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Vishmaw
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Sep 17, 2018
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TLDR, These are a great 2nd pair of headphones, especially to compliment a neutral/bright dynamic. It is likely too dark to be a primary set unless you are really into that.
The Dekoni Blue are a quite dark, v shaped headphone. The bass is very strong and well extended, especially when compared to a stock T50rp that lacks a lot of extension. The t50RP is known for its wonderful mids and they are still on display here, just at a lower volume than the bass. For many this will be a positive as they might find T50RP mids too sharp in its stock form. This is a well done version of the V, vocal maintain their central presence but sounded quieter than usual.
I came away pretty impressed with its performance with female vocals, they sound really good. Its unusual to get a super bassy headphone that does female vocals well, so this was very impressive. They have a nice bit of sparkle to them without being painful to listen to.
There is a nice amount of energy in the lower treble that makes violins sound quite nice, something most dark headphones dont manage to do. These are not overly sibilant, they reveal sibilant but dont add to it. There can occasionally be an edge to the treble thanks to its still having energy in the 10k region but I personally think this is needed to keep them from sounding much too dark.
The Bass is really interesting on these, its bloated but manages to stay fairly well controlled with a good amplifier. It kind of sounds like its a cacoon that is wrapping itself around the other frequences is the best way I can described it. Its always the loudest most present sound, but it sounds like its farther away from you than the other frequences which keeps it from totally drowning them out. It goes very deep and gives this a very fun sound. It has a pretty quick decay thanks to the planar drivers. Thanks to its extention it has some good slam to it.
However I think the bass being so strong does shift the tonality towards being on the dark side, and I personally dont like this as a main headphone. I prefer more neutral to even slightly bright as a main headphone making them not suitable for a daily driver IMO.
The sound-staging is very interesting, the hybrid pads are shaped like the TR-X00 earpads rather than the stock 5TOrp pads and they sit on your ear rather than completely over it (at least it my case). This gives it a very unusual sound IMo, as it sounds kind of like a Semi-open on ear. It seems like you are a short hallway filled with bass, and then the ot her sounds are slightly closer to you but quieter. The pads are very soft and I found this headphone to be comfortable after the clamp loosened a bit.
Most reviews I have seen like the velour pads better than the hybrid pads but I have to totally disagree with that. The velour pads make the mid bass drop a bit (which is good IMo as its too much!) but it comes at the cost of both bass and treble extension. Subbass drops a lot, the midrange gets very warm, and the treble is dulled. YOu are left with a overly warmed midrange focused headphone that makes female vocals sound quite dulled and makes for a pretty mediocre experience IMO.
Unfortunately build quality is an issue with these as with the regular stock T50. I bought this from Fostex Japan directly (as I live in Japan) and out of the box my unit suffered from a notable channel imbalance, the right ear was much louder than the left. I sent it to Fostex for repair and after that it worked great. Also amusingly my earpads were also on the headphone backwards out the box.
Keep in mind also if you get the blues, you NEED an amp. A good amp able to put out a solid amount of current, This is true of any planars. Your results will likely be less than stellar if you just plug it into a USB powered amp or a phone. I did all of my listening with the Burson Fun amplifier, great match for these.