Great review and interesting comments. I have my HE 500 for about a month now and fortunately have not experienced any pain. My ear cushons appear to be a little thicker (per your photos) but that may be due to loaner wear. Because of the concerns of ear pad quality and curiosity I did order a set of the leather or pleather cushions for these. It was my take that it changed the sound a bit, reducing the bass and increasing treble just a tad. I noticed that the leather ones were thinner overall so thinking that was the source of the lighter bass I took some fiberloft , rolled it in to a 3/8 tube and stuffed it inder the leather pads on the inside. That made it nice and thick, but ultimately I still felt the bass was weaker. I assume this is because the leather pads are tighter around the ear, in effect more of a seal and perhaps dampening diaphram movement. I ended up putting the velour ones back on. Next up is a cable swap with the OCC Cu double helix in balanced mode. Not a big fan of the stock cable either. Love the sound though!