Or do your own with a couple of Herbies Grungebuster dots for $5 and <15 minutes effort. Work great and you end up with world class headphones. I still love mine, even though I own various other Senns (580, 600, 650), and a very special, very pricy pair of audeze lcd-x, the hd700 always sound unique, especially soundstage, and give MUCH pleasure. A bargain at the used prices I’m seeing.
Update, just got some official HD700 pads. This is the first time I've listened to how nature intended these headphones to sound.
Hey that treble issue and unclean midrange can be significantly reduced by applying the totally reversible no tools modhouse audios HD700 mod kit. If you use both parts, you will have a lot stronger bass, but personally I didn't care for the tone. But using just one (i forgot which one it was) I got the tone and overall experience to be much better.Update, just got some official HD700 pads. This is the first time I've listened to how nature intended these headphones to sound.
Listened to some stuff on them with the dekoni elite hybrid pads first before swapping. It took quite a long time for my brain to wrap itself around the changes, which were more profound than I had expected.
Initial observations
Straight away I noticed a significant reduction in pressure around the back of my jaw/under my ear( probably because the hybrid pads are exactly twice the depth/height) which makes them much more comfortable to wear. The volume is also much higher, had to turn down by around 6 decibels before it was comfortable.
The openings in the pads themselves are appreciably wider than those on the hybrids. Fortunately the odd seashell effect has disappeared.
Sound
The strange feeling that there was an artificial elevation in the bass has gone, which is a relief. I had expected that solving this problem would have reduced the amount of bass overall, but much to my surprise, there is actually more bass, and also a lot more punch to it than before. Attack is more aggressive throughout the frequency range now. The bass timbre seems more natural, and richer now. In fact, there is a more natural timbre to the mids and treble too.
The soundstage has changed to the point of this feeling like a different headphone. Things are more forward now, where they had been quite distant before. The width is reduced, and with it there is a loss of space and 'blackness' surrounding each individual element. When using the hybrid pads, the effect of widening the soundstage was so extreme that elements on some tracks were pushed so far out to the edges that they rolled off and were barely discernable... a bizarre effect I've not had with any other headphone, and so far I haven't experienced this with the official pads. With the lack of the black space around the individual elements, it initially suggests that the midrange is less clean. The longer I listen, however, it becomes clear that the overall soundstage is much more coherent as a result. Interestingly, even though the general width seems to be reduced, some stereo effects now properly sound like they're coming from outside the earcups. Generally seems like the soundstage and imaging just works better, as time goes on.
Subjective feelings
Whenever I used the dekoni hybrid pads in the past, I could never quite suspend my belief that I was listening to headphones. There was always an awareness that I was relying on my brain compensating to make them work. I very rarely wanted to nod my head or tap my foot. And while I had intended this purchase to be where I stopped, I found myself searching for other headphones. Using the official pads, everything feels natural at last, I'm relaxed, and I'm moving to the rhythm. So, the official pads seem to work a lot better for me.
Please bear in mind that this is based on a single listening session, and its been quite challenging to adjust to the changes, so I will have to come back later and add to this if I start to perceive needles digging into my ears from an overly sharp treble...
Guess what... I'm listening to the HD800S !! It's a bit of a mixed bag.
I gave myself a day off from listening to music, then came back to them last night. I have to say that coming in fresh helps, and I stand by my initial thoughts, this is so much better to listen to now. With the dekoni pads I could only managed to listen to one album, maybe two at a reak push, before I was completely mentally exhausted, but I was able to listen easily for multiple hours without issues using the stock pads. Also experienced a nice 3D effect from time to time, where some instruments or voices would step way forward from the ensemble for a passage before stepping back again, something I'd not experienced on any headphone prior.
Very nice! The HD700's gave me tons of great sound. Hope you are still enjoying them. I have since moved on to the HD800S coupled with a Garage 1217 analog kameleon eq and a Schiit Loki mini plus eq (just for a touch of bass boost). I am thoroughly liking the upgrade . However, I feel the HD700's sit a lot more comfortably on one's head.
I'm not familiar with the cables you mention. I use a balanced XLR cable from Periapt for my HD700s. You don't indicate what you consider expensive (that is a very subjective term in this hobby where some people drop four figures for a custom cable without blinking), but Periapt is pretty cheap for an after market cable manufacturer. IIRC, a five foot cable for the HD700 costs $50-something for a 1/4 inch termination, another $10 for XLR. I have another Periapt XLR cable on my Focal Elex. Nothing fancy, no solid silver cables (they offer one grade of copper with no options) but they appear well made and have proved (for me at least) to be more durable than some more expensive cables. And they are very nice people to deal with. When the initial cable they built did not fit the Elex (its cup jacks are recessed and require long, thin jacks) they rectified the problem with grace and speed.
It’s true, the HD700s soundstage is more set back but IMHO very linear and executed with excellent separation and perceived depth but of course in the “headphone way”, therefore still emulating from within and around the head, those of us with a stereo set-up would say “set behind the plane of the speakers”, without focusing on or bringing forward the centre image if it has not been recorded as such, which is correct and one of the HD700’s strong points.
It’s a given that all headphones are with regards to, horizontal and vertical staging, therefore width, height and depth,….. a poor compromise to a properly dialed in audiophile speaker set-up ….. due to the close proximity of the drivers to the ears and the shape and length of ones ear canal the staging is quite often either too convex or too concave, there have been some attempts at trying to create a realistic sound stage but the rules of physics/psychoacoustics apply and except for binaural recordings proper staging with headphones will always be a contentious issue.
So if one’s preference leans toward always having for example the centre image/performer high-lit and thrown forward, even if it has not been recorded as such, the 700s could be perceived as “Something about the mid range on the HD700's is missing. Vocals are distant, behind a wall type of sound.”, but for me Sennheiser, as far as headphones go, have achieved something special with the 700s, they're not perfect but still the best compromise I've found, and not a bad one at that, when I'm unable to listen to my speaker set-up.
To quote myself. : )
(AKG sound signature)
(with regards to the HD700s)
