[conquerator2]

  I finally got my custom ESP950 pads from http://vesperaudio.com (info@vesperaudio.com). Price was about $50 for the pair. Pretty darned reasonable. 
 
It took two tries to get the pads right, but I think they are pretty good. I would still like the pad cavity (the ear-hole) to be a few mm wider, but the pads fit the cans well, are very comfortable, and add a little lower level energy to the sound. Leather outers and alcantra pad hybrid. vesper audio can make them all leather if preferred. 
 
They are in Russia (I think), so transit time is a week or two to the USA. I paid with PayPal, but they prefer western union or unistream. Throw a few extra bucks in there if you pay PalPay. They are legit.
 
The pads are a bit of a pain to get on, but patience and perseverance will overcome. Since VA already has the measurements, it's easier for them to make pads for the ESP950. Again, I would ask them to make the cavity 2mm larger, but even if they used the template from my pads, they are very good pads.
 
 

This is pretty awesome. I am intrigued!

 

[conquerator2]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to start a new thread on this website.

Thanks

 

[Allanmarcus]

 Get a pair! Bet you've made a worse $50 decision.
I finally got my custom ESP950 pads from http://vesperaudio.com (info@vesperaudio.com). Price was about $50 for the pair. Pretty darned reasonable. 

It took two tries to get the pads right, but I think they are pretty good. I would still like the pad cavity (the ear-hole) to be a few mm wider, but the pads fit the cans well, are very comfortable, and add a little lower level energy to the sound. Leather outers and alcantra pad hybrid. vesper audio can make them all leather if preferred. 

They are in Russia (I think), so transit time is a week or two to the USA. I paid with PayPal, but they prefer western union or unistream. Throw a few extra bucks in there if you pay PalPay. They are legit.

The pads are a bit of a pain to get on, but patience and perseverance will overcome. Since VA already has the measurements, it's easier for them to make pads for the ESP950. Again, I would ask them to make the cavity 2mm larger, but even if they used the template from my pads, they are very good pads.

 

This is pretty awesome. I am intrigued!

 

[obobskivich]

I finally got my custom ESP950 pads from http://vesperaudio.com (info@vesperaudio.com). Price was about $50 for the pair. Pretty darned reasonable. 

It took two tries to get the pads right, but I think they are pretty good. I would still like the pad cavity (the ear-hole) to be a few mm wider, but the pads fit the cans well, are very comfortable, and add a little lower level energy to the sound. Leather outers and alcantra pad hybrid. vesper audio can make them all leather if preferred. 

They are in Russia (I think), so transit time is a week or two to the USA. I paid with PayPal, but they prefer western union or unistream. Throw a few extra bucks in there if you pay PalPay. They are legit.

The pads are a bit of a pain to get on, but patience and perseverance will overcome. Since VA already has the measurements, it's easier for them to make pads for the ESP950. Again, I would ask them to make the cavity 2mm larger, but even if they used the template from my pads, they are very good pads.

Any impact on the sound?

Guess it depends on the headphones. My head is about normal size, but I've never really had to adjust the headband. I usually prefer it slightly tight anyway so that it doesn't slip around as much.

Hrm. I mean, the 950s fit pretty loose in general, so there's always going to be some "sliding" - nothing will ever beat the experience having a >400g Kenwood KH-K1000 flip backwards off your head late in the evening and that CJC come up and get you right in the throat though....:rolleyes:

FWIW I can recall that ZReviews said this in his SRS-2170 video, except he claimed it was the headphones that needed to charge up (probably bs). As far as my experience went, the ESP-950's seemed to change drastically when I came back a few hours later (mostly the low end). The bass started off similar in power to the K701, but now its definitely going way beyond that. I do believe even I can be a victim of placebo, but this was quite a lot of change.

What is "ZReviews"? And there is no permanent charge here - that's why they're electrostatics. They need the amplifier to provide that biasing.

"Ear burn in" is a very real thing, and depending on your mood, focus level, how you're feeling, etc can have an impact on how you hear things. I'm not trying to dismiss anything you've said, there's just *lots* of variables that may be at play is all, and its probably hard to narrow down the exact cocktail of whats happening.

You're pretty much 110% right, especially about the 3D imaging. The layering was what really stood out to me when coming from the K701. But even with the K701's massive soundstage, I've found that the ESP-950 can present even that more accurately so far. You don't know how long I've been searching for that "live" experience!  

Try some of the Ultrasone binaural demos, or other quality binaural demos.

Can you elaborate more on what you mean about "grainy sounding" (if there's any audiophile word I'd throw off a cliff without a parachute, its "grainy," because it means a dozen different things to every individual).

 

[doctorjazz]

I'm also curious, does the pad change improve the sound in any way?

 

[Allanmarcus]

 

 and add a little lower level energy to the sound. 

Any impact on the sound?

 
I think bass is deeper a little more pronounced. Does it turn the 950 into a TH900? no. But "real" pads on the 950 is much more comfortable to me.

 

[doctorjazz]

Does it want to be a TH900?

 

[obobskivich]

I think bass is deeper a little more pronounced. Does it turn the 950 into a TH900? no. But "real" pads on the 950 is much more comfortable to me.

So it sounds like maybe they're improving seal due to being leather vs whatever pleated texture Koss uses. This is just a guess. I would ask you to try some comparisons but I know exactly what kind of pain it is to change pads on these...h34r:

Does it want to be a TH900?

IMHO they're very different headphones. Not least of all because of the whole electrostatic vs dynamic discussion.

 

[Pana Sonic]

What is "ZReviews"? And there is no permanent charge here - that's why they're electrostatics. They need the amplifier to provide that biasing.

Some guy that reviews lots of headphones on Youtube. He does seem to talk out of his butt sometimes ("OHHH THIS HAS THE BEST BASS EVER!"), but its not like he has limited experience either.
 
Quote:

 "Ear burn in" is a very real thing, and depending on your mood, focus level, how you're feeling, etc can have an impact on how you hear things. I'm not trying to dismiss anything you've said, there's just *lots* of variables that may be at play is all, and its probably hard to narrow down the exact cocktail of whats happening.

I kinda worried about this too. My volume level may have had an effect on this as well. Oh well. Either way, they sound better now!

 

 Can you elaborate more on what you mean about "grainy sounding" (if there's any audiophile word I'd throw off a cliff without a parachute, its "grainy," because it means a dozen different things to every individual).

Hmm...not sure how to describe it. It basically sounds like every frequency sometimes has a "hiss" to it. The AD700 was notorious for this problem, and its explained by the small jagged pattern in the 300Hz square wave measurement:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudioTechnicaATHAD700.pdf
 
In a way, its similar to that sound you get when you have a bad connection or a cable thats about to break. But again, it may be my source material.

 

[obobskivich]

For some reason whenever I quote your posts, it cuts off the top part. I've added it in to reply, but it looks ugly.

Some guy that reviews lots of headphones on Youtube. He does seem to talk out of his butt sometimes ("OHHH THIS HAS THE BEST BASS EVER!"), but its not like he has limited experience either.

Interesting. I'm not trying to judge one way or another I'd just never heard of this source before. I'd be willing to dismiss that comment though, since (as I said) I've never heard that before, and I don't see a (logical) reason to support it.

I kinda worried about this too. My volume level may have had an effect on this as well. Oh well. Either way, they sound better now!

Yay!

Hmm...not sure how to describe it. It basically sounds like every frequency sometimes has a "hiss" to it. The AD700 was notorious for this problem, and its explained by the small jagged pattern in the 300Hz square wave measurement:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudioTechnicaATHAD700.pdf

To quote Barack Obama: hold up, hold up! Before we start jumping into "we can immediately correlate XYZ measurement in an absolute and concrete way to something we're vaguely describing" lets take a step or ten back. (Especially if you're going to talk square wave measurements - random tech blurb: square wave measurements are another way to represent frequency response data, and can be loosely correlated to such (Tyll put up a table on InnerFidelity showing this))

When you say "every frequency" do you legitimately mean everything? Bass? Mids? Highs? Or is there a more concrete way to describe it? Can you highlight some specific musical passage that exacerbates it?

What I'm guessing, from the outset, is that you're hearing sibilance or some other garbage on the recording (and/or encoding) that the 950s are bringing to bear, that other headphones gloss over (there's few dynamic cans that I've ever heard that match the 950s for their detail retrieval - the TH900 are not one of them if anyone was curious ). It's also potentially possible that your source is contributing here, but that's less likely (it is, however, an FAQ answer from the Koss manual :devil_face.

 

[Pana Sonic]

I've been having issues with quotes as well. I end up doing them manually.
 

 Interesting. I'm not trying to judge one way or another I'd just never heard of this source before. I'd be willing to dismiss that comment though, since (as I said) I've never heard that before, and I don't see a (logical) reason to support it.

Supposedly it is due to the high voltage capacitors. I'm not sure about electrostatic amps, but this happens with CRT monitors. Under frequent use, they display a picture fairly quickly upon powering them on. But if you turn one on after 10 years of collecting dust, then you'll notice that they take longer to display a picture. I also remember the degauss becoming quieter as you use the monitor more frequently.
 
 

When you say "every frequency" do you legitimately mean everything? Bass? Mids? Highs? Or is there a more concrete way to describe it? Can you highlight some specific musical passage that exacerbates it?

What I'm guessing, from the outset, is that you're hearing sibilance or some other garbage on the recording (and/or encoding) that the 950s are bringing to bear, that other headphones gloss over (there's few dynamic cans that I've ever heard that match the 950s for their detail retrieval - the TH900 are not one of them if anyone was curious

). It's also potentially possible that your source is contributing here, but that's less likely (it is, however, an FAQ answer from the Koss manual

).

While I want to say "everything" in a song feels grainy, it seems to be more focused in the mids. Maybe it is sibilance in a lower frequency (under 4 kHz). It certainly isn't painful.
 
Even before you said it, I've been worried that the grain is actually due to the source material. It may certainly be a great feature of the ESP-950, but you may have answered my question indirectly: If you didn't notice grain beforehand, then it probably isn't due to the ESP-950. Nevertheless, I still need to listen to some high quality recordings to diagnose it further.

 

[obobskivich]

I've been having issues with quotes as well. I end up doing them manually.

We complained, and Zeus heard it, and now this quote worked perfectly. :rolleyes:

Supposedly it is due to the high voltage capacitors. I'm not sure about electrostatic amps, but this happens with CRT monitors. Under frequent use, they display a picture fairly quickly upon powering them on. But if you turn one on after 10 years of collecting dust, then you'll notice that they take longer to display a picture. I also remember the degauss becoming quieter as you use the monitor more frequently.

There's a lot of differences there. I wouldn't regard it as comparable.

While I want to say "everything" in a song feels grainy, it seems to be more focused in the mids. Maybe it is sibilance in a lower frequency (under 4 kHz). It certainly isn't painful.

Even before you said it, I've been worried that the grain is actually due to the source material. It may certainly be a great feature of the ESP-950, but you may have answered my question indirectly: If you didn't notice grain beforehand, then it probably isn't due to the ESP-950. Nevertheless, I still need to listen to some high quality recordings to diagnose it further.

My guess, without being able to be in your head, is that its probably revealing "badness" of whatever you've been testing with.

 

[smy1]

Cant wait till tmrw. My esp950 are coming
Actually today

 

[Pana Sonic]

By the way, has anyone removed the volume knobs on their E/90 before? My knobs are sticking so I may have to lubricate the potentiometer.

 

[Allanmarcus]

By the way, has anyone removed the volume knobs on their E/90 before? My knobs are sticking so I may have to lubricate the potentiometer.

I have not, but I would try deoxit before oil