[Gunz.jones]

Thanks for the advice. I have some of a lot of that stuff and sill be trying it out. Considered thin felt under the pad when I was asking, but wanted to know others' experiences.

 

[theangelboy]

Alright, I have a question for anyone that has the TH-X00 Dekoni pads. I found a Chinese-made pad that looks similar but I haven't been able to find dimensions of the Dekoni pads to compare. So if anyone could give me the measurements (preferably of the hybrid pad) I would be very grateful.

Here are the dimensions of the Chinese pad. Is the Dekoni close in size?
Diameter: 100mm
Thick Side Thickness: 30mm
Thin Side Thickness: 20mm
Ear Hole Opening: 60mm x 37mm

Thanks in advance!

 

[xledruidx]

The THX00 is literally just the TH600 with mahogany cups and different pads. You can turn your THX00 into a TH600 for cheaper than the TH600 costs. The sound signature differences are 90% pads. I mean Foster/Fostex makes them both with the exact same specs, on the same line. If you've convinced yourself that the TH600 is a technically superior headphone, you're going against: general opinion of those who've heard both, objective measurements, common sense.

could you link me to these comparisons? been googling for 1hour trying to see the difference

 

[Vonx]

If any of you are considering getting the Ori lambskin pads for the X00 or E-MU Teaks you should consider these pads from Aliexpress instead. I paid $17.24 for mine (they were running a sale) and my Ori pads cost me $67.98 after shipping (almost 4x the price!). I received the knockoff pads today and and they are pretty much identical to the Ori pads. I originally ordered them in hopes that they would be more similar to J-Money pads but they are Ori clones instead. In the first 3 images at the bottom of my post, the Ori pad is on the right, the Aliexpress knockoff is on the left. The last 2 images demonstrate the only appreciable difference that I could find between the pads; the filter material on the knockoff pads is slightly more dense but I highly doubt it will affect the sound much of anything. It's hard to see the difference in person unless you are holding them up to the light.

As for dimensions they are ever-so-slightly different, the largest difference being 1.4 mm, but that's well within the margin of error for handmade, squishy things. The Ori dimensions are listed first and the Aliexpress measurements are listed second with a "/" separating them. I did the measurements in mm for accuracy.

• Diameter: 102.3 mm / 100.6 mm
• Thick Side: 31.5 mm / 32.9 mm
• Thin Side: 23.9 mm / 23.3 mm
• Ear Hole Width: 47.2 mm / 46.9 mm
• Ear Hole Height: 69.9 mm / 70.1 mm

As far as I could tell, they sounded identical, although it was difficult to A/B them since I only have one set of mounting rings and by the time I got the one set of pads off and the other one on, any subtle nuances in the sound were lost to my ears. Having one knockoff pad and one Ori pad on the headphone at the same time wasn't very enlightening either.

I should also mention that even though the knockoff pad has a slightly smaller diameter it was actually easier to mount because it has less flap material on the back to get the way of the mounting ring teeth less than the Ori pads. You can see in the 2nd image where the Ori pad material bunched up around the 4 teeth when they were mounted on my Purpleheart. The foam used in both seem identical. But the last thing I noticed was that the grain of the leathers used between the two pads were slightly different although they are both definitely leather. The kockoff pads have a more glossy finish whereas the Ori pads are more matte. In person I actually think the knockoff pads look more premium and "leathery" thanks to the more traditional, leather sheen. The Ori pad could pass for high quality pleather until you touch it or smell it.

I feel slightly sick to think of how much extra I paid for these Ori pads so I think I'm going to sell them and try to recoup my losses as much as I can. I might have to list them on eBay since I blew my chances at selling them on Head-Fi thanks to this post... I'm probably going to list my Ori pads for sale this weekend or early next week so if you guys have any questions about the comparison of the two, ask them now. ...or if you want to buy a slightly-used set of Ori pads...? Don't blame a guy for trying!

Thanks for this! One of the easiest purchases I've made on headfi

I think it has been discussed somewhere on one of the thx00 threads/Reddit, but does someone know where you can purchase extra mounting rings for the thx00 pads? I don't have a 3d printer but would be willing to buy some from someone who does

PS i've been wanting to try different flavors of wood to switch up the sound as well. Does anyone have any emu or fostex cups (particularly ebony or teak) that they'd be willing to sell? I love my PH but would like to see how the ebonies change the profile, particularly in the treble

 

[SilverEars]

It's really surprising that different cups makes such a difference. Basically, Ebony wood cup has most balance? Any other components are identical among the X00s or R00s?

 

[Vonx]

FWIH, Ebony has subbass tilt, little bit faster and cleaner, slightly less pronounced highs.

PH has more midbass tilt, but still also has strong subbass, more cup reverb and warmth in lower mids, brightest highs

I'm probably going to go with some driver loading and pad roll for something with a tiny bit less highs on my PH, but I'm still interested in trying out some different cups if anyone has any

 

[koover]

FWIH, Ebony has subbass tilt, little bit faster and cleaner, slightly less pronounced highs.

PH has more midbass tilt, but still also has strong subbass, more cup reverb and warmth in lower mids, brightest highs

I'm probably going to go with some driver loading and pad roll for something with a tiny bit less highs on my PH, but I'm still interested in trying out some different cups if anyone has any

Try the ZMF Ori pads. They definitely smooth out the treble on my PH’s.

 

[theangelboy]

Try the ZMF Ori pads. They definitely smooth out the treble on my PH’s.

Interesting. I had the opposite experience on my PH. I felt the ori pads boosted the treble and sucked out the midrange.

 

[Vonx]

Interesting. I had the opposite experience on my PH. I felt the ori pads boosted the treble and sucked out the midrange.

I just tried out the Ori pad-like pads you found on aliexpress with cutout attenuators and I'm hearing huge differences in whether I keep the front part of the attenuators out, my observations are:

With front and back part of attenuators in: warmer and woolier bass than stock pads, maybe slightly less taughtness and rumble than stock pads, slower decay, lots of focus on the lower mids in male voice, lower textures of horns stick out, overall less highs than stock, less airy and smaller staging than stock, more focus on mids as a whole, especially lower parts. More hd650 like, I kind of like it as a change up.

With front attenuators out: way more upper mids, lots of focus and shoutyness on higher voices, snares make an extremely hard "thwack" sound, noticibably less bass than both stock pads and these pads with front attenuators, easier to focus on certain instruments but still less stage width and air/detail than stock pads. Feels like areas of the FR are "missing".

The perfect way to test this is on the end of Earth, wind, and fires "shining star" where you can hear in the horns and voices at the end the major emphasis change between lower and upper mids.

I think I still prefer sound of stock pads but Ori pads with full attenuators in is less fatiguing and does some nice warm things to lower mids. I will have to try cutting these attenuators to different sizes, right now they cover the edges of the open hole of the pad a bit

 

[SilverEars]

Try the ZMF Ori pads. They definitely smooth out the treble on my PH’s.

If it's anything like the Auteur pads, I'd advise against. There's a good reason why stock pads are the way it is. Any increase in pad room will be detrimental to the response, particularly the bass.

 

[koover]

Interesting. I had the opposite experience on my PH. I felt the ori pads boosted the treble and sucked out the midrange.

I absent mindedly forgot to mention I also did the driver dampening only on the PH. With the dampening and Ori pads,
I don’t hear any sucked out mids nor boosted treble.

 

[theangelboy]

I absent mindedly forgot to mention I also did the driver dampening only on the PH. With the dampening and Ori pads,
I don’t hear any sucked out mids nor boosted treble.

I had the Lawton driver-only mod when I tried the Ori pads, too. Everyone's ears are different, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Vonx]

Is there a place where you can buy pad attachment rings? I've seen the 3d print files but don't have a 3d printer

I'd like to be able to quickly swap pads without having to take them off the ring and stretch on a new one each time so I can a/b them more easily

 

[Fat 5miley]

Is there a place where you can buy pad attachment rings? I've seen the 3d print files but don't have a 3d printer

I'd like to be able to quickly swap pads without having to take them off the ring and stretch on a new one each time so I can a/b them more easily

Search for Fostex Attenuation Rings in Shapeways.com

 

[Traiguen]

Has anyone compared the Mahogany to the ZMF Atticus?
I'd love to hear your opinions.
Thank you