Howdy yall. So couple of things that could be helpful to someone.
1. My "zomo" brand velour HD25 pads came in this morning. See pic below. The holes are smaller even than the HD25 pleather. My immediate response when playing a track with lots of acoustic guitar is how great they sounded and how much the soundstage had expanded just as has been described on here. The volume difference was considerable to the HD25 pleather due to the velour absorbing more sound -- had to crank em up a bit more.
Then i was waiting to compare the bass... and waiting... and it never quite came. These really killed the full yet controlled bass that I had going with the HD 25 pads. The more i listened there was also a drop off in the mids.
The highs sounded detailed and nice at first but after listening for a while my ears were quite fatigued which is something i wasn't experiencing before. I realzied this was because some of the higher freq's were penetrating straight through and my having to turn up the volume to get more out of the low mids and lows due to the absorbtion of the velour caused strain from the highs on my ears.
So ive switched back to authentic HD25 Pleathers and I think Im gunna stay there although I still have the ATH velours to try out recommended by dsnuts when they come in the mail.
2. Another mod I am going to do, probably when I recable these, is switch the right and left. I want someone else to try this too and tell me how it affects sound for you, but I noticed that the stopper that prevents the cups from swiveling too far, actually causes a strange fit on my ears with more pressure on the back of my ear and a gap in the front. I have to put the headband behind the crown of my head (toward the back of my head) to get a proper seal which obviously makes them less secure on my head.
If you wear them backwards (left on right ear and right on left ear), the cups can rotate with the angle of your ears. Instead of putting all of the pressure toward the back of your ears they put pressure evenly on your cheek and ear creating a) a much better seal and b) better comfort. To my ears this better seal sounds better.
So I am pretty certain I am going to switch it or open it and remove the stop so they can swivel further.
Im bummed the HD25 velours didn't work for my ears cuz they are super comfy in comparrison.
get the blue (I did a best offer and he accepted at 32 bucks) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sennheiser-Official-HD25-1-ii-Adidas-Originals-Blue-Earpads-and-Headband-Pads-/251084581758?pt=US_DJ_Monitoring_Headphones&hash=item3a75ceab7e
