. I hope this message finds you well and I look forward to more comments and suggestions in the future! I want to make the pads you want, not the one I *think* you want.

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avip

Jan 31, 2017

Any news on where this is holding? I'd love to buy some production inserts for my Dekoni pads

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wrswldo

Jul 4, 2020

tdkocenI don't suppose you can give the thickness dimension for these pads can you? I'm trying to find a deeper pad for my headphones for comfort reasons. Thank you.

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Mar 20, 2017

So here we are in the middle of another run of the X00 Pad from us, Dekoni Audio. I wanted to personally reach out again and Show some frequency graphs of some comparing I did. I’ve been testing and tweaking as we design in our lab and we have some really great things coming. I wanted to show the sonic differences in between the options here as they appear in an objective (as close as we can get anyway) testing scenario. We have designed a special testing “head” mic that is designed to mimic the human head and auditory system as closely as we can. It’s not perfect but for the purpose of comparing it works fantastically. We run Pink noise though the headphones and use specially calibrated microphones on each side of the head mic to gather the data. For those of you that do not know what Pink noise is, it is every frequency from 20-20,000HZ (the human hearing range) played at the same time and at the same volume, or amplitude. What this allows us to do with specially designed software is measure each and every frequency and how the headphones play the sound. Headphones don’t play all frequencies at the same volume and this is due to a variety of factors I won’t get into here. The graphs below all show the X and Y axis. The X axis is the frequency range from 20hz-20,000HZ and the Y axis is amplitude, or volume. So the “higher” the graph along the frequency range, the “louder” that frequency was in the testing. Also note that for every 6db in Sound pressure level increase/or decrease, you are effectively doubling, or cutting in half-depending on which way it goes, the volume. for example, 85dB is twice as loud as 79dB and only half as loud as 91dB. SO now off to the graphs. FYI, All ear pads were tested with the test material at the same level so as to provide accurate comparison.

The first one here is all the iterations of the X00 pad. You’ll notice the biggest differences come in the lower frequencies (below 500hz). From the testing I did it seems that the attenuation ring does bring the low end up a decent amount though no increase is more than 3db (which is half the volume). There is also a boost, however slight, in the upper registers too which contributes to the clarity of the headphone. The pad that tested closest to stock is the Sheepskin with no ring but there is a fairly noticeable dip around the 500hz-1khz octave that may attribute to people saying they like the mid-range better on the Dekoni Pads. Those frequencies are the “nasal” frequencies and they can be harsh to some.

The Graph above Shows the Stock pad vs the Sheepskin Pad with the attenuation ring. In the sub-bass frequencies (where the headphone sounds nice as it is) you find a pretty good bump and that helps bring those sub frequencies out which, IMHO, really makes the headphone shine. There is also a bit of brightness and clarity that comes with the Sheepskin pad with the ring that you don’t get with the stock pad.

Next up above is the Sheepskin pad with the ring and without. It’s a very similar response as with the above measurement. The bass is given a small boost as are the higher frequencies. Again, it’s all very slight but noticeable to some people and not so much to others.

Down below 500hz, where most of the change in the sonic signature between the pads originates, is highlighted below. You can see that each pad is fairly consistent in it’s amplitude difference compared to the others which I found to be interesting. Again, the addition of the Attenuation ring seems to funnel the low frequencies somewhat and bring them to the fore.

The Final Graph in this series is one that highlights the differences between the ear pad configurations above 2khz. Around 2.5Khz we have a convergence where they all show roughly the same response and then the attenuation ring containing configuration become more dominant again. I’ll note the difference looks large but between the upper and lower lines the difference is only about 2db. It’s just enough I think to bring a little shine out of the headphones as others have said.
That is all for now. I see that people are interested in the TH900 pad and I can run the comparisons on those too. To my ears, the TH900 Sheepskin pad we sell opens the headphones up quite a lot. It’s definitely different- and when there’s a difference, some people will like it and some won’t. one thing I always keep in the back of my head is that ALL of this is subjective to what you’re listening to. Our tests are run with pink noise but no one in their right mind listens to pink noise so with other material that are heavier in certain ranges the different pads might have the headphones reacting in a different manner. It all depends. I just thought the community would like to see some evidence and then judge for themselves. If anyone has any further questions or comments feel free to hit me up in this forum or elsewhere on the interwebs. We can be found pretty easily these days.

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childreyesque

Apr 28, 2017

tdkocenDoes the Fostex TH900 use a attenuation ring. ThankYou

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The_Jniac

322

Jan 24, 2018

tdkocenNo hybrids? You failed us /s.

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Jun 27, 2017

There's a full review of the pads in this drop over at HeadFi. For full disclosure- I am Dekoni Audio BUT this gentleman came to us and wrote this review unsolicited and we did nothing except send him pads he requested.
https://www.head-fi.org/f/showcase/dekoni-audio-premium-earpadz-for-fostex.22489/reviews

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Babbage78

Jun 29, 2017

Honestly I don't think that there is any denying that your pads seem to completely throw off the dynamics of foster style headphones, but there is a HUGE improvement in comfort. I honestly think that the memory foam you guys use just dampens the sound signature in the bass region too much leading to imbalance in the sound signature. The attenuation rings also seem much flimsier and would probably more positively affect sound quality if they were stitched into the pads like the stock pads are.

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nicdub

Jul 3, 2017

Babbage78I found the pads to really change the sound signature as well, and to me at least, not for the better. The overall sound was less clear. And just generally softer. That was using the pleather with attenuation ring.

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UrVAITguy

484

Dec 26, 2016

After reading all the comments about these missing the plastic inserts that were sewn into the originalear pads, and how they're necessary for the sound quality, I decided to bite the bullet and try it out myself.
First I listened to some music with the Dekoni's on as is. During this time I gently pressed on both sides of the headphones to attempt to simulate the seal in place. I was able to hear a significant difference doing this.
Then I went for it and cut out the plastic inserts from the old ear pads and inserted them into the Dekonis. I placed it between the plastic attachment ring and the thin mesh on the ear pads. I then played music again and at intervals, gently pressed on the headphones to simulate a tighter seal.
I can say that I do hear a slight difference having the plastic inserts in place, though its slight, and part of me wonders if its psychological.
TL;DR. If you think you can, go for it and cut them out for use in the new ear pads. You may notice a difference. For those who do, please post your results on the change in sound quality.
Cheers and Happy Christmas!

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UrVAITguy

484

Jan 17, 2017

Aaaand apparently the web site says, "Failed to send your message, please contact the administrator by another method.. :(

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