For me, the H pads turns it into a perfect headphone. It retains the fun bass with more clarity and better resolution. This is just for my ears but it’s the best headphone I ever had. I enjoy my atriums but think maybe getting the d8k pro LE would be a nice compliment to the OG d8k. Either way, the next headphone I add would be the verite closed. I need a closed back and it seems to be the best complement to the planars. Do you find the caldera to complement the d8k or competing with it more?
The way my D8K is set up now (w/the "G" pads), it's a very pleasing sound, but not really in the sonic neighborhood of the Caldera, which is way up there in resolution while also being very musical. IMO the D8K is handicapped by only having the choice of "F" pads (which don't sound good IMO) or "G" pads (which d
o sound good, but rob it of some clarity).
If/when I ever get the "H" pads on my D8K, I would like nothing more than to find it becomes equal to the Caldera in both resolution and musicality. That would be a very interesting pair of headphones to compare & contrast.
The thing about the D8K is that I liked its sound from the start. I believe this headphone has a lot of sonic upside. It's unfortunate that Final designed it to be so susceptible to large sonic changes just by changing earpads. The only difference between the "F" & "G" pads is the latter have a single alcantara suede surface (the front piece that touches the user's skin) vs "F" pads, yet the change in sound is quite extensive. I believe this happens because the venting/damping system within each earcup fully utilized the permeablilty of the earcups to air movement.
Because of that, the usual tactic of trying 3rd party pads on this headphone is kind of doomed from the start, since no 3rd party pads in the 110mm diameter of the D8K have thin, permeable fabric around the inside and outside of the earpad, like both the "F" and "G" pads. That means that pretty much any 3rd party pad is going to interact in unexpected ways with headphone's damping/venting system.
I just got the ZMF Bokeh in house for burn-in and review. One of the 4 pad sets included is the perforated Bokeh suedes, which were mentioned a couple days ago here by another D8K owner. I guess I could try those w/my D8K at some point, but honestly, it would be a miracle if they were the sonic "sweet spot" for this unique headphone. I'm holding out hope that the "H" pad
will be the sweet spot...