So...I finally got my customized Beyerdynamic from their fine Manufaktur website. It took over a month, apparantly they had some problems making enough leather pads.
My custom Beyer is a DT990 32 ohm, with blue rings and forks, and leather headband and pads (not in pictures).
The real leather is a huge difference from the stuff they usually uses. It's supersoft and classy. Really cool.
I must say that this is a mighty fun headphone! Especially directly from my iRiver H320 (HDD MP3-player). Loads of great, fast bass. I haven't got a regular DT990 to compare it with, but from memory, this one is substantially better from a portable source.
When amped with my Mapletree Ear++ tube amp, I don't think the difference is very noticable from the 250 ohm version.
However, this is only from memory, which isn't very trustworthy...
I like it, anyway...
EDIT 17th july:
Well, whaddya know. My leather pads arrived today!
Only sliiiightly delayed (couple of months).
They seems to be made by the same soft, smooth leather which is used for the headband.
Compared to the regular velour-pads, these are quite similar in construction, apart from a sharp edge around the plastic lip which goes over the edge of the housing. It's quite sharp, but not like you gonna cut yourself.
Compared to leather of the Audio-Technica W1000s pads, the Beyer leather is actually softer and smoother. No huge difference, but it's definitely noticable.
These pads are nothing like the ones on the DT770 M, those are more like plastic.
I haven't used them for more than a few hours in a stretch yet, but I don't think they get as warm as the W1000 pads. I guess it's because the Beyer pads doesn't touch the ears directly.
And now for the surprise:
The DT990-32 sounds VERY different with the leather pads on!
I thought "This isn't right?" when I put on the first track. The midbass was almost overpowering with acoustic guitars, and hardrock was muddy and boomy. With the black velour pads everything was back to greatness. Very weird.
I put the leather pads on my DT770 for comparing, and here there were almost no difference. With the DT770 pads on the DT990, things were muddy and boomy again.
So, even if the velour pads of the DT990/880 looks similar to the DT770s, they're very different.
Quite interesting, I must do more research.
Well, I guess you want some pics (updated with 5 pics including leather pads):
Hanging out with my old DT880:
Couldn't think of anything good, so this became my sorry excuse for something witty:
In it's full glory:
Leather pad in hand:
The rear of the leather pad looks quite similar to the velour ones:
Trying for a close up of the leather and sharp edge:
Full frontal leather:
Full leatherified glory:
My custom Beyer is a DT990 32 ohm, with blue rings and forks, and leather headband and pads (not in pictures).
The real leather is a huge difference from the stuff they usually uses. It's supersoft and classy. Really cool.
I must say that this is a mighty fun headphone! Especially directly from my iRiver H320 (HDD MP3-player). Loads of great, fast bass. I haven't got a regular DT990 to compare it with, but from memory, this one is substantially better from a portable source.
When amped with my Mapletree Ear++ tube amp, I don't think the difference is very noticable from the 250 ohm version.
However, this is only from memory, which isn't very trustworthy...
I like it, anyway...
EDIT 17th july:
Well, whaddya know. My leather pads arrived today!
Only sliiiightly delayed (couple of months).
They seems to be made by the same soft, smooth leather which is used for the headband.
Compared to the regular velour-pads, these are quite similar in construction, apart from a sharp edge around the plastic lip which goes over the edge of the housing. It's quite sharp, but not like you gonna cut yourself.
Compared to leather of the Audio-Technica W1000s pads, the Beyer leather is actually softer and smoother. No huge difference, but it's definitely noticable.
These pads are nothing like the ones on the DT770 M, those are more like plastic.
I haven't used them for more than a few hours in a stretch yet, but I don't think they get as warm as the W1000 pads. I guess it's because the Beyer pads doesn't touch the ears directly.
And now for the surprise:
The DT990-32 sounds VERY different with the leather pads on!
I thought "This isn't right?" when I put on the first track. The midbass was almost overpowering with acoustic guitars, and hardrock was muddy and boomy. With the black velour pads everything was back to greatness. Very weird.
I put the leather pads on my DT770 for comparing, and here there were almost no difference. With the DT770 pads on the DT990, things were muddy and boomy again.
So, even if the velour pads of the DT990/880 looks similar to the DT770s, they're very different.
Quite interesting, I must do more research.
Well, I guess you want some pics (updated with 5 pics including leather pads):
Hanging out with my old DT880:
Couldn't think of anything good, so this became my sorry excuse for something witty:
In it's full glory:
Leather pad in hand:
The rear of the leather pad looks quite similar to the velour ones:
Trying for a close up of the leather and sharp edge:
Full frontal leather:
Full leatherified glory:
![[AK]Zip](https://cdn.head-fi.org/avatars/m/20/20281.jpg?1273083491){kind=avatar}
