I went ahead and did the full mod with the angled leather brainwaves EarPads, cutting and gluing them to fit. Thanks to those who tested this out previously. It is exactly as others have said: slightly wider soundstage, a little brighter in the mids (but maintaining bass), a little less isolation, and a heck of a lot more comfortable for my big ears and warm head
Process (sorry, no photos):
1) I clipped the old pads off (used a flat, blunt knife to pry them up at the clips very carefully. Was not able to do it with fingers alone). I found it quite tricky to clip them back on again, clips need lined up well and quite a lot of pressure to get the ‘snap’
2) Cut off the old pads with a sharp modelling knife, leaving just the plastic ring
3) trimmed the new pads inner circumference to fit over the ring but not obstruct the clips
4) Glued in place, weighted the pads for a couple of hours to ensure good contact
5) Clipped the new pads/old ring back onto phones (this was even more difficult than with stock pads, as the extra padding and width makes locating the clips correctly and pushing at appropriate point rather tricky)
6) Donned the upgraded phones with some trepidation
7) Danced around the house with glee whilst listening to the new ‘The Magic Gang’ album
I had already bought a spare pair of complete pads from Oppo as a backup som time ago, so this was a relatively low risk procedure. I am happy I did it, was not too difficult except the re-clipping, just needs care and precision.
Fire away folks, nothing to fear!
PS - and bye bye Oppo digital *sniff, sob*