Wow! I'm quite shocked there's no new posts since mine here. This headphone is a beast, did so few notice that?
I got my Forza Noir MK2 cable and this is such an improvement in ergonomics versus the stock one! Pretty much perfect headphone for me now. Versatile, EXTREMELY technical and still very pleasant sounding! From all the headphones that I heard (and I auditioned something like a dozen of flagships at the shop listening session when I was in the market for a new headphone) only SR-009s and Susvaras were (marginally) better.
BTW, I don't see any "official" replacement pads for these on Audio-Technica site, aren't these available? I'm so satistied with the sound that I don't even want to alter it with some custom pads though I liked one or another Dekoni ones on pretty much every headphone I tried them with.
How do these compare to your w3000s please.