I am 56 and have been a hobbyist since my 20s and naturally have moved from speakers to headphones. Back to an earlier post about manufacturers of high end systems not coming down from their lofty perches, it is refreshing to see certain head-fi manufacturers like Centrance seeking the participation of their end users.
However when it comes to headphone manufacturers they seem less willing. You can buy a car and choose the color, the engine capacity, the trim and fitting levels etc. But not headphone manufacturers with their one size fits all philosophy.
Let me digress a moment. I have a large head and long (vertical length) ears. We Chinese believe that long ears mean good fortunes so ...
And here I'm talking of over-ear headphones, not on-ears, IEMs custom or otherwise, none of which suits me. To me, comfort first, audio quality second, heresy though it may sound (pardon the pun).
Anyway manufacturers claim their headphones suit x% of the population but what about the others. Is it so difficult to design ear pads with different sizes for the same model? By all means, qualify in your marketing brochure what a smaller or larger, or deeper or more shallow ear pads means to the sound. But give us a choice. Is that so difficult? I can live with only one size if driver housing but for Pete's sake (sorry to all Peters) give the people the choice.
The countless headphones I've owned and given away, all because of the too small for me earpads, include Beyer DT880 (comfy velour notwithstanding), Philips L1 (small), Sony MDR1R (shallow), AKG K550 (huge ear pad but small ear cavity), Audio Technica ATH AD700 (I can live with the purple), ATH-M50, etc
So right now all my headphones have larger ear pad cavities (LCD2, HD600/750, Denon D2000 to name a few).
Hope this is not off topic, Michael. It's a pet peeve of mine.
I'm contemplating a HE-500 but due to the earpad size, I'm trying to see what effect on the sound there is if I use LCD2 pads on them. The quite well rated original Momentum doesn't even get me excited when normal sized reviewers keep on mentioning the small ear cups. C'mon, different color trim is for dem young 'uns.
Great article, Mike. Including the earlier one re Personal Audio. I alsways pay attention to your posts on almost every thread on head-fi or elsewhere. Keep them coming