I just received my HE-500 yesterday (thanks TTVJ!). I left the pleathers and the silver cable on and played some tunes through my LD I+ and Lyr. I've never heard a silver cable before. Well, tonite I swapped the cable with the Canare from my HE-400 and took the pleathers off and put on my set of pads from a spare set of Beyer DT-990...........wow did things ever get warm and clear and comfy. Massive improvement. Beyer velour pads are the best I've worn. These phones are phenomenal, I can hardly wait to burn them in a bit (they have about 10 hours on them now).
What's more impressive is how the LD I+ drives them (800mW @ 32 ohms). With Mullard EF92, the audio is just beautiful. The Lyr obviously is outstanding. I am waiting on some tube upgrades, but the stock GE do not sound bad at all.
I have a Bitfrost coming soon, so I think it's end game time for me. Lyr/Bitfrost, HE-500, Denon AH-D5000, Grado PS500, Q701...
I have all the options I need and I'm getting burned out of all the tryout, now time to enjoy for a long while.