Different pads on any pair of headphones changes the sound, the acoustic space between the driver and your ear is changed, the vibrations interact differently with different material surfaces and if the material is porous or not (in this case neither is) changes a lot.
There are actually three types of modern lambda pads: First the old pleather ones with foam screens that sound very nice to my ear, a little veiled, softer, sweeter, very graceful and with the greatest soundstage of them all. I found the foam really uncomfortable as it touched my ear which is why I got the leathers, but sonically I thought they were great.
Then there are the unfortunate modern pleather ones with cloth screens and sticky underpadded pleather which sound, in my opinion, absolutely terrible. The treble is squawky, the sound just a bit smeared all over and they feel horrible on the ears. I doubt I'd have ever liked lambdas if I'd heard them with those pads first. I find it really hard to believe someone at Stax thought that was an improvement on the old style.
For my tastes they sound best with the leathers. They maybe have a tiny amount more bass quantity but obvious greater bass impact, are clearer across the frequency range and an increased vibrancy of the sound. I know "vibrancy" is a bit of a vague term, but you're not going to get how the sound changes without hearing for yourself anyway.
And yes, they are much less sweaty on the ears. Whether the sound is preferred will no doubt vary person to person but I'd have trouble believing anyone could disagree they are the most cool and comfortable of them all.
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Beside comfort, could you explain the sound improvement from the 507 pads ? How they sound better and why it could be so (shape, dimensions, material, etc...)
Also, I find my original Lambda very hot. I wonder how the pads material could change that... Any experience with that ?
Thanks all,
