[idsyphe]

Alright, so I've tried some Brainwavz velour pads, have mixed feelings, they take my ear away from the driver, which is a plus, but my set at least has a very small opening, so they feel a bit claustrophobic. I compared to a set of pleather Brainwavz pads I've got, which were wider, so it may just be the 5+yr old set of pads are compressed and flattened a bit.

In terms of sound, they definitely changed, and I probably agree with the common critique of pad changes on Sennheisers, the bass increased, treble reduced, so if that's what you want, or if you are willing to put up with those changes then by all means.

Aesthetically, the Brainwavz pads still require a lot of stretching to fit the adapters and hence the cup, I'm not a fan, prefer the stock look of the pads, it just doesn't look right. I've used these pads on other headphones in the past (I had them on Panasonic htf600 in the past and they fit more seamlessly there, those headphones broke in multiple ways which is why I had the pads spare).

I ended up taking them back off, which ruined the adapters somewhat as they had a very tight fit. I think I actually prefer the extra room around my ears I get with the stock pads, even if it means I have to place the headphones on my head a certain way to avoid hitting the bump.

 

[dbss]

steady bass-tones stress drivers more than sweeping, midrange, and treble tones

No they don't.

 

[Brava210]

Hahahahahahaha

 

[mvule]

Hahahahahahaha

Hahahaha!

 

[goodyfresh]

Alright, so I've tried some Brainwavz velour pads, have mixed feelings, they take my ear away from the driver, which is a plus, but my set at least has a very small opening, so they feel a bit claustrophobic. I compared to a set of pleather Brainwavz pads I've got, which were wider, so it may just be the 5+yr old set of pads are compressed and flattened a bit.

In terms of sound, they definitely changed, and I probably agree with the common critique of pad changes on Sennheisers, the bass increased, treble reduced, so if that's what you want, or if you are willing to put up with those changes then by all means.

Aesthetically, the Brainwavz pads still require a lot of stretching to fit the adapters and hence the cup, I'm not a fan, prefer the stock look of the pads, it just doesn't look right. I've used these pads on other headphones in the past (I had them on Panasonic htf600 in the past and they fit more seamlessly there, those headphones broke in multiple ways which is why I had the pads spare).

I ended up taking them back off, which ruined the adapters somewhat as they had a very tight fit. I think I actually prefer the extra room around my ears I get with the stock pads, even if it means I have to place the headphones on my head a certain way to avoid hitting the bump.

Hmm, interesting, thanks for sharing your experience of pad-swapping with us. It's a shame that the Brainwavz pads, while fixing the issue of the ears touching the drivers, make the headphones darker and less neutral, which is something I definitely don't want with the HD560s. I wonder if there's ANY pads available that could fix the ears-touching-the-drivers issue while not changing the stock sound much. Maybe if Dekoni made some Elite Velour pads for the HD5__ series of headphones, they'd be able to pull it off? Although who knows, really... I've seen a lot of people say that the Elite Velour pads for the HD6__ series headphones do change the stock sound a lot, which seems to be supported by Dekoni's graphs (I really like how Dekoni provides graphs showing how swapping with their pads can effect the sound). But I feel like if ANY company could manage to make velour memory-foam pads a bit stiffer and deeper than the stock ones for the HD5__ series while not changing the stock sound much, it'd be Dekoni. From your post here, it certainly seems like Brainwavz, at least, has been ruled out as a viable option.

 

[volly]

Hmm, interesting, thanks for sharing your experience of pad-swapping with us. It's a shame that the Brainwavz pads, while fixing the issue of the ears touching the drivers, make the headphones darker and less neutral, which is something I definitely don't want with the HD560s. I wonder if there's ANY pads available that could fix the ears-touching-the-drivers issue while not changing the stock sound much. Maybe if Dekoni made some Elite Velour pads for the HD5__ series of headphones, they'd be able to pull it off? Although who knows, really... I've seen a lot of people say that the Elite Velour pads for the HD6__ series headphones do change the stock sound a lot, which seems to be supported by Dekoni's graphs (I really like how Dekoni provides graphs showing how swapping with their pads can effect the sound). But I feel like if ANY company could manage to make velour memory-foam pads a bit stiffer and deeper than the stock ones for the HD5__ series while not changing the stock sound much, it'd be Dekoni. From your post here, it certainly seems like Brainwavz, at least, has been ruled out as a viable option.

In all my experience with Sennheiser can's is that, pad rolling is a no-go! That's good and bad, as I have to get the lint brush out every 3 months! But they are comfortable, especially when worn in a little!

Goes to show that Sennheiser squeeze and tune every part of the headphone out thus leaving little more to be done after by the end user! I do wish there was a pleather option that didn't change the tuning but that problem won't happen!

 

[goodyfresh]

I do wish there was a pleather option that didn't change the tuning but that problem won't happen!

Very few open-back headphones have pleather or leather pads because those materials tend to form a tight seal, you know? It's pretty much inevitable that pleather or leather pads end up turning open-back headphones much darker and warmer, typically bloating up the bass and sucking out a lot of the mids (especially high-mids and sometimes some treble). It's just the nature of the sound-engineering properties of open-backed headphones as opposed to closed-back ones. Sennheiser open-backs are no exception to this. There's a very good, very simple reason why the vast majority of open-back headphones use velour, microfiber, or similar materials for their pads, while the vast majority of closed-back headphones use pleather or leather.

 

[idsyphe]

Maybe if Dekoni made some Elite Velour pads for the HD5__ series of headphones, they'd be able to pull it off?

Yeah I'd be interested in that too, I'm usually not that sensitive to pad swaps, and for the past 8years or so have been rocking Brainwavz or similar on my work headphones, usually though my work headphones have been budget flavour of the months (My Panasonic HTF600-S), so it was more important to fix the horrendous comfort issues rather than focus on slight changes in sound perception.

Ideally I'd love pads that retain the sound as much as possible, but are just a fraction more plush, similar to AKG's gel pads.

In all my experience with Sennheiser can's is that, pad rolling is a no-go! That's good and bad, as I have to get the lint brush out every 3 months! But they are comfortable, especially when worn in a little!

Goes to show that Sennheiser squeeze and tune every part of the headphone out thus leaving little more to be done after by the end user! I do wish there was a pleather option that didn't change the tuning but that problem won't happen!

Yeah it's very interesting that these are tuned so tightly in relation to the pads, I've got 2 sets of AKG's that are nowhere near as senstive to pad swaps (K371-BT and K7XX)

Very few open-back headphones have pleather or leather pads because those materials tend to form a tight seal, you know? It's pretty much inevitable that pleather or leather pads end up turning open-back headphones much darker and warmer, typically bloating up the bass and sucking out a lot of the mids (especially high-mids and sometimes some treble). It's just the nature of the sound-engineering properties of open-backed headphones as opposed to closed-back ones. Sennheiser open-backs are no exception to this. There's a very good, very simple reason why the vast majority of open-back headphones use velour, microfiber, or similar materials for their pads, while the vast majority of closed-back headphones use pleather or leather.

At least most good ones have velour pads, I've had a couple budget open backs (Samson SR850 and Somic MH463) which both had pleather pads, of course I switched the pads on both, SR850 pads (the earlier models) were super uncomfortable, and the Somic pads were nice and plush, but kept your ears tight against the drivers.

 

[volly]

Yeah I'd be interested in that too, I'm usually not that sensitive to pad swaps, and for the past 8years or so have been rocking Brainwavz or similar on my work headphones, usually though my work headphones have been budget flavour of the months (My Panasonic HTF600-S), so it was more important to fix the horrendous comfort issues rather than focus on slight changes in sound perception.

Ideally I'd love pads that retain the sound as much as possible, but are just a fraction more plush, similar to AKG's gel pads.



Yeah it's very interesting that these are tuned so tightly in relation to the pads, I've got 2 sets of AKG's that are nowhere near as senstive to pad swaps (K371-BT and K7XX)



At least most good ones have velour pads, I've had a couple budget open backs (Samson SR850 and Somic MH463) which both had pleather pads, of course I switched the pads on both, SR850 pads (the earlier models) were super uncomfortable, and the Somic pads were nice and plush, but kept your ears tight against the drivers.

From my experience....probably the only type of can's that can get away with good results with pad-rolling are planars! I have heard good things about Focal's lot of headphones regarding pad rolling but that's a different kettle of fish! What I find especially with the HD6xx range is depending on the pad, you'll lose that "air" that kinda defines Sennheiser, I tried Dekoni hybrid's a long while a go and at first thought there was an improvement but then later A/B'ed with the stock ones and found out I had wasted 50 bucks hahaha...I'll be having to buy some genuine pads from Mister Senn soon for my 600/650's but lucky a guitar shop sells them locally...phewwww!

On another interesting note...my Valhalla 2 has just opened up and the HD560s sounds simple GLORIOUS! Schiit you not....tube these suckers!

 

[Brava210]

Hahahaha!

Touché

 

[gubar]

Hi,

is anyone using these, finding them pretty harsh in places? I think it may be the treble peak I've read about in a few reviews.

The chorus on Ziggy Stardust ('... so where were the spiders...', Bowie's voice goes up in this section), or Joni Mitchel's California, sound pretty shrill and unpleasent to me. A lot of stuff sounds amazing on the headphones, but songs with this partifcular frequency, I find unpleasent.

Also - I'm a novice - but the ear holes inside the pads on these, are larger than my previous over ear headphones (HD429). On the 429, the pads always sat on top of my ears - rather than surrounding my ears and being in contact with my head. On these larger HD560s (or larger over ears in general I guess) - should my whole ear, sit inside the gap? So that the pad is in contact with my head, not my ear. Or should part of it sit over my ear, so it kinds of presses the back of my ear against my head? The reason I ask is, the treble sounds even higher when I have my whole ear enclosed inside.

Thanks,

g

 

[Evshrug]

The chorus on Ziggy Stardust ('... so where were the spiders...', Bowie's voice goes up in this section)

I’ll have to listen to this section, and get back to you! Generally they’re not smoothed over or laid back headphones, like the HD 599 or HD 650, but they don’t have a mountainous peak of treble either. Some songs are just recorded bright

but the ear holes inside the pads on these, are larger than my previous over ear headphones (HD429)

Yes, the HD 500 series pads have quite a larger opening! Not only is the opening larger than the HD 429, actually the opening has a circumference slightly bigger than the HD 600 series as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Some headphones are designed with a target response with the ears intended to be pinned down (it kind of reduces the sonic effect of the outer ear, and “pipes the sound directly into your ear canal”); that’s not the case with the HD 500 series

I compared to a set of pleather Brainwavz pads I've got, which were wider, so it may just be the 5+yr old set of pads are compressed and flattened a bit.

In terms of sound, they definitely changed, and I probably agree with the common critique of pad changes on Sennheisers, the bass increased, treble reduced, so if that's what you want, or if you are willing to put up with those changes then by all means.

Generally, if the only variable that is changed is greater pad depth (and thus more distance between the ear and transducer), you will experience a treble reduction (which on balance will make the lower frequencies seem more prominent). So many things in audio are trading one thing for another... though surely some people might like a slightly warmer sound without going as far as switching to the HD 599. I do like the stock balance as-is.

Dekoni recently introduced a new version of “standard” HD 600 pads, aiming to make a velour pad with the stock sound character. It just arrived in the mail for me, haven’t tried it yet but I’ll have to. They don’t have a “standard” HD 500 series velour pad (yet?), but they do have a Choice Leather, Earpadz Midnight (neé Platinum Protein leather), and Earpadz Jerzee (same fabric as gym jersey shirts and performance shorts). I got acclimated to the Jerzee pads on my workhorse PC37X, but I didn’t do any back to back comparisons to really nail down the impression of changes. I still generally favor the comfortable feel of Velour pads most of all, second place to Dekoni’s Choice suede.

 

[mvule]

Hi,

is anyone using these, finding them pretty harsh in places? I think it may be the treble peak I've read about in a few reviews.

The chorus on Ziggy Stardust ('... so where were the spiders...', Bowie's voice goes up in this section), or Joni Mitchel's California, sound pretty shrill and unpleasent to me. A lot of stuff sounds amazing on the headphones, but songs with this partifcular frequency, I find unpleasent.

Also - I'm a novice - but the ear holes inside the pads on these, are larger than my previous over ear headphones (HD429). On the 429, the pads always sat on top of my ears - rather than surrounding my ears and being in contact with my head. On these larger HD560s (or larger over ears in general I guess) - should my whole ear, sit inside the gap? So that the pad is in contact with my head, not my ear. Or should part of it sit over my ear, so it kinds of presses the back of my ear against my head? The reason I ask is, the treble sounds even higher when I have my whole ear enclosed inside.

Thanks,

g

Yes pretty harsh....if the recording is awful and or singer can't sing or source/amp isn't up to scratch!

That's quite a few boxes to tick...BUT if you can tick all of those boxes, you're in for a treat. No really, you are!

It might depend on what you're used to, ie warm headphones etc but these cans WILL reveal your gear!

That can be turned into a positive but some of my gear sounds quite unpleasant with these cans (Fostex HP-P1and Chord Mojo!)

Other gear sounds sublime.
I was using the mighty Violectric V281 (single ended) with Chord Qutest...my word!

Now changed things around (for my tv and Youtube) and using the Rega Brio with Schiit Magni 3 and loving that too..
A step down? Maybe, but it works!
Actually one of, no, the most musical amp I've heard.
Two best cans I've tried with this integrated amp? DT 880 (600 ohm) and HD 560S.
Third place? HD 800S...

 

[goodyfresh]

Yes pretty harsh....if the recording is awful and or singer can't sing or source/amp isn't up to scratch!

That's quite a few boxes to tick...BUT if you can tick all of those boxes, you're in for a treat. No really, you are!

It might depend on what you're used to, ie warm headphones etc but these cans WILL reveal your gear!

That can be turned into a positive but some of my gear sounds quite unpleasant with these cans (Fostex HP-P1and Chord Mojo!)

Other gear sounds sublime.
I was using the mighty Violectric V281 (single ended) with Chord Qutest...my word!

Now changed things around (for my tv and Youtube) and using the Rega Brio with Schiit Magni 3 and loving that too..
A step down? Maybe, but it works!
Actually one of, no, the most musical amp I've heard.
Two best cans I've tried with this integrated amp? DT 880 (600 ohm) and HD 560S.
Third place? HD 800S...

Why am I not surprised that the Chord Mojo's characteristics do not synergize well with these headphones? Ahahahaha

And yeah, these headphones are VERY revealing (moreso than anything I've heard under $350 to 400 or so) of any issues with the source-file/material. For example, if I decide to watch some music-videos on Youtube where the bit-rate is something like 128 or 192kbps, I generally switch these out for my X2HR's which have a smoother presentation, because with the HD560s I can really hear stuff like the compression-artifacts. While anything well-mastered with a high bit-rate sounds AWESOME on the HD560s, poorly-mastered or very-low-bit-rate recordings actually sound better on my $23 KZ ZSN Pro IEM's than on these $199.99 open-back headphones, heh.

 

[AudioNoob]

If anybody is not using theirs, I'm interested in giving it a try if you are willing to let it go on a teacher's budget . Anyhow, pm me if you do!