[Iron Lung]

I've finally decided to pop my 'headphone mod' cherry and had a quick question for my first venture into custom pads with my Denon D2000:
 
Lawton Angle Pads or Mr Speaker's Mad Dog Alpha pads ?
 
After reading as much as I could around I've narrowed it down to those two (Jmoney knocked out because of potential problems) and can't firmly make a decision yet, especially since I don't understand most of the charts that usually come with the information.
 
Any advice on what to look for, what to avoid, cause and effects of sizes/shapes/materials, build quality and/or reputations... well, literally any advice on headphone pads will be greatly appreciated, I would like to start modding on a 'good foot'.
 
If it helps:  I'm a basshead, love the sound signature of the Denon x000 series (have all three), love the comfort of the stock pads but wanted to change them since one of my pads on the D2000 is scratched.  Worst case scenario, I get new stock pads.
 
Cheers in advance.

 

[leogang]

Loved the Alpha pads on the MDs, but just decided to replace my MDs with D2000s. I'm interested in these two options as well.
 
On another note, would a pad mod such as either of these decrease the sound leak or is that primarily due to the cups?

 

[Iron Lung]

I ended up getting the Alpha Pads after that post, along with dampening the cups and recabling from Moon Audio.
 
From my experience, the Alpha Pads brought the vocals much more forward compared to the stock pads (not an 'improvement' to everyone's ears).  A touch tight as a fit with the rings on fitting, extremely comfortable on the ears once installed and help the seal around the ears very nicely (maybe that's individual though).  Can't comment on the difference against the Lawton Angle Pads yet as that's a mod I'm planning for later.
 
Drew at Moon Audio did the the cup dampening and recabling and I can say that the sound leak has diminished quite dramatically after the dampening.  To such a point where I actually wondered why they didn't come manufactured like that in the first place when they're closed back headphones!  Between pads and dampening, I'd say dampening first as it'll simply help anything you do after that, whereas pads are more preferential (like cabling) and can be changed later easily if needed.
 
Overall, these mods combined have made my D2000s sound very different from the original configuration, made me fall in love with them all over again and now they've retired my D5000s from the trio, leaving me switching primarily between the D2000 modded and D7000 for different moods.  Once my wallet allows, the D5000s are next up for experimenting (Lawton angle pads, dampening, recabling... Maybe a nice pair of cups and tuning from Lawton as well?) and then whatever I learn from there I'm applying to my cherished D7000s.
 
Hope all that helps.

 

[leogang]

It does, thank you. These D2k's are basically my only pair of headphones for the time being so I'm somewhat trepidatious about modding them. I'll certainly leave it to pros though.
 
It's almost as if headphone manufacturers are purposefully engineering cons into their headphones to balance out the pros