Velour/Felt Pads for ATH-M50? - Page 3

Great. Today was one of the first hot days of the year. I'm thinking velour will be nice to have for summer. Its usually cool here so the pleather doesn't bother me too much, but they do get hot in ~80 degree weather.

if we take apart a spare m50 pad we can copy the pattern and make new pads. any seamstress, tailor or fashion designer can do this. once we have the dimensions we can make a pad out of anything we want. it might not be as accurately machine sewn as the originals, but it would open up a path for modding i.e. new materials for dampening, thicker padding, angled foam, non-circular pads (like square grado-types!) etc.

i have also taken apart the housing to take a look at the driver but didn't have a camera at the time so i didn't take pix. there are a couple small screws on the ear-facing side of the headphone that can be easily accessed after removing the pad. inside you will find the driver and wire placement. if i remember correctly it was a 3 wire solder and the cable was bent around a nook to ease strain on the cable. looked easy enough to re-cable imho.

i am currently selling my ath-m50s so i wont be able to continue with the exploration and possible hack, altho if there is enough interest and i haven't sold my cans yet, i might just keep them and join in on the fun. keep this thread alive for a great pair of under appreciated headphones!

Simple enough. I really didn't want to have to break out (borrow) the sewing kit though.

Honestly, I would rather buy a pad that fits rather than mod a pad from scratch. I can guess how that might turn out. Of course modding might be cheaper, most velour pads run about $30.

Pads are 10cm long 8.5cm wide 1.5cm deep if that helps. For a last resort I'm thinking just generic foam and grill cloth for starters (maybe velvet/velour eventually).

I'm thinking maybe we should just MAKE the dt770 pads fit. I emailed sennheiser a while back asking for the dimensions of the hd570 and hd590 pads hoping they will fit. Its been six days and no reply. If I do get emailed back and they wont fit, I think I'll just get some beyer pads and mod from there. If anyone has either of the senneheisers PLEASE let me know.

It shouldn't be too hard to mod. Someone that has them should try it. Just try something like the phatpad mod only on the outside. I think I will, it just might be a while before I buy some.

My thoughts are something like cotton or something to that effect wrapped around the cans with no pads on, then put the pads on over the material. It's worth a try.

maybe the new Shure headphones will have similar dimensions...

What does one do when the current pleather pads on the M50 wear out? audiotechnica don't even list replacement pads and no store sells them either. I'm starting to regret buying these M50s now because I have big ears and I don't find them comfortable enough for me.

OK, thanks. I was at audiotechnica NA site and it said they don't sell any accessories to NA market so thought they might not be easy to get here. I won't need replacement pads for a long time anyway because my M50s are new.

A ghetto mod using microfibre cloth might be a good way to remove the stickiness of pleather pads. I'll never buy headphones that use pleather gain, that is for sure.

eh... the pleather isn't bad unless it gets hot...or ppl start throwing stuff at you in order to get your attention.

I finally got a reply back from sennheiser about the hd570 pads. Unfortunately, the only useful info I got was that they are the exact same size as the hd590. Then the guy linked me to the parts store and said that they are made for the hd570 so there is no need to measure them. *duh* as if i would've emailed them for that.

So I replied explaining that I was hoping to get the measurements so I could see if they will fit any other headphones. That was tuesday I think. No reply yet, I may just have to send sennheiser a third request for help.

I wonder if they wouldn't like it if I told them I was looking for replacements for other HP's and I don't have the hd570's. *without mentioning they are AT's of course lol* I don't know why they would care really, they're selling something anyway.

Oh, and milkweg I would try calling AT or emailing them. Like opticelement said they don't sell the pads on the website, but they probably still have them.

Actually all things considered, the m50 do have good quality pleather at least, its nice, thick, and leather-like, unlike most cheap thin plastic stuff.

well, I think these rely on the pleather for bass. I dont know how much velour would mimic this effect, but I tryed foam peices for pads, and it was extremely bright, painfully harsh, and unlistenable.

If velour differs from foam in its isolation, I'll continue to look, but as it is now, the drivers have very little bass, and require pleather to bring it out.

I have very little experiance with velour, so I don't know how well they isolate. Ideas?

I also have the overheating problem with m50. My room can get hot enough even with AC on(I live in Miami) so wearing pleat pads is not comfortable. So getting velour pads for m50 is not a option FWIR, maybe i'll get myself a pair of open cans at home, or any more suggestions for the pads?