[wje]

Quote:

For those with a deeper wallet (it's not expensive for what it is though) and/or 2 left hands: you might want to try the Mr Speakers Alpha Pads
 
I tried these with the Hifiman 4s and 5LEs with excellent result! The comfort is the best of any Hifiman pads I tried (this include the old velour pads) and the sound is shifted (slightly) toward darkness (the whole is not dark, of course) for the most natural result I heard.

 
This is good to know.  I'm on the fence about using the J$ pads at the moment for the HE-5LEs.  While it would only take about 10 minutes to get them up and running, I also don't want to contort the headband in such ways yet so they'll handle the slightly thicker J$ Beyerdynamic pads.

 

[Clemmaster]

Quote:

How well-damped are those pads?

 
I don't hear any bloom in any region of the spectrum so I suppose the damping is adequate. The scene is still spacious and seems a bit more focused in the center of the stage.
I noticed a great improvement on "side-sounds" details with the HE-4, that is, sounds that were previously (w/ velours) not so well defined on the sides of the sound-stage, now are easily discernible.
 
The major improvement is in the general voicing and comfort. The highs are somewhat tamed but the clarity and sense of air remains (w/ the 4s). The sound shifts from "live" to more "studio" (not radically, of course) for an overall more natural tone.
 
The vocals on the 5LEs sound just real!
 
The downside is twofold:
 
- The flaps are too big so they obstruct the 4 mounting tips of the ring. I manage to put only 2 of them in the cups. They hold still even when not on the head thanks to the very deep pads. Cutting out some of the flat will to the trick but I didn't want to do it now since I'm using these for my Mad Dogs too. The Dog Pads fit perfectly, but don't sound as good (off in the treble)
- The pads are very angled and might not hold so well on the head when rolled backward. They won't fall off the head but one shouldn't move to promptly. I think the LCDs has this kind of "issue" too. I have a small head so the clamping might be insufficient for these pads.
 
Also, they look a bit awkward laying on the table due (again) to the depth of the pads  

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
I don't hear any bloom in any region of the spectrum so I suppose the damping is adequate. The scene is still spacious and seems a bit more focused in the center of the stage.
I noticed a great improvement on "side-sounds" details with the HE-4, that is, sounds that were previously (w/ velours) not so well defined on the sides of the sound-stage, now are easily discernible.
 
The major improvement is in the general voicing and comfort. The highs are somewhat tamed but the clarity and sense of air remains (w/ the 4s). The sound shifts from "live" to more "studio" (not radically, of course) for an overall more natural tone.
 
The vocals on the 5LEs sound just real!
 
The downside is twofold:
 
- The flaps are too big so they obstruct the 4 mounting tips of the ring. I manage to put only 2 of them in the cups. They hold still even when not on the head thanks to the very deep pads. Cutting out some of the flat will to the trick but I didn't want to do it now since I'm using these for my Mad Dogs too. The Dog Pads fit perfectly, but don't sound as good (off in the treble)
- The pads are very angled and might not hold so well on the head when rolled backward. They won't fall off the head but one shouldn't move to promptly. I think the LCDs has this kind of "issue" too. I have a small head so the clamping might be insufficient for these pads.
 
Also, they look a bit awkward laying on the table due (again) to the depth of the pads  

Very interesting indeed; MattTCG actually tried the alpha pads on HE400 quite a while ago, and his impressions were that "The Alpha pads seem to be on par with the j$ pads in terms of the sound signature across the spectrum."
 
Which did not excite me much as I already own a pair of J$ Beyers, and felt their attenuation of the sound was not 100% to my liking (a bit too cold and lacking in lushness, and not sufficient smoothing of treble at least with HE400 and HE500).
 
Not to mention the lack of parallel (HE4/5LE/6 are NOT similar-sounding to HE400/500; the latter are much much warmer with thicker lower end, and with quite different upper end behaviour) here.

 

[Clemmaster]

Yep, the above applies to HE-4 and HE-5LE only.
 
I did not try it with the 500s (sold just before I decided to try) and never plan on buying the 400s again ^^.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

Just did parts 1 & 2, sounds amazing! Going to order the Velour pads soon so I can do parts 3 & 4, can't wait!

 

[jackiedh]

Has anyone actually tried these mods on the HE 6?
 
If so how does it sound?
 
Thanks
 
Jack

 

[itshot]

Quote:

Has anyone actually tried these mods on the HE 6?
 
If so how does it sound?
 
Thanks
 
Jack

They sound good.
 
Better than the stock pleathers, as it takes out some of the ringing/glariness in the midrange/vocals.
 
Overall, it sounded pretty neutral... tonally, its close enough to the 5LE's that I traded down to but with more refined bass.

 

[Armaegis]

While I haven't had the nerve to chop up my pleathers into jergpads, I found changing the grills for something more open backed reduced that upper end glare on the HE-6. I found this change more noticeable than switching between velour/pleather/J$.

 

[eddiek997]

Quote:

While I haven't had the nerve to chop up my pleathers into jergpads, I found changing the grills for something more open backed reduced that upper end glare on the HE-6. I found this change more noticeable than switching between velour/pleather/J$.

Ah c'mon... worst case if you f up you spend $20 (shipped) for new pleathers, $10 for the velours.

 

[Armaegis]

Yeah, but I don't even like the comfort of the stock pleather/velours.
 
Right now I have J$ Beyer pads, the retaining ring has nylon glued on as a dust cover, and I put a piece of felt on top with some twaron angel hair sandwiched in between. On the back, I put a more open backed grill with again some nylons as dust cover.

 

[wje]

Quote:

Ah c'mon... worst case if you f up you spend $20 (shipped) for new pleathers, $10 for the velours.

 
Where's this deal, including shipping?  I thought we had to pay $10 for the velour + shipping and $20 for the pleather + shipping.  The last time I ordered pads from HifiMAN, my shipping costs were $6.00 in the U.S.

 

[jerg]

Yeah...if you dislike the comfort levels of the stock Hifiman pads, then modding them won't help much. Fortunately I could tolerate the pleathers quite well (in fact I like that they are shallow - means minimal clamping force, as I have a fairly wide head), so I could reap the sonic benefits of the pad modifications.

 

[eddiek997]

Quote:

 
Where's this deal, including shipping?  I thought we had to pay $10 for the velour + shipping and $20 for the pleather + shipping.  The last time I ordered pads from HifiMAN, my shipping costs were $6.00 in the U.S.

https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HMHEPADS
 
I've yet to pay shipping when ordering from them.

 

[bcpk]

Doing some pad measurements today. Haven't processed the results yet. Did stock pleather, stock velour for 5 x 60 second Sine sweeps and will average them. Just got my J$ pads but didn't have any glue or material for the driver-covering nylon, so I still have to measure those. As well as Jergpad stages I, II, III and IV

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Doing some pad measurements today. Haven't processed the results yet. Did stock pleather, stock velour for 5 x 60 second Sine sweeps and will average them. Just got my J$ pads but didn't have any glue or material for the driver-covering nylon, so I still have to measure those. As well as Jergpad stages I, II, III and IV

Damn that looks sick!
 
Will you also be able to do CSD measurements?