The soundstage is tall and not super wide. Very natural to me, as I find wider headphones can be interesting but unrealistic. It's like other HD6** and HD5** soundstages in that they were never known to be wide. That said, my Sony MDR-1A with Meze 99 pads, though sounding wider, lacks that realism. Despite it having more bass too, the HD58X has a "bigger" sound, in some ways. They work for every genre. The bass is better than most opens I've tried so while it works there, if you really want jaw shaking stuff, a bassy closed back can't be beaten, though that's not news.
As far as the pads go. I hear folks on here saying the Dekoni Velour has a bit less bass and more spaciousness, but I've read reviews that said the opposite. That they increased bass while they cost some soundstage. I did test some other pleather type replacements pads, that look like the originals but aren't velour (Geekaria and another). More bass but lost too much treble and space. There seems to be no true alternative to velour for these if you don't want to reduce treble detail and shrink the soundstage. Dekoni Velours still intrigue with the above referenced contradictions.
