Quote:
Originally Posted by blackgrass
What is the difference in the comfies and the flats?
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I bought my 225s used. They came with every type of pad, with the flats installed.
I've enjoyed them immensely with the flats on for a few months, but was having a case of upgraditus that I couldn't afford, so decided to spend a couple of days "pad rolling" instead of lusting after new gear. Here's my initial conclusions:
1st switched to the bowls:
Oh, so
this is why some people don't like Grados... Really bright highs, rolled off bass. I can see how this could be considered more detailed, but I couldn't listen for more than about a half hour. On the flip side, I found these to be the most comfortable of the bunch...for me they have that "not touching my ears at all" thing that Sennheisers have going on.
Then tried the vwap pads:
Aaah, that's more like it. Brought the highs down to the pleasant, airy level I was enjoying with the flats, but wait...what's that? The bass is...tighter! The bass on the flats was a little extended and flabby compared to these...these may actually be my favorite of the bunch! Hopefully
Vwap hasn't stopped selling them since
Todd started selling the Joe Grado flats.
Today, I'm on to the comfies:
Not as comfy as I remember them from my years with the SR-60, and I find the sound a little...underwhelming. It's like they tried to tame the highs of the bowls by putting, well, a piece of foam over the speaker. Could try cutting a hole in them, but I'll probably just switch back to the vwap pads.
Overall, I'm very surprised how much difference pads made to the sound. When comparing specs & features of different models of headphones I've often been disappointed to find there isn't much difference between them...but it turns out you don't have to change much on a headphone to get a noticable change in sound.
One of the joys of being a Grado guy is the best mod you can do costs only $30, while the Sennheiser guys gotta shell out $150-$200 for a new cable!
