Hi everyone,
I just got in the mail, after an eternity of waiting, a pair of Brainwavz sheepskin oval angled pads. I've put them on my M40X and the comfort level has gone up by 10,000%.
I was worried about the effect they would have on the sound quality and these are my impressions.
Soundstage
A definite increase. Singers no longer sound like they are in my head. They seem to be in front of me now. Quite a bit wider but depth not so much. A tad better than before though.
Treble
With the stock M40X filters, the treble seems a bit muted, almost as if it lost some presence.
Once I removed the filters, the treble sounds a bit more natural but it also gets an airy quality about it. I could even say it gains a bit of reverb.
Mids
Mids sound the same to me. If there's actually a change in the quality, it's very subtle.
Bass
Bass have now more rumble but they sound like the lost a bit of tightness and control, slightly boomier. I don't feel that bass has decreased, if anything it sounds like there's more of it, although it has lost some punchiness to it.
The tracks I tested with:
Yellow Magic Orchestra: Chinese Whispers - Sharp, hard hitting synth track with lovely 80's drums. It gained a good sense of space without sacrificing clarity. The bass felt controlled and even a bit more present than before.
Miossec: A Montpamasse - A song that builds layer upon layer upon layer. It gets extremely busy by the end with multiple guitars, kick drums, cymbals and voices all going at once. It's a good track to test clarity as lesser headphones simply turn to mud by the end of the song.
Happily, clarity was maintained and even by the end I was able to pick out the different instruments. Although it feels like there's more boominess, it still kept control., probably because of the M40X stellar treble.
Nick Cave: Easy Money - A fairly quite track with piano, bass guitar, cello(?) and drums. At times it felt like it might get a tad boomy, but then it never crosses that threshold where clarity is lost.
Vocals do seem to get a upper mid range boost which make them sound a tad unnatural, but it could be the recording as another Nick Cave song, The Carny, sounded perfectly fine.
The Beatles: Hello Goodbye - Other than getting a wider stage, the song sounded the same to me, which is to say it sounded great.
Daft Punk: Lose Yourself To Dance - I was curious to hear how these pads would handle the bass in this track. Pretty darn well actually!
It kept control, no change in the quantity but it added a nice rumble to it. Voices sounded the same but the sound stage increase multiplied the fun by 80% (scientific measurement). No loss in clarity detected.
Yoshie Nakano: Soleil - A sweet, upbeat song with piano, drums, brass and vocals. I could say a tad of clarity was lost due to the bass which can be surprisingly prominent at times but the rumble did give it more energy than before. It didn't seem to take advantage of the increased soundstage.
So yes, it does change the sound, but I certainly don't think it's worse. It's different. If anything it makes it a bit more interesting and fun.
If you love the M40X sound signature, maybe these pads will ruin it for you, but to be honest, I found the M40X a tad boring at times so this worked out just fine for me.
UPDATE: After further listening, I've decided to put the stock felt filters on. The voices were sounding a bit hollow. The stock filters took care of that. It looses a 0.5% of clarity in return for better sounding vocals. Soundstage also shrinks a bit, still better than with stock pads though.
