1. Torrance, CA. There's a store in that town, that has a headphone selection like no other, however I had preferred the SRH1540 over any of the products they had, in the mid-fi $500 price range. I had bought Focal Clears from there in late 2018, which I had later sold; not liking all of the gimmicks they had come with (they didn't have the lower-key Professional edition at the time), and not having any room for that in the hotel room. I had preferred the lesser resolving, but less fatiguing closed back Shures for classic rock music (though I prefer the large Audeze LCD-X or LCD-3 to either of those). The sheer dynamics and body of the notes below 100 Hz, of Audeze headphones, are something to hear, but then again, they are more than twice as heavy as the diminutive 285 g 1540s. I am impressed with what Shure had been able to do bass wise, with something they had put on a diet to appeal to mixing and mastering people who travel a lot on the job.1) which "South Bay"? I am in the SF Bay Area myself.
2) I much prefer sheepskin over velour/suede/Alcantara, etc, due to sonics and due to reduced leakage (I share an office). Switching out stock suede pads on my Focal Elegia absolutely transformed them (increased sub bass, reduced lower treble peak).
3) you got quite the score - well done!
4) I am a big believer in the impact of cabling on my main living room rig, but was less so on headphones. But as I moved up the food chain in headphones, it became undeniable for me. I didn't want to spend the money, but the changes have been worth it. But I draw the line at the point of diminishing returns though - I can't afford to chase the Nth degree of improvement.
2. I agree, now I have to buy them a second time after having carelessly sold them in 2019. SRH1540 clamping force is rather weak, so anything I can do to improve the seal may give me tighter bass and better isolation. I would get the spec sheet Tyll Hertens had created; he had graphed the isolation by frequency (the reason I can still hear so many things is because it doesn't isolate below 200 Hz). I had also EQ'd my pair based on his FR graph. The bass was out of control and I had tried to bring it down to match the Harman curve.
4. After my DH Labs interconnect and Kimber Kable speaker cable experiences, I don't cable roll anymore, at all; spending all that money is what it had took for me to abandon it.. I see those differences, as very slight. Luckily, my headphone amp has more than one output, so I was able to have one channel of the stock cable and another of the aftermarket cable being driven at the same time; and again, there had been no discernable difference for me. Could I have heard any difference with twenty year old ears? Maybe. I might get new cables when I get IEMs, or if I get a second set of headphones that happen to come with something that's unworkable for me.