[BK783]

Looking for some pointers here. I have the mk II, fixed cable model. The stock pads sound great, and I get good seal. However, they are incredibly uncomfortable. I can't wear these for more than half an hour because the pads are too thin and my ears don't fit too well.

I tried some Brainwavz XL pads I had around, the real leather, pleather and hybrid ones. All make the sound very thin, with the real leather and hybrid ones the worst. The pleather are close to the original sound, not loosing width but the sound is still way too thin, lacking body in mids and bass. Pressing down on the cups doesn't really change this so is it perhaps because there's too much room in the pads left over for sound to reverb?

Anyway, any other pads I could try?

 

[HTSkywalker]

Looking for some pointers here. I have the mk II, fixed cable model. The stock pads sound great, and I get good seal. However, they are incredibly uncomfortable. I can't wear these for more than half an hour because the pads are too thin and my ears don't fit too well.

I tried some Brainwavz XL pads I had around, the real leather, pleather and hybrid ones. All make the sound very thin, with the real leather and hybrid ones the worst. The pleather are close to the original sound, not loosing width but the sound is still way too thin, lacking body in mids and bass. Pressing down on the cups doesn't really change this so is it perhaps because there's too much room in the pads left over for sound to reverb?

Anyway, any other pads I could try?

I used the Dekoni, sound is great.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BYYJRL8/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_glt_fabc_JJTHEBDB8MCFK8Y3JDFZ

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

Looking for some pointers here. I have the mk II, fixed cable model. The stock pads sound great, and I get good seal. However, they are incredibly uncomfortable. I can't wear these for more than half an hour because the pads are too thin and my ears don't fit too well.

I tried some Brainwavz XL pads I had around, the real leather, pleather and hybrid ones. All make the sound very thin, with the real leather and hybrid ones the worst. The pleather are close to the original sound, not loosing width but the sound is still way too thin, lacking body in mids and bass. Pressing down on the cups doesn't really change this so is it perhaps because there's too much room in the pads left over for sound to reverb?

Anyway, any other pads I could try?

You are a little bit stuck really unless you modify them. Using the pads HT skywalker suggested will almost certainly decrease the bass unless you had a very bad fit with the originals. As they have many holes, that can actually absorb the bass more than the original pads will as they are smooth everywhere. Like you say also, the more space there is in the pads, the less bass you will notice. The Brainwavz XL pads (leather or pleather) so reduce the base somewhat, and this is both related to the volume of air inside them and the stitching allowing some of the bass to go through to the foam and it seems to reduce the impact somewhat. What I did was as this picture shows:

I use my new K550s on the right with the original ear pads (which i prefer). The old ones on the left I use with Brainwavs XL pads. I removed the white fabric disk which covers 10 black rings. 3 of which are holes through to the rear of the driver and enclosure. I don't really understand what these are for. Potentially to reduce harm to the driver if you puch the ear cups against your head as it has some air to breath around it so it won't get forced as much. If this is what they are for and you are careful in general, there is no problem with sealing up the holes better. This is what i did with my old K550s. They are covered with electrical tape as well as the slot to help get ear pads on. This gives them a tighter more punchy sound. It infact has slightly more bass than my newer ones now, but has a bit of a hole in the middle effect. The lower midrange is lacking and the treble spike is a little harsh, but it certainly is the way to get the best out of the Brainwavs pads. It is also worth experimenting with the silicone cup under the driver if you open it up with the 5 screws. I removed it on both pairs thinking it increased the bass, but as it is not a quick swap, I'm not sure if it helped or not.

 

[BK783]

I used the Dekoni, sound is great.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BYYJRL8/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_glt_fabc_JJTHEBDB8MCFK8Y3JDFZ

Thanks! A fenestrated leather pad, I'll see if I can find some and give it a try. Dekoni are fine pads, but a bit pricey to get on a whim for a test, I'll have to get some brainwavz first and see how they compare to the solid ones.

 

[BK783]

I use my new K550s on the right with the original ear pads (which i prefer). The old ones on the left I use with Brainwavs XL pads. I removed the white fabric disk which covers 10 black rings. 3 of which are holes through to the rear of the driver and enclosure. I don't really understand what these are for. Potentially to reduce harm to the driver if you puch the ear cups against your head as it has some air to breath around it so it won't get forced as much. If this is what they are for and you are careful in general, there is no problem with sealing up the holes better. This is what i did with my old K550s. They are covered with electrical tape as well as the slot to help get ear pads on. This gives them a tighter more punchy sound. It infact has slightly more bass than my newer ones now, but has a bit of a hole in the middle effect. The lower midrange is lacking and the treble spike is a little harsh, but it certainly is the way to get the best out of the Brainwavs pads. It is also worth experimenting with the silicone cup under the driver if you open it up with the 5 screws. I removed it on both pairs thinking it increased the bass, but as it is not a quick swap, I'm not sure if it helped or not.

I think this is what I get with all the Brainwavz XL sofar. The leather and hybrid lose the soundstage and bass, and indeed miss sound in the mids and lower which makes the sound thin, without body. Nice way of putting it - hole in the middle describes it perfectly. The pleather did bring back most of the soundstage but there's still a big gaping hole - though smaller than with both others. If only the original pads fitted my ears better...

I'll try and get some fenestrated pads anyway just to see what happens, as well as try some velour ones. I'll keep your mod in mind and see if covering the holes makes for an improvement. Thanks very much for the tip!

 

[episiarch]

Here are Brainwavz angled oval pads in pleather, mounted on K550. As you can see, the inner hole retains a good deal of oval-ness even after the pads are fitted onto the round K550 mounting surface.

This – or the sheepskin variant, I have both – is the only deeper / more comfortable aftermarket pad I've found that doesn't ruin the K550's sound for me. I have tried other shapes, and have tried this shape in velour and hybrid, and all of those tilted the sounds toward more treble and much less bass.

It takes a little patience to stretch them on – but it's not difficult. The sheepskin version takes more patience.

I haven't tried the Dekoni pads.

 

[BK783]

Thanks! I'll give those a try too. Should be interesting, angled pads, plus if I don't like them, I have some other hp's that these should fit on. Should be fun for experimenting

Amazing though that these can be stretched to fit such a big round cup, never would have occurred to me to try this.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

Although I have no problems with the bass, as we have recently discussed, the bass can disappear if the seal is not perfect, which really can mess up the rest of the sound. And that certainly can give people a negative opinion of these headphones. They are more suited to big heads. One way of increasing bass is removing the white ring under the ear pads and covering the 3 holes with electrical tape. But you likely will only notice the difference here if you already have a good seal.

About the bass, I do dislike many headphones that have that muddy mid bass boost which seems incredibly common on cheaper headphones. I find the K550s to be ever so slightly lacking at times, but they have more clean and accurate bass than a lot of headphones IMO. Just comparing them to a load in a store that were more expensive really surprised me. But the K550s sound can be severely altered if you don't manually adjust them when putting them on or getting a good fit.

Hmm, odd. I hadn't been using my MKIII K550s for ages (or not much anyway) as the main use I had for them was traveling on the bus which hasn't been the case during lockdown. For around 9 months or so at least anyway! The odd thing is that I never realized that there is a noticeable difference between the original K550s and MKIIIs sound wise. At home, I modified my original K550s to make the mini XLR connector and have been using them. After switching back to the MKIIIs, I noticed that they had noticeably less punch and impact the the bass and thinner sounding mid range as a result. As well as slightly sharper treble. Now I know i liked these, so I likely will be able to get used to them, but my comment I'm quoting was based on how i remember them even though i haven't been using them that much. Interesting how different the old model sounds. I've even tried both with the original pads with the mod i did on the old ones (electrical tape over the holes to add more punch) and the new K550s still sound rather different, and I would say my old ones sound nicer to my ears at the moment. But they are not without their issues as the drivers seem to crack and pop when any slight air pressure is put on them. Such as me doing sudden movements or putting slight pressure on the ear cup. So wouldn't want these for portable use any more.

I can get the new ones to sound better with EQ, but I'm almost wondering if there is any other way I could get them to sound closer to my old ones. As a direct comparison makes it obvious that they have less bass, though the pattern and the roll off seems similar, just quieter.

 

[HTSkywalker]

Seems this thread went dormant with everyone listening happily to their 550 or probably upgrading to a new can

 

[wolfwalker78]

Seems this thread went dormant with everyone listening happily to their 550 or probably upgrading to a new can

Still my primary tethered cans. I have a few other keepers and I've had a few (more expensive) one's I bought tried and sold. K550's are quite good to me with a wee bit of EQ still.

 

[HTSkywalker]

Still my primary tethered cans. I have a few other keepers and I've had a few (more expensive) one's I bought tried and sold. K550's are quite good to me with a wee bit of EQ still.

Surprisingly it shines with a Darkvoice amp

 

[pofofo]

I still use mine at work, just plugged in my phone. I think they sound very good for the price (especially after some pad mods I did), and are easy to drive.

 

[HTSkywalker]

I still use mine at work, just plugged in my phone. I think they sound very good for the price (especially after some pad mods I did), and are easy to drive.

I always used mine for movie watching only to discover a surprising performance once plugged in an OTL

 

[Mad Max]

You are a little bit stuck really unless you modify them. Using the pads HT skywalker suggested will almost certainly decrease the bass unless you had a very bad fit with the originals. As they have many holes, that can actually absorb the bass more than the original pads will as they are smooth everywhere. Like you say also, the more space there is in the pads, the less bass you will notice. The Brainwavz XL pads (leather or pleather) so reduce the base somewhat, and this is both related to the volume of air inside them and the stitching allowing some of the bass to go through to the foam and it seems to reduce the impact somewhat. What I did was as this picture shows:



I use my new K550s on the right with the original ear pads (which i prefer). The old ones on the left I use with Brainwavs XL pads. I removed the white fabric disk which covers 10 black rings. 3 of which are holes through to the rear of the driver and enclosure. I don't really understand what these are for. Potentially to reduce harm to the driver if you puch the ear cups against your head as it has some air to breath around it so it won't get forced as much. If this is what they are for and you are careful in general, there is no problem with sealing up the holes better. This is what i did with my old K550s. They are covered with electrical tape as well as the slot to help get ear pads on. This gives them a tighter more punchy sound. It infact has slightly more bass than my newer ones now, but has a bit of a hole in the middle effect. The lower midrange is lacking and the treble spike is a little harsh, but it certainly is the way to get the best out of the Brainwavs pads. It is also worth experimenting with the silicone cup under the driver if you open it up with the 5 screws. I removed it on both pairs thinking it increased the bass, but as it is not a quick swap, I'm not sure if it helped or not.

The filtered vents around the drivers aren't protection, they are tuning holes and the designers use them to tweak the tonal balance, you'll find them in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and quantities in almost all headphones. Some Ultrasones and low-end, lo-fi cans lack them altogether, as a few examples.

I have the almost identically-built K553 (1st gen), and I removed the rubber cup behind each driver outright, they are bass compressors for flattening out the bass balance, ingenious trick, and without them I notice the bass becomes more dynamic, responsive, deeper, and slightly stronger in the midbass. I decided I prefer them this way and left the cups like that, but increased the amount of fiberfill I stuck inside to acoustically treat the cups for cleaner, less colored sound.

I discovered a new mod that drastically improves the soundstage. Transpore medical tape on the upper half of the cup interiors, on the rim:

I was wondering if the rim's sonic reflections might be affecting the sound somehow. Yeah, they goof up the soundstage, giving K553/K550 the worst staging I've heard in a closed-back competing with DT770, etc., after the old MDR-V700DJ. In tracks where I should be hearing huge, expansive "worlds" created by the great reverbs used I instead get sounds surrounded by "distortion" of sorts, placement of sounds has no precision and the soundfield is just a murky, muddy "distortion". With the transpore tape the soundstage now is far airier, deep, and sounds and their placements now "make more sense", there is soundstaging now, lol
I need to experiment with tape placed on the baffles around the drivers facing the ears, there's plenty of empty, flat spaces for sound to reflect and color the sound and mess with soundstaging.

Also, much like episiarch, I, too, swear by Brainwavz pleather ovals, they retain the original sound best, except with greater bass and treble clarity. Anyone sensitive to the 10kHz treble peak will hate these pads, though, as the improved clarity will simply bring out the peak, which the stock pads somewhat muffle. I'm stuck with white Brainwavz oval pads that look odd on K553 as my black spares and the ones I put on my 553 a couple years ago started disintegrating.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

Having started using my K550 MKIII much more often as i use them on public transport, I've noticed i miss their bass much more than i used to. when there is vibration / engine noise, these lose almost all of their punch. And my FiiO X3 bass boost has 10 steps in each direction. It honestly sounds close to being flat when boosted to 10 and like a pair of tweeters without any EQ. They bass in quiet areas is good, but just a little lacking in punch, but that is easily sorted by a small boost which many of my amplifiers have.

I still however am totally certain that big Brainwavz pads don't increase the bass. But this can appear to be the case if you have a poor fit with the original pads. From what I have tried, the smaller volume of the hole in the ear pad results in less bass lost. So if you have a big head and decent clamping force, the bass is about as good as you will get with the original pads (without further modifications). If i use the original pads and position them as if i had a poor fit, then yes, brainwavs pads have more bass. But in reality, i have a good fit with both and the brainwavs have a wider hole as well as being at least 10mm deeper. I also think some of the bass is lost between the holes in the stitching to the foam inside. The impact to the bass is noticeably less than what the original pads are. And if anything they also make the treble spike more apparent.

I've tried all sorts of modifications, but my original K550s still noticeably have more punch to the bass - but not by much. I honestly wouldn't mind trying some mod that decreases the treble spike, makes the lower mid range sound more full as will as more impact to the low end. They are the problems these headphones have.