apichetk
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2015
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Thanks for your comment osiris1. That's helpful and a good point.
I've found that Hope VI are a bit bright. Mine have the Hope 4 pads on them. Do you guys think changing pads will help tame down the brightness? I've found it harsh sometimes especially with the slam on piano keys...
Any pads you would recommend? Thanks! I'm also thinking about adding a warm DAC/AMP.
I find the original,non-memory foam, Brainwavz pads work very well and are deeper than the stock pads. Amazon only stock the newer memory foam version (the velour version of those doesn't work well with PH VI but haven't tried the pleather) but they can be bought from MP4 Nation:
http://www.mp4nation.net/brainwavz-hm5-spare-earpad-1-pair
Others have had good results with Shure (SRH-880 I think) pads.
I've found that Hope VI are a bit bright. Mine have the Hope 4 pads on them. Do you guys think changing pads will help tame down the brightness? I've found it harsh sometimes especially with the slam on piano keys...
Any pads you would recommend? Thanks! I'm also thinking about adding a warm DAC/AMP.
I found mine got less bright about 50 hours in - I'll assume you've burned yours in so on to the pad question. The non-memory-foam HM5 pads that jellofund recommended do work well, and in addition to being more comfortable I feel they cut down on the brightness some. That said, I also find that they cut down on the punchiness of the bass, and also result in a very slight decrease in detail, so I think they are more ideal for some music rather than others. For example, when I'm listening to really well produced electronic music like Future Sound of London, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, or even later Nine Inch Nails albums, I prefer the original pads (the soft, not very deep ones). The other day, though I was listening to a lot of classic rock and some classical music and I preferred the HM5 pads.
Anyway, I think they are worth a shot, though there are plenty of options out there. My next step is to find something like the HM5 pads but not quite as deep, I think that would be a good compromise between the comfort of the HM5 without losing the punchiness that I love about the Pandora VI.
As an engineer, I must make a disclaimer that this is all subjective! jello says he can't tell a difference in the sound between the HM5 and the stock pads, so I could just be imagining things.
This is good news, since the Pandora's sound AMAZING out of my MavAudio DAC. Typically if you use a set of cans (or speakers) with lower input impedance than the output impedance of your amp, the increase in current can possibly cause damage to the amplifier. I got this from Benchmark Audio but I can't find a link to the source at the moment. Anyway, I don't know if Ryan's advice is specific to his DAC / Amp or if it might reign true for other DAC / Amp combos because the Pandora VI uses a balanced armature driver instead of a conventional one. This is where we get out of my wheelhouse so if anyone wants to chime in, feel free. Jello recommended the O2 by JDS Labs, and they make a DAC as well and can customize the gain on it to suit your headphones, so they may be worth a try as well.
I just wrote too much text again...
/Ty
ph0n6,
I believe amazon applying FIFO strictly, thus it should be IV pads now.
Mine ordered in the end of last year from amazon jp already had IV pads.
IV pads were too sibilant to me.
Original VI pads (low resilient) sounds much better, but bit shallow.
I could bear it for hours, but once I had cup in wrong position (I carried upside down and cups went up), it really hurt my ears.
> E-earphone have it also, though the price is pretty ridiculous to me..........
Same price in official shop: low repulsion type FI-EPPADX JPY6200 (46 euro) without shipping fee.
Not much different from that for Senn's HD650.
FYI, the left one is normal (IV) pad, the right low repulsion (original VI) pad.
Difference may not look like much, but the VI pads were very soft and compressible when I auditioned them.
Impressive gear list mate How do you rate the PH VI among the stuff you have heard?
Difference may not look like much, but the VI pads were very soft and compressible when I auditioned them.
Anyway, I think they are worth a shot, though there are plenty of options out there. My next step is to find something like the HM5 pads but not quite as deep, I think that would be a good compromise between the comfort of the HM5 without losing the punchiness that I love about the Pandora VI.
As an engineer, I must make a disclaimer that this is all subjective! jello says he can't tell a difference in the sound between the HM5 and the stock pads, so I could just be imagining things.
Nah, I'm inclined to think your ears may just be better than mine! Too many gigs in my younger days mean my hearing isn't exactly A1 so some of the subtleties may be lost on me.
I also listen to a lot of classic / hard rock and acoustic music so possibly any changes caused by the HM5 pads work in my favour and I don't pick up on their 'shortcomings' when I do occasionally listen to electronic music. I did try swapping between pads but it's hard to compare objectively because as you know it takes a bit of time to swap over the pads on the Pandora. Certainly to my ears the HM5 & PH6 pads are in the same ballpark whereas the PH4 pads are in the another town entirely (or possibly another continent), and it does make me wonder why FAD chose not to, or were unable to, develop a deeper pad that retained the basic sound signature.