My replacement pair came today:
Box
Mostly the same, only difference is in the wording on the front and the bottom of my original pair the warranty said "USA Only" after the warranty heading. Contents of the boxes, model numbers, etc were the same, just one pair of headphones.
Headphones out of the box:
Immediately noticeable, the pads are different, old pair have the "music seal" plastic ring, new pair does not. Also, new pair have a different texture to the cups, it's more of a pearl finish than just flat black. You can't really tell from the camera images, but the color of the cups on the new pair isn't really black, they have a slight brown tinge to them, like they are very dark bronze, but the Philips post that the headband attaches to is definitely black. In all, the fit and finish of the new pair really take a hit, the old pair looks better and of higher quality, the ragged edge of the ear pads and the mismatched colors really make them look cheap. Other than the cosmetic the cups and drivers seem nearly identical.
Plug:
There is quite a difference in the plugs, the most functional is the post now has a metal cuff at the base, likely to keep it slightly less plugged. The original plug, there was a bulge on the back, it looks like they might have just not been manufactured with care. This fixes the plug in all jacks except the Belkin extension, which after some research the Belkin doesn't like these TRRS connectors.
Volume slider:
The second problematic thing about these, that slider. They both look identical (in the image, you can see a bit of tape residue on the old one where I tried to keep the slider steady), but on the new one the actual slider feels like it has slightly more resistance to sliding and I'm happy to report that the slider now works as advertised and I no longer have any issues with the sound. Originally these headphones I could hear a definite volume imbalance, I'm glad to say that's gone as well.
Eventually I think I'll clip the flat cable and install a new plug, should work well connected to a small Clip Zip attached to the headphones to make a nice self contained pair to wear around the house. Since these different pads come off easy, I took some extra pics of the back of the driver and the driver housing, unfortunately the driver is permanently attached to it's base with a permanent cover so no good shots directly at the front of the driver. The only intriguing bit, in the cups at the back there is a clear piece of plastic with a small hole for the cord to go through, behind that is the pivot point where the cups attach, on that plastic was a spot and I couldn't quite tell if that spot was stray glue that had eaten partially through or if it was some sort of tuning spot, it felt like it would let air through the little spot.
Behind the pads:
Back of driver:
Inside of cup:
Size of ear cups with just the pads removed, considering they seem bulky with the pads, I was surprised how skinny they seemed without them:
