[rickdohc]

Quote:

You know I just received the Sennheiser Momentum which costs $350.  I was listening to those most of the evening and just put the S500's on and I can't stress enough that these only cost around $80.  

 
Love the S500.  

 

Are you JOKING, is this Candid Camera or what?
 
More details please!  

 

[rickdohc]

Quote:

Now, I've been looking for some new cans to add to the set, so how are the 500s in terms of comfort and portability?
How about the sound? Can it be compared to the AT-M50s, or the PortaPros?
Thank you for your time.

 
 
I got the M50 and KSC75 (not the PortaPros, but sound should be similar)
 
 
 
S500 Vs M50
 
Bass:  M50 wins, not by much, the bass is a tad more controled. S500 is louder in my opinion, almost like bass monsters.
 
Mids:  jeezz. i dont know what to say here, its almost like a draw, both have a V shape signature. but i am hearing more details on the S500. i like how females voices sound on the M50. so i cant declare a winner here.
 
Highs:  i find the S500 having better treble, more sparcle.. there is no silabance on both, but there S500 has that sparcle i like.
 
Comfort:  M50 wins hands down.
 
i think its a Draw, but it will depended on personal preference me thinks,  some will find better the M50 beacuse of the soundstage and the mids.  i  just sold my M50 beacuse there was a guy here that was crazy for them, "the phone he heard about and dreamed about" , so i sold them.  Do i miss them? only for the comfort.  The S500 sounds fantastic and for the price, jezzzuz
 
 
 
 
S500 Vs Koss Ksc75
No contest.. dont get me even started here.
Bass on the KSC75 is weak, no subbass whatsoever compared to the S500. They sound more "airy" but thats all,  the S500 murders them in bass, mids, highs, detail and clarity, its like there is blancket over the phones that hide all the detail and clarity, killing the bass and highs.
 
Dont get me wrong, the KSC75 is the best bang for the buck you can get its my all time favorite for the price and till date i still enjoy using them and i will never sale my pair,  but in sounds term, they cant compete against the S500.
 
 
 
 
Compared to other phones:
 
Panasonic HTF600:  No contest.  Weak bass, no treble and the mids are way to back compared to the S500, they sound "boxy" and cheap compared to the S500.
 
Beats Pro:  Beats got more of that mid bass thumping sound,  sound is bigger but thats all,  S500 kills them in mids, highs, clarity detail and the bass is BETTER in quality,  IMHO they got lijke 80% of the quantity of bass of the Beats Pro, could be a bad thing for those that dont want a heavy bass phone.
 
BUT you can buy some pads and the bass will tame a lot and soundstage and space gets better.  
its like these S500 are singing you "I will be whatever you want me to be.. just tell me baby and i will do it, you want me to be a Diva? Diva is what i am, you want me to be a ......... , then i am your ......"     

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

S500 Vs Koss Ksc75
No contest.. dont get me even started here.
Bass on the KSC75 is weak, no subbass whatsoever compared to the S500. They sound more "airy" but thats all,  the S500 murders them in bass, mids, highs, detail and clarity, its like there is blancket over the phones that hide all the detail and clarity, killing the bass and highs.
 
Dont get me wrong, the KSC75 is the best bang for the buck you can get its my all time favorite for the price and till date i still enjoy using them and i will never sale my pair,  but in sounds term, they cant compete against the S500.

Biggest problem with the KSC75 is the earclips. If you press them tighter to your ear, or put them into a proper headband, you'll get more bass response from them. Not to S500 levels, of course.

 

[cute]

Quote:

Pleeeeeeezze please do this! I am dying to hear an exact comparrison from out of the box to a pair with hundreds of hours of burn in. Pls do it with the same pads on each.
I HEARBY SWEAR IF CUTE DOES THE ABOVE I WILL IMMEDIATELY ORDER THE LEATHER PADS and post my impressions. SIGNED_____Doc_____

 
OK, opened the box on my second pair and installed a new pair of leather pads............been A/Bing for the last few hours with my 600hr pair and the new pair.  The difference is "not" night and day.  What I hear on the new pair is slightly more bass, not as tight as the burned in pair....also, the new pair is not as smooth in bass and mids.  The mids tend to be more in your face with the new pair, I would call the mids somewhat "shouty" in comparing with the burned in pair.  Overall there is a smoothness with the burned in pair throughout the bass, mids and highs that is not there with the new pair....which sounds a little less open with the sound slightly more conjested, not as much airiness and spacious as the burned in pair!
 
Overall, I would say there is a benefit to burn in, but differences are more slight than what I expeced.  The burned in pair is just as detailed as the new pair, but the burned in pair has a slightly more refined, smooth and warmer presentation.  I hear a bigger difference going to different ear pads, stock, velour and leather, than I do from the burned in pair vs the new pair with leather pads on both.  All in all I prefer the burned in pair for the reasons listed earlier!  The new pair will change in time, but I think "brain burn" has some credibility when doing a comparison between both pairs as well!

 

[glunteer]

I know this does not need headphone amp ...
but if I put one in, will improve?

 

[rickdohc]

Quote:

Biggest problem with the KSC75 is the earclips. If you press them tighter to your ear, or put them into a proper headband, you'll get more bass response from them. Not to S500 levels, of course.

 
 

 
 
My Guetto LogicK  , used some old Logictech earphones, i still love them no matter if there are better phones, they got that "wow ony 15 bucks?" factor that no other phone will have.
 

 

[rickdohc]

Quote:

 
OK, opened the box on my second pair and installed a new pair of leather pads............been A/Bing for the last few hours with my 600hr pair and the new pair.  The difference is "not" night and day.  What I hear on the new pair is slightly more bass, not as tight as the burned in pair....also, the new pair is not as smooth in bass and mids.  The mids tend to be more in your face with the new pair, I would call the mids somewhat "shouty" in comparing with the burned in pair.  Overall there is a smoothness with the burned in pair throughout the bass, mids and highs that is not there with the new pair....which sounds a little less open with the sound slightly more conjested, not as much airiness and spacious as the burned in pair!
 
Overall, I would say there is a benefit to burn in, but differences are more slight than what I expeced.  The burned in pair is just as detailed as the new pair, but the burned in pair has a slightly more refined, smooth and warmer presentation.  I hear a bigger difference going to different ear pads, stock, velour and leather, than I do from the burned in pair vs the new pair with leather pads on both.  All in all I prefer the burned in pair for the reasons listed earlier!  The new pair will change in time, but I think "brain burn" has some credibility when doing a comparison between both pairs as well!

 
With the FX40 is way to obviuos,  one of my co-woker bought a pair of Fx40's, and hes was like "man, i am disapointed with these, they dont sound like yours", so whe switched the tips and yes, i am hearing a weak bass, treble out of control.  i had to fight back my 500+ burned FX40
 
 
yes, there are two burn in,  the mental and the phone burn-in,  IMHO in some phones the diference is more notecible than others, i am not hearing a big diference between my Fx101 with hundreds of hours of Burnin versus my new Fx101, almost the same.

 

[rickdohc]

Playing "Whats the Score?" game.. i am giving the S500:    7.8 Points
 
What do you guys think the score of these things are?  i am WAY conservative on  my score.
 

 

[Dsnuts]

So I was looking at my wall of headphones and I forgot I owned one of these. What is this nice looking headphone you might ask?

This is a little unknown headphone that got mostly overlooked here at headfi. It is a Denon HP500. So why am I showing this to you guys? Well I was gonna order those pads that Cute suggested only to find out I actually own a pair. On these. These are AT rebrands. Made by AT. The pads look identical to the ones that was shown. So I will give them a try.
 
Cute is right again. These sound very good. These are about in the middle of what the ATH velours and the HD25 does. Good bass, great mids, nice sparkle to the highs. Real good solid balanced sound. Nice. The AKG pads have a very similar sound as these pads..
 
Looking at the original pads vs these AT leather ones. The sound hole is much wider on the AT leather pads. The pads are soft and comfy and are a bit shallower on the head making your ears go closer to the drivers. More mids as a result. Because of the bottoms are leather instead of velours. The Bass is channeled to your ears so a bit more bass than the velour version. The highs are very much in line with the mids. Very nice balanced and even sound from these pads. The mids are just a bit more forward but I like this. I see why you like your vocals like this. These pads offer a bit more clarity in the mids over the HD25 velours. The HD25 velours offer even a more mid forward sound but also a bit more bass too. So these are the happy median.  Sounds fantastic. I also noticed the sounds come off thicker than the velours version. The highs now have a roundness to the timbre that was not quite there on the velour version. The sound is more engaging as a result. Oh yea. Ghost. These are the proper pads for the HA-S500. And I know you have bought many a pads already for the HA-S500 wait till you hear the HA-S500 with these pads. Try them out. I encourage everyone to try out these pads. Just perfect. This is perhaps the best sound I have heard from the HA-S500 to date. Much like Cute's statement how there is no need for other pads after these. I think he is right.. There is no possible way another pair of pads will be better sounding on this headphone. Just perfect and musical to boot. Love it.

 
So far these are the sound characteristics of the pads that I have used.
 
HD25 velours.= Mid forward, a bit warmer sound, best bass presence, a tad lesser highs than stock but just a tad. Not missing any details however.
 
ATH velours= The most open sound out of the 3. Much lesser bass, the flattest sound of the 3, Even more extended highs, flat mids.Good sub bass with no mid bass. Sound like the FXD80 the most
 
ATH leather= Sound while not as open sounding as the velours has the best balanced sound out of the 3 types so far.. A tad mid forward. EricP.. These pads you need to get. You know why?.Yes you hear right. I think the fact that these go back to a closed sound while having the balance they do makes them sound closet to the FXD70 more than the FXD80. A bigger scale version of the FXD70.

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

Playing "Whats the Score?" game.. i am giving the S500:    7.8 Points
 
What do you guys think the score of these things are?  i am WAY conservative on  my score.
 

I haven't thought about scoring them. I'll be listening to them shortly, so maybe I'll come up with something.

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

So I was looking at my wall of headphones and I forgot I owned one of these. What is this nice looking headphone you might ask?

This is a little unknown headphone that got mostly overlooked here at headfi. It is a Denon HP500. So why am I showing this to you guys? Well I was gonna order those pads that Cute suggested only to find out I actually own a pair. On these. These are AT rebrands. Made by AT. The pads look identical to the ones that was shown. So I will give them a try.

 
So which AT model would that have been originally?

 

[Doc-holliday]

Pleeeeeeezze please do this! I am dying to hear an exact comparrison from out of the box to a pair with hundreds of hours of burn in. Pls do it with the same pads on each.
I HEARBY SWEAR IF CUTE DOES THE ABOVE I WILL IMMEDIATELY ORDER THE LEATHER PADS and post my impressions. SIGNED_____Doc_____

OK, opened the box on my second pair and installed a new pair of leather pads............been A/Bing for the last few hours with my 600hr pair and the new pair.  The difference is "not" night and day.  What I hear on the new pair is slightly more bass, not as tight as the burned in pair....also, the new pair is not as smooth in bass and mids.  The mids tend to be more in your face with the new pair, I would call the mids somewhat "shouty" in comparing with the burned in pair.  Overall there is a smoothness with the burned in pair throughout the bass, mids and highs that is not there with the new pair....which sounds a little less open with the sound slightly more conjested, not as much airiness and spacious as the burned in pair!

Overall, I would say there is a benefit to burn in, but differences are more slight than what I expeced.  The burned in pair is just as detailed as the new pair, but the burned in pair has a slightly more refined, smooth and warmer presentation.  I hear a bigger difference going to different ear pads, stock, velour and leather, than I do from the burned in pair vs the new pair with leather pads on both.  All in all I prefer the burned in pair for the reasons listed earlier!  The new pair will change in time, but I think "brain burn" has some credibility when doing a comparison between both pairs as well!

Thanks a lot Cute. I have been really wanting to hear someone's direct comparrison. From your description the difference sounds DRASTIC but I guess what you are saying is you perceived all those differences they were just very very slight and even some of it could be "brain burn in"?

Thanks and yes as signed and sworn. Trigger pulled on leather pads.

 

[Dsnuts]

Quote:

 
So which AT model would that have been originally?

I forget which one but AT rebranded these same headphones to be these as well.

Allen n Heath XOne 40.. Same as my Denon HP500. I like how mine looks better though. Not so cheap looking.. I read a thread a while ago when I first got these headphones in a link. That showed all 3 headphones which was manufactured by AT. I think it is indeed the Audio Technica SJ5 which the pads on cute's link is actually made for.

They look different. But use same drivers. Are the same headphones.
 
So what was the chance that I owned the perfect set of pads for my HA-S500 but never tried them. Well my Denon HP500 now has my ATH velours on them and I now have the leather pads on my HA-S500. Crazy. The resolution in what I am hearing from this combo is just mind blowing. I am 100% certain you guys who are taking the plunge on the ATH leather pads are going to love them on your HA-S500.  Going from the ATH velours to these. These put the depth back in the sounds that was less evident on the velours. These are just perfect. Vocals are the best I have heard on any headphone I have. It has to be. lol. Ericp. GET these Pads.!! That is an order! That is if you want a 40mm version of your FXD70! Do it!

 

[rickdohc]

DS, do i need to buy the headphone, do they sell those pads alone?T
 
Seems they are bigger so that should help with comfort to uhh?

 

[rickdohc]

Quote:

So far these are the sound characteristics of the pads that I have used.
 
HD25 velours.= Mid forward, a bit warmer sound, best bass presence, a tad lesser highs than stock but just a tad. Not missing any details however.
 
ATH velours= The most open sound out of the 3. Much lesser bass, the flattest sound of the 3, Even more extended highs, flat mids.Good sub bass with no mid bass. Sound like the FXD80 the most
 
ATH leather= Sound while not as open sounding as the velours has the best balanced sound out of the 3 types so far.. A tad mid forward. EricP.. These pads you need to get. You know why?.Yes you hear right. I think the fact that these go back to a closed sound while having the balance they do makes them sound closet to the FXD70 more than the FXD80. A bigger scale version of the FXD70.

 
ok,  guys do whe have other options to add?
 
I got the ATH Velours.