[moriez]

as for sound there is nothing much different to the original pad. I believe it give more rumble to the low bass. stage get slightly bigger. the vocal goes back a little bit. but still with tons of detail present.

 
Interesting. For me, changes to the stock signature on this headphone is off limits. Someone said in some thread that he happily suffered discomfort in exchange for the best sonic experience. I disagreed for a while but now I understand exactly what he was talking about. This headphone serves me like no other has. At first I wasn't sure. Now, super impressed.
 
 

Everything sounds just right to my ears.

 
And to mine.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

It's a little difficult to enjoy music when you are in physical pain. 

 

[kupleh]

  It's a little difficult to enjoy music when you are in physical pain. 

 
Most of the time I only used PH6 for about 30mins to 1hour tops before rest or change headphone.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

  It's a little difficult to enjoy music when you are in physical pain. 

It's also difficult to enjoy music when you've heard it sounding better. At least my mind works like that so I'd just add as little much extra depth to the stock pads as possible so it won't cause discomfort but keep as close to stock pad signature as possible.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

 
It's also difficult to enjoy music when you've heard it sounding better. At least my mind works like that so I'd just add as little much extra depth to the stock pads as possible so it won't cause discomfort but keep as close to stock pad signature as possible.

 
That would be the economy DT770 pads, then. Same thin material and JUST enough pad to keep your ear surfaces from pressing up against the speaker grills.
 
Of course, there's also the psychosomatic effect. I mean if you think that a distance difference of a centimeter or so is making a wild change in the sound signature, you might wanna go back and check up on how sound works, LOL. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

 
Of course, there's also the psychosomatic effect. I mean if you think that a distance difference of a centimeter or so is making a wild change in the sound signature, you might wanna go back and check up on how sound works, LOL. 

LOL, a centimeter!? That's a lot, recently swapped to new pair of stock pads on my M-Audio Q40 and redid the extra layer of depth to the pads with help of papertowel and it sounded very much different the first couple of days before it had settled in. Much thinner sound/V-shape with recessed mids compared to before I swapped, it was a big difference and the distance difference we're talking about in this case was probably more of like 5 mm... 

This is a matter of:

1) How picky you are about your sound
2) How trained your ears are (there's multiple studies on how significant the ability of trained ears are)

I'm both 1) Extremely picky (perfectionist) about the sound (not as in I'm on the quest for the "ultimate audiophile sound" but rather how _I_ want it to sound like and 2) I'm mastering hardstyle tracks on a daily basis for a long time now for newcomer producers so my ears are pretty trained to hear small differences, I mean I deal with less than 0.5dB EQ adjustments on a daily basis. Before I started with that I always EQ'd my own headphones by ear to how I thought it sounded the best and also used a lot of various DSP effect plugins in the past to alter the sound in various ways and this will train your ears when you listen to the changes and interpret what happens.

Not trying to boast, I actually dislike being a perfectionist, life would be easier if I wasn't but that's not something I can easily change and the trained ears is something any1 can do if they want. Due to the varying levels of these two aspects between people, some people will say padswaps don't change sound while others will say it does.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

That's what we call a humblebrag. As for that centimeter, that'd be like saying the sound in your home theater becomes drastically different if you move your chair back a foot. Sorry. No. Not on giant over-ear cans. 
 
But moving along. I have a fairly discerning ear and actually spent an agonizing amount of time with three sets of pads on the Pandoras: the stock, the cheap DT770 pads, and the official DT770 pads. The difference being, in order, that the cheap pads added some distance and the official pads had a thicker foam layer. I pulled up my usual battery of tunes, picking out minute details and going back and forth, eyes closed in a dark room, aiming to see what I was losing. I was CONVINCED that having a slightly thicker foam layer was going to mask and veil the sound terribly, because there was no way the waves could transmit cleanly through it the way they would through the nigh-nonexistent spandex material.
 
The result: bupkis.
 
The acoustic properties of a driver are not affected by a small layer of material in front of them nor by a minuscule bit of distance on the part of the listener. Now obviously when you slap on the Alpha Dog pads you're creating a vastly different enclosure (which is what we're doing here, it's like a speaker box) as well as changing the angle, but that's a different matter altogether. Naturally, it'll be slightly louder when you're slightly closer, but that's all. Now, it's entirely within the realm of possibility that you just can't get over the mental hump of this and so your brain is just saying "No this HAS to be better" and there you go, but this is no different than the flim flam of giant cables and FLAC files.
 
So no, don't go around telling people they're sacrificing sound by putting on a more comfortable pad, because that's simply not the case. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

  That's what we call a humblebrag. As for that centimeter, that'd be like saying the sound in your home theater becomes drastically different if you move your chair back a foot. Sorry. No. Not on giant over-ear cans. 
 
So no, don't go around telling people they're sacrificing sound by putting on a more comfortable pad, because that's simply not the case. 

I agree with you with home theather, there I couldn't notice a difference but with headphones, I've always noticed a difference with A) different pads B) adding stuff underneath the pads to make it deeper. You can't even closely accurately compare speakers vs headphones in that sense.
 
I won't reply anymore but the last sentence I can't agree about simply because there's many many other people who are with me on this subject, who are you to tell them they are wrong? Let's just agree that we disagree on this matter, it belongs to the sound science forum section so let's drop it here.

 

[Lorspeaker]

anyone tried velor pads on this..hows the effect?

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  anyone tried velor pads on this..hows the effect?

 
I hated the velour pads from my old DT770's. It was like the seal got messed up thanks to the different material. I actually wish the DT770 gels were still available because I REALLY want to try a pair of those out. 

 

[Lorspeaker]

i did a half hour search...came up with nothing on those gel pads too
 
http://www.amazon.com/Bluecell-Replacement-Earpad-Beyerdynamic-Headphones/dp/B00GBPGH50/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1403589648&sr=1-1&keywords=Bluecell+beyerdynamic
 
this has got the cloth lining sewn onto the pads, a gud thing.

 

[moriez]

  It's a little difficult to enjoy music when you are in physical pain. 

 
Well, if there's one case of where no pain no gain applies it's with the Pandora.
 
 

That's what we call a humblebrag.

 
Unfair. I'm not seeing anything like that in what he said. Just laid out his experience.
 
 

Now, it's entirely within the realm of possibility that you just can't get over the mental hump of this and so your brain is just saying "No this HAS to be better"

 
Ya. Mental mountains and smokescreens. Lots of those to be aware of. Let alone overcome.
 
 

So no, don't go around telling people they're sacrificing sound by putting on a more comfortable pad, because that's simply not the case. 

 
I take it that's a general remark, not directed at RPG? Because he did not state or imply that. If what you mean is, Not per definition, I agree. It can turn out for better or worse given ones preferences.

 

[fzman]

   
That would be the economy DT770 pads, then. Same thin material and JUST enough pad to keep your ear surfaces from pressing up against the speaker grills.
 
Of course, there's also the psychosomatic effect. I mean if you think that a distance difference of a centimeter or so is making a wild change in the sound signature, you might wanna go back and check up on how sound works, LOL. 

 
I was one of the people who thought that the Brotrade pads messed up the sound of the sound of the VIs.  The reason why I thought that was because they changed the sound for the worse, Beside that, 'psychosomatic' is the wrong term for the concept you are referring to, I do know how sound works, and 1 cm is a big distance given the size of the BA driver inside the VI.  Even the dynamic driver is only 50 mm diameter, so 1 cm is 20% of that -- must be 'psycho-something'  

 

[SomeGuyDude]

   
I was one of the people who thought that the Brotrade pads messed up the sound of the sound of the VIs.  The reason why I thought that was because they changed the sound for the worse, Beside that, 'psychosomatic' is the wrong term for the concept you are referring to, I do know how sound works, and 1 cm is a big distance given the size of the BA driver inside the VI.  Even the dynamic driver is only 50 mm diameter, so 1 cm is 20% of that -- must be 'psycho-something'  

 
I was using it as a literary device (meaning your ears were hearing something as a result from your psychological state) and your explanation of relationship between diaphragm size and distance is completely off-base, because if you step two feet away from an 8" loudspeaker the audio doesn't change, yet that's 300% the diaphragm size. Hell if you have a good room setup you can walk TEN feet around the room without the sound changing to any significant extent. Hint: the relationship between a pair of 8" speakers and ten feet is much larger than 1cm vs 5cm. Just FYI.
 
If you DID know how sound works you'd now that the distance is not relevant at this scale, but what IS relevant is the size and seal of the enclosure. The way that you can change the sound isn't by putting your ear closer to the driver, per se, it's by making a significant change to the chamber. The word significant matters. The manufacturers of these things weren't so dense as to make them "require" an exact enclosure size because there are so many factors at play. Example, a bigger head means stronger clamp means more compression on the pads means smaller airspace. Bigger ears means bigger displacements means smaller airspace. List goes on.
 
In fact, if you have a bigger head and bigger ears, you could argue taht wearing stiffer pads would actually correct the system to how it was INTENDED to be. These things were NOT meant to have your ears pressed directly into the grills. So those pads which keep your ears off the plastic are putting things where they should be and bam, all is well. But that's a comfort thing. Also obviously it'll be louder, but that's not an issue. 

 

[ericp10]

I've been switching pads back and forth. I still think you hear more details with the stock (thinner pads), but you don't lose that much with the replacement pads (in details that is). Now, I also think that the stock pads having that cloth material (instead of the leather with replacements) under the pad aids in helping the the BA kick out better highs. In the end, unless I'm wearing it half on my ears, the stock pads hurt too much after a short period of time listening. Some other ears may fair better, but I went back to the replacement pads. Plus, I've learned how to wear the replacement pads to get the optimum sound out of the headphone.