Dekoni AudioBlue – Fostex/Dekoni Audiophile HiFi Planar Magnetic Headphone

The Dekoni Blues are absolutely magnificent out the box. The build feels durable and the ear muffs are breathable with a nice texture. Definitely needs an amplifier to get the most out of these cans. It has a warm sound profile with punchy bass, clear highs and mids. Everyone's ears are different, so try it for yourself!

Mods I used:1. Cutting tiny slits of duct tape to block off "bass escape" vents behind pads and foam. There are 4 pairs.2. Bought a suspension headstrap from Ryan from Modhouse .com. Two Philips screws replaced and you then get extremely comfortable headphones to somehow become even more comfortable.I only recommend buying these if you have a decent headphone amp.The bass was definitely lacking before the first mod. After they sound amazing. People say there is some burn in required so I'm doing that as we speak. But they still sound great. Worth the money, but you can acheive somewhat similar sound with m40x headphones and pads from ZMF or the amazon ones you can instantly find if you search (can't remember the brand name). And those shouldnt require an amp.

I bought these a few months ago because I was interested in checking out the Fostex T50RPmkIII and reviews of the Fostex mentioned that for best results, you had to get different pads. Well, the T50 + new pads puts the combo right into price range of the Dekoni Blues - which are a Fostex sanctioned T50 mod and come with 2 sets of high quality pads. The Blues are a good set of cans. I think Dekoni missed the mark slightly on pad selection, though. The two included pads give very different sound signatures - the pre-installed hybrid pads are very bassy and warm with wide sound stage and the velour pads a little more detailed and comparatively less bassy (although still bassy-er than your average headphone) with a slightly narrower soundstage. I have one complaint that those pads make the treble sound a bit compressed, like how the highs on a low bitrate mp3 file sound. However, all is not lost. The Dekoni Protein pads for the T50 are reasonably priced. Putting those on kept the bassy-ness and warmth of the hybrid pads, the detail of the velour pads, and removed the harshness in the treble. These are now some of my favorite headphones and well worth the ~$220 for the entire package.I should also echo those on here (and other places) that say these headphones are power hungry. They are. The best amp I've found for them at a reasonable price range is the Schiit Magni 3. The Magni is not the best $99 headphone amp out there right now (see the JDS Labs Atom for that), but it does have the output power that really makes the Blues sing. The Magni outputs ~2W at 32 ohms. The Atom is ~1W at 32 ohms. Somewhere between 1 and 2 watts the Blues go from sounding good to sounding outstanding.The low end on T50 mods needs lots of power to sound its best. When underpowered, their bass will sound boomy and sloppy. Give them power and that bass tightens up and you get a bassy, fun, detailed sound.TL;DR: If you put the right pads on these (Dekoni Protein) and give them LOTS of amplifier power, they are a fun, bassy, detailed headphone that carves out a unique sound signature in the ~$180-230 range.

If you're looking into getting T50RPs, these should be the ones you get. Why? Because the two sets of earpads included have a retail price from Dekoni of $80 + $50. Dekoni is an earpad maker, so that's the reason this version of the product exists. So if you can get them for around the same price as regular T50RPs or a bit more, it's a no-brainer. A change of earpads is the easiest way to greatly improve comfort and alter the sound at the same time.As for the sound out of the box, I already liked these a great deal, but you buy these to mod them, and I did. Fixed the muddy bass and toned down a mid-high peak.Also took them all the way apart to paint them (use vinyl dye!).

Iwill say they are comfy have a good bass, and kinda muffled mid and the highs arnt piercingthe issues are that they rattle when moved, when your shoulder rubs the cable the speaker crackles and sometimes theright stops,you can uncertthe cable upside down tape the cable to the wire above, but then the cable comes out the top,i tried to get support but havent been able to, so make sure you message them the first hint of anything happening

These are super comfy and have a super laid back sound with thick rich bass while still not muddying the mids. The treble is good but not sparkly or airy like some of its competitors. However it is also never sibilant which makes these super easy and enjoyable to listen to for long sessions. The one downside is that like all t50rp variants they are extremely power hungry. My little dot mk2 tube amp will not drive them to what I consider sufficient levelsI need to try them with my magni 2 uber but I have been running them off an emotiva basx a-100 with the jumpers installed so its feeding full speaker output thru the headphone jack. This much power really makes them sing but it kinda scary. I will try the magni 2 uber and post an update.

I did a fair amount of A/B testing using other semi-open headphones (AKG 702, DT-880 ); I had high hopes for the T50RP and really bought into the modding potential, unfortunately to get these headphones to perform at acceptable levels I would have needed to pour in an additional 200$-400$ in additional components; not what I had in mind. As-is the headphone's are poorly tuned; mid range sounded muddled, it did not do very well in the high treble either. I am sure they can be tuned with modding to perform very well... I ended up going for the Beyerdynamic DT-880 PRO; I am happy to have given the T50RP a try; they were comfortable, looked sharp but ultimately they did not suit my audio needs.