OK, since I'm on a roll here I'll post some more pictures and comments to them as well:
Grado 325is:
I've always loved the sound of my Grado's but comfort has been an issue for me ever since I've got them.
There's not easy finding pads fitting as a direct replacement to Grado's so this takes some effort but it's not difficult.
What you need is a pair of comfy pads, some plastic rings (I've used some leftover Hifiman ones adsjusted to the right size), superglue and of course a pair of HM5 pads.
What you do next is superglue the plastic rings to the comfy pads, They now act as an adapter for the HM5 pads that fits nicely on the plastic rings and can be easily reoved from them as well.
To me this sounds great. A better soundstage than the stock pads and also better bass impact. They're pretty power hungry in this configuration though. The biggest upgrade is the comfort, I can easily wear these for several hours now without any discomfort whatsoever,
Fostex T50RP:
For those familiar with modding the T50RP's I've used Bluemonkeyflyer's tutortial to mod my pair to his DBV#3 configuration.
In this configuration the Shure 840 pads are used and I've used them this way for more than a year and been very happy with the result. A while back I got my first pair of the HM5 velour pads and after some figthing I manged to fit them on without breaking them and man was I rewarded. It felt like as if a veil had been lifted from them. It was like turning them from a closed set of cans to an open pair. These are my best sounding headpones today.
Brainwavz HM5:
This was one of my first pairs of good quality headphones and they're still going strong. Switching out the original pads for the new ones with memory foam gives a bit bigger soundstage and also increases the comfort. SInce the stock pads on these also are very nice these didn't show the biggest change but still an upgrade to me.
Ultrasone DJ1:
I picked up my DJ1's used for dirt cheap and honestly wasn't impressed with their sound so they ended up in a drawer. One day I was determined to make them sound their best and tried a lot of different pads without being to impressed. Then I tried the HM5 velours on them and once again was rewarded with a great sounding pair of headphones. These are now in daily use on my stationary PC at home.
Takstar Pro80:
I've used the Pro80's with the reguar HM5 pads ever since I got them a couple of years ago. They were my best sounding closed headphones until early this year when I recieved the Don Scorpio Doplhins. Unfortunately one of the cups on the Pro80's broke sometime during this summer and they've been hanging out in a drawer ever since. This weekend I decided to try to put them back together again and I actually managed to do so. Since I had already moved the original HM5 pads to another project of mine I ended up trying the HM5 velours on them and I'm glad that I did since they're now once again back at the top of the podium among my closed back cans.
Looks pretty nice as well.
With the new variaty of colors we can now even color match our gear
I think it's safe to say that I love these pads. They're very comfortable and also delivers great sonic pleasure. Highly recommended!
