wormsdriver
Headphoneus Supremus
OK guys after spending a week with the Beautiful Audio Merino pads and headband here are my impressions. I would like to thank @Geezer Rock 001 for organizing this little tour and letting me participate.
I received a pair of Beautiful Audio (B.A.) Merino pads and also one of their Merino headband covers. I was immediately impressed by the ingenious way the headband cover is secured on by using magnets that snap together and wrap around your existing headband. The pads are also very cleverly designed so that different inner foam densities can be used and therefore achieve different sound signatures. Two pairs of different foam densities were provided and is standard with each order of pads that is placed. The inner foams that I received are the standard reticulated foam and also the open-cell foam. Both foam inserts felt very comfortable with the reticulated foam edging out the open-cell foam in comfort. Materials used are Merino fine wool and I found it indeed to be very comfortable never feeling like it was hot or scratchy on my ears. My ears fit comfortably inside the pads for a more over-the ear feel than on-ear.
The bottom of the headband has a good amount of padding which is very soft and provides very good support for the top of your head. On my Epsilon R1 build the comfort when using both the Beautiful Audio headband and pads was astounding! My R1 build uses heavy aluminum cups with wooden inner sleeves paired with Grado L-cush pads which is enough to humble even a die hard Grado fan after wearing it for an hour!
Changing out the inner foams on the pads was a breeze after watching the instruction video on the Beautiful Audio website for a couple of times. After that I was able to switch the pad configuration in less than a minute for both pads.
Overall sound impressions:
I went ahead and compared the Beautiful Audio pads to the original Grado L-cush and the TTVJ flat pads using my classic Grado Rs1. In my comparisons my overall impressions are that the B.A. pads sounded warmer than both the L-cush and TTVJ flat pads. To me these pads add some warmth to the bass and lower mids. The L-cush was the most open and airy sounding overall. It had the most transparency which was then followed by the TTVJ flats. While the B.A. pads did sound overall warmer they also sounded more balanced compared to both Grado cushions. The L-cush sound is leaner really leaving me wanting more bass authority, the overall emphasis seems to go to the mids and highs respectively and then bass. The TTVJ flat pads provided some of that missing bass authority of the L-cush but also the mids move forward which can be a good or bad thing depending on your preference, highs take a step back and are more tamed than the L-cush but also a tad bit less clear. The B.A. pads with the reticulated foam sound like I said overall warmer. Compared to the flat pads the highs come back into the picture and take a step forward. Mids take a step back and bass is in line with the highs but a bit of transparency is lost because of the overall warmer sound. The bass loses a bit of definition and sounds a bit more woolly. Vocals also get a touch warmer which can be good or bad depending on your headphones, the highs are more controlled and focused over the L-cush. The B.A. pads using the open cell inner foam sounds balanced. Actually they provided the most balanced sound out of the other three. With the open-cell foam sound gets a bit tighter vs the reticulated foam. The highs and mids take a step forward and are in line with the bass. The reticulated foam now sounds more of a "U" shape signature compared to the open cell-foam. The B.A. pads with the open cell foam sounds bigger and bolder especially vs the Grado pads.
It is important to note that the BA pads are not necessarily dark, there is no treble roll off. Highs and mids are ever present so keep in mind that these comparisons are done vs the Grado pads which are for lack of a better word lighter on the sound. The BA pads add body and weight to the sound.
Both B.A. pads sound a bit more intimate but do have a deeper stage vs the Grado which have a slightly wider open sound but also sounds more two dimensional and flat, so like with all Grado pads there is trade offs and it's up to the individual listener to pick what is higher on their lists of preferences.
In my time using the BA pads I have not felt like I am listening to another totally different headphone, all the Grado magic is still present which would be my main concern. I love Grados and without their magical mid range these pads would be useless IMO. I'm happy to say that vocals are still amazing and guitar still has plenty of bite!
In my honest opinion the B.A. pads are more than worthy of being in one's stock pile of Grado pads. They provide yet another alternative to pad rolling that honestly once I got used to the sound they would have me using them as more of a permanent fixture on my cans than the stock Grado pads and that to me is saying a whole lot!
In conclusion I hope you at least have a chance of trying these out for yourself, hopefully more impressions will start to roll in as soon as more of the guys get to try them out as I know my impressions were pretty brief and the more listening impressions there is the better it will be for each individual who is interested in these to make an informed opinion on purchasing a pair of these Beautiful (Audio) pads.
I received a pair of Beautiful Audio (B.A.) Merino pads and also one of their Merino headband covers. I was immediately impressed by the ingenious way the headband cover is secured on by using magnets that snap together and wrap around your existing headband. The pads are also very cleverly designed so that different inner foam densities can be used and therefore achieve different sound signatures. Two pairs of different foam densities were provided and is standard with each order of pads that is placed. The inner foams that I received are the standard reticulated foam and also the open-cell foam. Both foam inserts felt very comfortable with the reticulated foam edging out the open-cell foam in comfort. Materials used are Merino fine wool and I found it indeed to be very comfortable never feeling like it was hot or scratchy on my ears. My ears fit comfortably inside the pads for a more over-the ear feel than on-ear.
The bottom of the headband has a good amount of padding which is very soft and provides very good support for the top of your head. On my Epsilon R1 build the comfort when using both the Beautiful Audio headband and pads was astounding! My R1 build uses heavy aluminum cups with wooden inner sleeves paired with Grado L-cush pads which is enough to humble even a die hard Grado fan after wearing it for an hour!
Changing out the inner foams on the pads was a breeze after watching the instruction video on the Beautiful Audio website for a couple of times. After that I was able to switch the pad configuration in less than a minute for both pads.
Overall sound impressions:
I went ahead and compared the Beautiful Audio pads to the original Grado L-cush and the TTVJ flat pads using my classic Grado Rs1. In my comparisons my overall impressions are that the B.A. pads sounded warmer than both the L-cush and TTVJ flat pads. To me these pads add some warmth to the bass and lower mids. The L-cush was the most open and airy sounding overall. It had the most transparency which was then followed by the TTVJ flats. While the B.A. pads did sound overall warmer they also sounded more balanced compared to both Grado cushions. The L-cush sound is leaner really leaving me wanting more bass authority, the overall emphasis seems to go to the mids and highs respectively and then bass. The TTVJ flat pads provided some of that missing bass authority of the L-cush but also the mids move forward which can be a good or bad thing depending on your preference, highs take a step back and are more tamed than the L-cush but also a tad bit less clear. The B.A. pads with the reticulated foam sound like I said overall warmer. Compared to the flat pads the highs come back into the picture and take a step forward. Mids take a step back and bass is in line with the highs but a bit of transparency is lost because of the overall warmer sound. The bass loses a bit of definition and sounds a bit more woolly. Vocals also get a touch warmer which can be good or bad depending on your headphones, the highs are more controlled and focused over the L-cush. The B.A. pads using the open cell inner foam sounds balanced. Actually they provided the most balanced sound out of the other three. With the open-cell foam sound gets a bit tighter vs the reticulated foam. The highs and mids take a step forward and are in line with the bass. The reticulated foam now sounds more of a "U" shape signature compared to the open cell-foam. The B.A. pads with the open cell foam sounds bigger and bolder especially vs the Grado pads.
It is important to note that the BA pads are not necessarily dark, there is no treble roll off. Highs and mids are ever present so keep in mind that these comparisons are done vs the Grado pads which are for lack of a better word lighter on the sound. The BA pads add body and weight to the sound.
Both B.A. pads sound a bit more intimate but do have a deeper stage vs the Grado which have a slightly wider open sound but also sounds more two dimensional and flat, so like with all Grado pads there is trade offs and it's up to the individual listener to pick what is higher on their lists of preferences.
In my time using the BA pads I have not felt like I am listening to another totally different headphone, all the Grado magic is still present which would be my main concern. I love Grados and without their magical mid range these pads would be useless IMO. I'm happy to say that vocals are still amazing and guitar still has plenty of bite!
In my honest opinion the B.A. pads are more than worthy of being in one's stock pile of Grado pads. They provide yet another alternative to pad rolling that honestly once I got used to the sound they would have me using them as more of a permanent fixture on my cans than the stock Grado pads and that to me is saying a whole lot!
In conclusion I hope you at least have a chance of trying these out for yourself, hopefully more impressions will start to roll in as soon as more of the guys get to try them out as I know my impressions were pretty brief and the more listening impressions there is the better it will be for each individual who is interested in these to make an informed opinion on purchasing a pair of these Beautiful (Audio) pads.
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