[Dubstep Girl]

me!!
 
i use pleathers more than velours on HE-500

 

[M-13]

You guys have inspired me to return to pleathers for a few days. I want to give them a fair shake (again), get used to the sound and see what happens when I go back to velour in a couple of days. I certainly prefer the aesthetics/comfort of the pleathers. They feel more cushy to me and matches the leather headband

.
 
Edit: Nevermind... can't stand them. I tried to be patient, but they just sound so congested. I guess everyone has different ears. Back to the velours!

 

[erikfreedom]

I use the pleathers from my he 6 on my he 500 and I use the he 6 cable too. I prefer the sound and they are bit more comfortable than the velours to me. he 500 is a sublime headphone.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

You guys have inspired me to return to pleathers for a few days. I want to give them a fair shake (again), get used to the sound and see what happens when I go back to velour in a couple of days. I certainly prefer the aesthetics/comfort of the pleathers. They feel more cushy to me and matches the leather headband

.
 
Edit: Nevermind... can't stand them. I tried to be patient, but they just sound so congested. I guess everyone has different ears. Back to the velours!

They ARE more congested-sounding; that's not why some people favour them over the velours (that'd be stupid), the reason is that the pleathers are viewed as having better tonal balance, and so the congestion is a trade-off they are willing to take.
 
I was among that school of people but I got annoyed by the congestion in the end and opted to mod em, which made the sound perfect for me.

 

[M-13]

Quote:

They ARE more congested-sounding; that's not why some people favour them over the velours (that'd be stupid), the reason is that the pleathers are viewed as having better tonal balance, and so the congestion is a trade-off they are willing to take.
 
I was among that school of people but I got annoyed by the congestion in the end and opted to mod em, which made the sound perfect for me.

Not sure about the better tonal balance. To my ears, pleather exacerbates the recessed upper-mids situation. I find the tonal balance with the velours to be closer to my idea of neutral. But either way HE-500s have better balance than most headphones out there.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Not sure about the better tonal balance. To my ears, pleather exacerbates the recessed upper-mids situation. I find the tonal balance with the velours to be closer to my idea of neutral. But either way HE-500s have better balance than most headphones out there.

What the pleather pads do relative to the velours (and this has been shown in measurements explicitly comparing the two pads; TMRaven and I argued about it in length here) is that it pushes down 3kHz-20kHz (so thats upper midrange and all of treble)  by about 3-4 dB relative to everything below 3kHz.
 
HE500 has a fairly forward upper midrange by default, and also treble that is smooth but still north of neutrality relative to the midrange (there is a clean but considerable hump at 10kHz), so the tonal balance imparted by the pleathers does it no harm and a lot of good.

 

[Contrails]

Jerg, I just finished modding my pleathers.  I did step 1, 2 and 4 according to your thread.  I didn't wanna mutilate my velours (step 3), but the modded pleathers do sound good, bass is more tight and has slightly more impact! No more cupped sound.  Soundstage is bigger than stock pleathers but seems a little flat compared to velours.  Will listen more and update it.
 
Thanks mate.  

 

[Case]

Quote:

Hey guys,
 
I am still using the stock cables for these and they are getting pretty annoying with the rubbing and twisting. any good cables anyone can recommend that can improve the sound quality as well? thanks
 

 
Quote:

Don't expect improved sound quality. I am forking out 250$ on a cable equal to the Toxic Silver Poison (xlr terminated with some different pigtail adapters, though), and I don't expect anything but a very slight change in sound if I'm lucky. 
 

 
+1
 
Practical reasons for a cable upgrade:

1. Get rid of the highly annoying rubbing sounds every time the naked stock cable brushes against your clothes or something else. The way the stock cable forces you to have to sit perfectly still is rather ridiculous.
2. Get greater connector options like balanced XLR or banana speaker plugs.

 
I got a nice affordable cable with adapters from Headphonelounge, they use MDPC-X sleeving which looks and feels very professional:
 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Jerg, I just finished modding my pleathers.  I did step 1, 2 and 4 according to your thread.  I didn't wanna mutilate my velours (step 3), but the modded pleathers do sound good, bass is more tight and has slightly more impact! No more cupped sound.  Soundstage is bigger than stock pleathers but seems a little flat compared to velours.  Will listen more and update it.
 
Thanks mate.  

The perceived soundstage of the pleathers even when aggressively modded, will never be like the velours, simply because of the difference in material acoustics.
 
What pleathers do offer is a much blacker background with music, that coupled with the removal of congestion by the modding means you get a differently-represented but IMO equally fantastic headstage. At least for me, it's significantly easier to get lost in the music with the modded pleathers than the velours, because the modded pleather representation of the headstage is much more personal and precise.
 
Yeah the core point of the mod is to remove that danged "cupped" feeling to the pleathers, and with the holes it gets 90% there, the velour top gets the 10% left. I would recommend that if you ever do the velour top mod, sew it instead of using tape if you can.

 

[davidsh]

Must say my dads old Linn Intek can deliver some serious bass kick. Doesn't go very deep, though, but it slams pretty hard.
 
Hope I get a speaker amp some time. But then I need speakers too

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

Must say my dads old Linn Intek can deliver some serious bass kick. Doesn't go very deep, though, but it slams pretty hard.
 
Hope I get a speaker amp some time. But then I need speakers too

Grab a pair of Peak Consult/Audiovector!
 
I think Dynaudio and Dali are Danish too. 

 

[davidsh]

Quote:

Grab a pair of Peak Consult/Audiovector!
 
I think Dynaudio and Dali are Danish too. 

Indeed they are.. You are thinking about better prices for me or something?

 

[M-13]

Quote:

What the pleather pads do relative to the velours (and this has been shown in measurements explicitly comparing the two pads; TMRaven and I argued about it in length here) is that it pushes down 3kHz-20kHz (so thats upper midrange and all of treble)  by about 3-4 dB relative to everything below 3kHz.
 
HE500 has a fairly forward upper midrange by default, and also treble that is smooth but still north of neutrality relative to the midrange (there is a clean but considerable hump at 10kHz), so the tonal balance imparted by the pleathers does it no harm and a lot of good.

I think this is where we disagree. To me the HE-500 is South of neutral (ever so slightly) and using the pleathers makes that worse (dark/congested and gets rid of the "air"). But yeah I agree with you that pleathers do a wideband repression of everything from 3K and up (roughly speaking). If people like that, then no worries, but just sharing what I think of this suck-out of the frequencies.
 
This may be completely wrong, but isn't your mod essentially breaking in the pads much more quickly? They do get a lot softer over time. Then again I haven't tried your mod yet, so I may just be speaking out of my ass.

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

Indeed they are.. You are thinking about better prices for me or something?

Yes, for us EU folk, the cheapest stuffs are the one we make ourselves. Linn/Naim/Rega/Audiolab are quite cheap in the UK compared to the rest of the world - especially the new stuff.
 
Dynaudio is one of my first audio crush actually (Dynaudio bookshelf driven by Plinius amp) - fond memories. I saw some Dynaudio speakers (with stands) really cheap (200ish) these past few months (mostly bookshelf and a few floorstander). Could be even cheaper in Denmark 

 

[davidsh]

Quote:

Yes, for us EU folk, the cheapest stuffs are the one we make ourselves. Linn/Naim/Rega/Audiolab are quite cheap in the UK compared to the rest of the world - especially the new stuff.
 
Dynaudio is one of my first audio crush actually (Dynaudio bookshelf driven by Plinius amp) - fond memories. I saw some Dynaudio speakers (with stands) really cheap (200ish) these past few months (mostly bookshelf and a few floorstander). Could be even cheaper in Denmark 

I don't know, they might be. Nothing is cheap here though... Last time I heard a Dynaudio I didn't like it that much. A bit too studio-ish, but they were definitely impressive.
I quite like Sytem Audio from those speakers I have heard. A nice, lively sound, well rounded without being analytical.
Also, the prices on the Hifimans are ridiculously high in Denmark and the UK. The 700$ that I got my HE-500 for is what I'd consider a very (!) good price around here...