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You're not saying that the only difference between the 'a' and the 'e' models is the ear cushions are you? I'm surprised it that's true. I thought they were designed/engineered for different purposes.
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That is probably the only difference. The reasons I say that are that looking at my DT-48, it's identical to the audiometric version of 1974 (except the earpads), and identical to the non-audiometric version of 1974 with the oval earpads, physically that is. The current versions look to be identical except for the earpads, and I see no information anywhere in all the Internet searches I made (several hundred before buying the DT-48E two days ago) that says otherwise. In fact, in 1974 I bought both the audiometric version and the non- version, and I ordered oval cushions to replace the audiometric round cushions, and ended up with two identical headsets, identical sound.
My DT-48E today does sound different from the 1974 version in normal use, but I can make it sound pretty much exactly like the 1974 version, just by doing a big yawn so the earcups lose their tight seal against my head. That was my first clue. The cushions on my present DT-48E are sealed to the driver boxes somehow, whereas the 1974 earpads were loose and I could spin them around 360 degrees. So that accounts for the better bass response today. The better high-end response I'm not so sure about. I can guess that maybe improvements in molding the diaphragms have produced something that produces high frequencies better. Don't know. I remember in the 1990's when I found a Sennheiser 414 anniversary edition how much better it sounded than the original, and I remember exactly how the original sounded, even now. So I think it's possible they improved the manufacture of the diaphragms. That makes sense too, considering that with all the new model headphones Beyer has introduced, they are obviously doing a fair amount of materials research to improve driver response.
And then it gets weirder...... Last night I investigated 50 or so websites that had various tones - single tones, sweep tones, all kinds of tones. I focused on the simple sine-wave tones in discrete frequencies to see how the DT-48E would respond. First, I could not believe the differences from different websites, playing (supposedly) the same tonal frequency. There were sites that had 30 hz tones I could not hear or feel. And there were a couple of sites with 30 hz tones that made the DT-48 sound like a Sennheiser 800 (or better). Unbelievable. Now I know from many loudspeaker and headphone reviews that people can be fooled about bass response by harmonics or standing waves or half a dozen other effects. Not this time. I heard (and felt) real 30 hz tones on the DT-48, at about the same level as 90 hz tones. Maybe the sites that had those tones stored the WAV or MP3 files at a higher volume for the ultra-low tones. Still, it was most impressive experiencing that on the DT-48.