kool bubba ice: To be fair, I was speaking only of Sonys... hehe. Beyer DT770/80s are already "throw at the wall" strong, yet light... and Shure's first entry into their new line, the 440 at least, since I have that too, is probably made better than the DT770 in the earcup department, just gets a little hot under those nice pleather pads that won't flake. M50s, pads aren't going to flake... pretty much all Sony monitors will, and Sennnheiser has a history of using the same crap on their closed back monitors. The Xb700s and XB500s both are sewn with non flaking pleather on most of the pad, and the v700DJs and the v500DJs have non flaking pads entirely.
TBH, these new phones look more like the Shure's 440, or maybe 840 type material, I guess a vinyl pleather, but the 440s are extra rugged, and the 840s are closer to the m50s, but none of them will flake. Beyer wins because velour doesn't get too hot, nor does it flake, and it is oh so comfey. The Senn HD600s, maybe even 650s, use the crap, but the HD555s/595s and the newer versions of them are some of the most pleasing to wear and the pads are more likely to come unglued from the phones than ever flake out on you. My 10 year old modded 555s have flakey crap on the underside of the pads, so there is a little, when I modded them, I tried to clean it up as best I could.
AKGs pads seem like you could take ones from the 80s and put them on the MKIIs and not know what is what. Their velour is different, but I am speaking of the pleather on their monitors. I have a couple extra AKG pads and 880/990 velours from beyer. The 770s sound a lot better in them and I never know when I want to mod something and need some pads that won't flake away. To see the flakey pads on the HD600s a while back bothered me, which is why I got the 555s, which sound a lot like the 600s after modding them to death.
I am happy to see the new killer looking black 558s can be easily modded to get 90% of the way back to the 600s. Sony gets serious with their release, I think taking aim at B/W myself, because, well, the P5s are terrible, but built well, maybe these are built well and not terrible
Sennheiser, on the other hand, chose to play around with their "fun" headphones. Also, the magnesium would only be a small shell, as it, well, we all know how magnesium makes for a great pyrotechnics show, so I expect a thin layer, not some thick "block", since it is hard to work with other than as a shell/coating.
The hinge on these is very much like the P5, inserted into one end only as some aesthetic choice. I think that is where they are going to be placed. The headphone for the sophisticated, elegant, yet actually sounds good. I am not sure if that audience will care, but it's nice to know Sony is still giving a nod to higher end consumer phones.
