I see several benefits... The hygienic part of things of course but if you are about to sell them you can say the ear pads are in 100 % mint condition too.
It´s a great tip I may go back to the round oval pads on my 435S and apply this. Since they are the only pleather ear pads I have currently that get sticky. How much do they break the seal? I suppose it should be more noticable on your M50?
thanks for the great review and pictures Lunatique...and congratz on your new D7000,they are beautiful. I only have the D5000 but i share the same thoughts as you on the difference between them and the M50. the denons have somewhat smoother treble than the M50 but also more sibilance to them, the treble is sharper and there is a nasty peak in certain frequencies...although the D7000 should probably be better than the D5000 in that regard,more refined.
Funny, I have read your review of the M50s Plonter and your treble comparison with the D5000s is almost the same I have with my Audio Technica ATH-A500s.
The treble of the D5000s is much smoother and much more natural, but it can grate with some material, the treble of the A500s however is more metalic and I find it sharper overall, though it never loses control in nasty sibilance.
Overall I find the metalic treble of the A500s to be more fatiguing, especially with strings/violin solo.
Nive review. However I have a question. If you had read that the D2000 had a flatter FR, (basically what you were looking for), why buy the flagship, being the former less expensive?
It's just for prevent hot ears, but it also helps to prevent the pleather from wearing out, as you can see what happened to my D950 after many years of usage.
I don't notice any difference. There's no reason why they should break the seal--it's not like headphone drivers require some kind of super air tight seal to sound right. If that was the case then we'd get all kinds of variations on what people will hear due to the proportions of their head, whether a few strands of hair gets clamped down, or wearing glasses...etc.
Nive review. However I have a question. If you had read that the D2000 had a flatter FR, (basically what you were looking for), why buy the flagship, being the former less expensive?
Because I read that the D2000 is very forward sounding and can get too bright in the treble, and the sub-bass doesn't extend as low or is as prominent. I'd love to hear one in person though to see for myself. It sucks to live in a backwards city that has nothing in terms of high-end audio or even just mid-end audio stores to demo products.
Well, I certainly won't use headphones I haven't heard or don't know intimately well to compare--that would be false. I only talk about what I can be certain of. And to be totally fair, the M50 is an amazing pair of headphones regardless of its cost. It's one of the most pleasant yet neutral sounding headphones I've ever heard, and while its treble is slightly metallic and slightly warmer than neutral, it's really one of the best band for the buck headphones ever made IMO. For the price, it's a totally no-brainer. In fact, if I couldn't afford mid to high-end headphones and could only own one pair of headphones, the M50 will definitely be it.
lunatique leather is often used because it gives better isolation then velour for example. It can make quite a difference in term of how well they isolate... And it also affect the sound
That was what I meant with breaking the seal. How much difference in sound do you notice with them or the stock ear pads?
lunatique leather is often used because it gives better isolation then velour for example. It can make quite a difference in term of how well they isolate... And it also affect the sound
That was what I meant with breaking the seal. How much difference in sound do you notice with them or the stock ear pads?
I don't really notice any difference personally. I also wonder if velour will really break the seal. I mean, when the earcups are pressed against your face, the tiny little velvet-like textures of the material is totally pressed down against the skin, so it's not like there are big gaps that are letting the sound out. I'm guessing using leather/pleather may have something to do with how the interior of the earcup reflects the sound waves, since the smooth/shinier surface of leather/pleather is a lot more reflective than velour. As for the the difference in seal between velour and leather/pleather, I have never swapped out any of my earcups to test, so I wouldn't know if one actually seals better. Anyone tried this before? It wouldn't surprise me if the two sounds different, but I would be surprised if velour had a worse seal. Velour as a material is really not that rough of a weave--in fact it's really fine, so I would imagine it'd seal just fine, unless the porous nature of the material lets sound pass through both the fabric itself AND the padding inside the earcup cushion? If that was the case, I could see why leather/pleather would allow less sound to pass through the material itself.
I tried it on my German Maestros for example and the difference is really big between the round leather pads and the round velour. I have 4 different ear pads two pleather and two velour. Even the two velour pads (have leather inside one with holes and one not show directly audible changes, so I am an earpad swapper believer.
For me leather ear pads just about always isolate better then velour. Would be nice if you could test with and without some on the M50 perhaps. May show off better on closed headphones. Though the 435S is as open as it gets with absolutely no seal since they have no clamping force whatsoever.
Nice review. I certainly understand if the D7000 has its critics - They do need some time with extended listening to understand it's forte. A lot of people seem to criticise these phones for their recessed midrange - which they are only comparatively as on their own outright is not a fatal flaw.
You manage to pick the fatal flaw of the D7000 correctly and it's not their midrange - it is in fact their treble response - unnaturally extended and too smooth - somewhat sibilant. A cymbal or hi-hat will have the shimmer decay portion overly dominating the initial crash or impact. I have tried long and hard to reduce this. I have managed to contain this flaw so it is not fatal - nevertheless I am surprised that more people criticise the midrange more than the treble. This leads me to believe careful component matching is needed to neutralise and correct the treble response.
Nevertheless I find these phones extremely engaging when the recording calls for it - that bass is so correct. I thought Bass heavy recordings will sound boomy - but that is not the case...boomy bass recorded makes the D7000 sound boomy. Bass dominant tracks are produced with their intent - providing the bass is of sufficient quality. (Eg Joss Stone tracks have dominant bass lines but they do not sound boomy with the D7000's at all).
With all my headphones - I will go through a period where I will use only one phone and banning myself from other phones for a period of at least a week - removes the psychological attachment of adapted bias to one headphone over another.
I tested the D7000 with the Corda Symphony.2 amp today, plus a bunch of other high-end headphones, including the Stax 007MKII. Reviews and comparisons are here:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/490696/looking-for-next-pair-of-cans-after-the-d7000-hd650-m50/15#post_6658589
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