Brainwavz Audio is back at it again with their never ending search for the ultimate earpads or rather the ultimate set of earpads, they’ve already made a great set of ear pads made of Protein Leather, Velour and Sheepskin which also comes in a variety of size options. Brainwavz has exceeded its own by offering another material option in the form of Micro Suede, it’s great to see that an established earpads company finds improvement from within its ranks so I was glad to have been chosen to realview their new line of XL Round earpads made of Micro Suede and Sheepskin which you can check and get yourself a pair after reading this realview at the Brainwavz Official site.
The Brainwavz Micro Suede and Sheepskin Round XL Earpads promises pure indulgence, providing the softest and most comfortable pads to date, designed to give extra relief for longer extended use or so they say at their site’s official marketing claims, let’s lay all this claims to rest once for and join me for the realview.
Packaging and Dimensions
All the earpads that I have realviewed from Brainwavz all used identical packaging materials and inserts except that this time, they came larger because you know, XL. The packaging is a minimalist translucent plastic ziplock pouch with a built-in hanger and the Brainwavz Earpads printed on them. No manuals are included whoever more information about the Brainwavz company and their vast earpad offerings are included in the form of a paper insert, their social platform links are also provided for future contact with their support group.Brainwavz Micro Suede and Sheepskin Round XL Earpads dimensions:
- Thickness : 30mm
- Height : 110mm
- Width : 110mm
- Inner Hole : 65mm x 65mm
- AKG: K553 / K533 MK2 / 550 MK1 / K551
- Monoprice: Retros / Monolith M1060
- Audio Technica: ATH-900x / ATH-A700
- Beyerdynamic: DT770 / DT990
- Massdrop: HE4xxs
- Samson: SR850
- Hifiman: HE-560
- JVC: HA-RX700
- Pioneer: SE-A1000
- Superlux: HD688B
Brainwavz Micro Suede Round XL Earpads ($29.50 now at $25.08)
Comfort and Build: The Brainwavz Micro Suede Round XL earpads which utilizes memory foam inside felt really soft to the hand and touch and resulted in a super comfortable experience specially compared to the ATH- AD900x’s stock earpads which was rather skinny looking now when placed beside the Brainwavz Micro Suede Round XL earpads. Using these pads on a fully air-conditioned room gives out the best results with usage rates ranging from 3-4 hours with minimal sweat build up. The build complements the ATH- AD900x’s and make it looks like it was really made for it with its toned down silhouette.
Sound Changes: The Micro Suede Round XL earpads are thick and the inner earcups hole leaves a great deal of space to separate your ears and the ATH- AD900x’s which tames the upper frequencies. The signature emphasized upper frequency and treble presence of the ATH- AD900x’s was now a tad less distinct which made for a softer sounding upper frequency. The resulting changes was prominent on the upper frequencies and had minimal lower frequency change with the sub bass becoming less engaging on most tracks.
Brainwavz Sheepskin Round XL Earpads ($44.50 now at $37.83)
Comfort and Build: The Sheepskin leather earpads is Brainwavz’s prime and alpha material and just from the initial try that I had with it with their previous earpads, the Sheepskin is always the one I am most looking forward to try on. It still utilizes the same memory foam used on their other earpads and has identical form factor with the other Round XL earpads. The cloth to cover the drivers are still the same as well. The texture and feel of the leather used on the Brainwavz sheepskin earpads is what sets it apart from the 2 other offerings, it is indeed way smoother to the skin and also doesn’t bother as much when the sweat starts to occur. The Sheepskin Round XL earpads was the one I personally chose to wear compared to the Micro Suede since it indeed gave an unbeatable comfort experience which only got bigger since its XL.
Sound Changes: The Sheepskin leather earpads which aside from being very comfortable also complemented the ATH- AD900x’s sound signature far better than the Micro Suede did, this is attributing to the more non porous surface of the Sheepskin earpads allowing for a minimal signature change which in fact controls the upper frequencies better than the stock earpads of the ATH- AD900x’s. The midrange and the lower frequency changes are almost non-existent despite the gap of the ATH- AD900x’s drivers and your ears being identical with the Micro Suede’s.
Conclusion
Brainwavz has once again managed to craft superbly comfortable earpads using polar opposite texture feels from the Micro Suede’s matte feel to the Sheepskin’s almost oil-soaked feel smoothness. Exhibiting identical dimensions and packaging, the overall skin to earpads experience preference and subtle sound changes from the Micro Suede’s taming highs and the Sheepskin’s mimicking of the stock signature are your main differences when checking out these new Round XL earpads with the Sheepskin counterpart still retaining my personal ultimate Brainwavz material of choice for earpads.
