[Clement Zeng]

Hi all, after a lot of online researching and I'd like to share what I just discovered, a very inexpensive and easy way to get some soft fabric on the non-breathable m50. I didn't even go out or place $20 online order. All you need is a pair of new socks, cut a section off, wrap it onto the original earpad and tuck in. No damage to the earphone, and you can choose your own style for almost nothing. Enjoy!
 

 

[FuzzyD]

Ha! That is great. I'll post my pics and impressions of the srh940 pads soon. 

 

[DancetoExpress]

Quote:

Ha! That is great. I'll post my pics and impressions of the srh940 pads soon. 

Can't wait to hear Though my pads aren't cracking or anything, I'm curious how much better these other pads feel/sound.

 

[chinesedevil]

Haha fantastic sock mod, didn't even think of that!!
 
gunna give it a shot, costs too much to get new pleather pads here in canada.. nearly 50% the cost of the headphone just for the pads.

 

[Typhoon859]

So I've went through several pages in the beginning, middle, and end of this thread.  So umm, lol, has anyone REALLY found replaceable pads for the M50's, whether it pleather or velour, that make them more comfortable and sound no worse?  Different is ok, as long as it's not worse.  My thoughts from the very beginning though was that the drivers can't be further because that would worsen the sound for sure.  I'd go with the sock idea, but I wouldn't be sure exactly what I'm doing and I kinda think different pads with little to no negative effects in terms of SQ would be better regardless...  I really do find the default M50 pads really uncomfortable and definitely a cheap feel to them.
 
PS- What/where are the "440" pads?

 

[ZeNmAc]

Quote:

So I've went through several pages in the beginning, middle, and end of this thread.  So umm, lol, has anyone REALLY found replaceable pads for the M50's, whether it pleather or velour, that make them more comfortable and sound no worse?  Different is ok, as long as it's not worse.  My thoughts from the very beginning though was that the drivers can't be further because that would worsen the sound for sure.  I'd go with the sock idea, but I wouldn't be sure exactly what I'm doing and I kinda think different pads with little to no negative effects in terms of SQ would be better regardless...  I really do find the default M50 pads really uncomfortable and definitely a cheap feel to them.
 
PS- What/where are the "440" pads?

 
IMO no.  Halfway through I realized any pads would change the sound, most of them for the worse.  The only solution would be if AT made velour pads, and as we're figuring out there's probably a reason why they didn't.
 
Sure you can probably find some that are ok if you're happy with a messed up frequency response, but the point of having studio monitors is to have a decent frequency response.  IMO the beyer dt250 pads were terrible, but somehow some ppl seemed to like them

.  TBH I don't think the pleather pads are that bad, they're much better quality than cheap headphones.  Mine are starting to crack a little and the top pad that goes over the head has peeled up a little.  They still sound great though.
 
I think 440 refers to pads from shure headphones.
 
TBH if you hate pleather pads that much, get some DT770's (higher impedance ones) or something that's designed with velour in mind.

 

[Typhoon859]

Quote:

 
IMO no.  Halfway through I realized any pads would change the sound, most of them for the worse.  The only solution would be if AT made velour pads, and as we're figuring out there's probably a reason why they didn't.
 
Sure you can probably find some that are ok if you're happy with a messed up frequency response, but the point of having studio monitors is to have a decent frequency response.  IMO the beyer dt250 pads were terrible, but somehow some ppl seemed to like them

.  TBH I don't think the pleather pads are that bad, they're much better quality than cheap headphones.  Mine are starting to crack a little and the top pad that goes over the head has peeled up a little.  They still sound great though.
 
I think 440 refers to pads from shure headphones.
 
TBH if you hate pleather pads that much, get some DT770's (higher impedance ones) or something that's designed with velour in mind.

Hmm, I see...  Well, I think it might be worth it for me to try one of the ones which brought the best results anyway since now I have another pair of headphones which I like a lot more in almost every way (tbh).  So, my M50's I'd like to use just for casual listening as a second random test pair and/or for secondary use when somebody is over at my place.  I'd obviously give them the better phones to use ("better" phones if you really wanna put it that way). 
 
Up until I got these Brainwavz HM5's (pretty much the same in design as the FA-003's) a few days ago, which are the ones I was talking about earlier, I probably would've agreed with you that "I hate pleather pads".  I couldn't imagine them not having the same or at least similar effects as what the ones on the M50's have, even if a bit better.  I was wrong.  Those cushiony pads couldn't be any more comfortable.  They don't make me sweat, even in the area that they sit on, or at least very minimally do so; they isolate sound incredibly well, especially relatively; they don't press in the ears because they're deep enough; I honestly barely feel them.  For the M50's, it really is just poor design or simply  not prioritized in the slightest.  That may be the case for any headphones in that style though; I don't know.  Regardless, it is what it is. 
 
Just because it's against my nature though, I'd still probably find it hard to put random pads on the headphones which would in turn worsen the sound.  For my purposes now, I guess a little bit of compromise would be okay and I just wanna know what the best exchange in pros for cons would be.  These are in fact popular headphones; I find it surprising that nobody has found anything definitive enough to be convinced in their findings over all others, in a detailed manner.  Everybody just has their own thing that they've done with few who actually came up with a result they felt was definitely final for ___ reasons.  I'm hoping though that there is somebody, as certainly I'm not up for the task.  I'd really appreciate somebody who did actually put in the time, money, and effort into this, that'd share their findings if for sure convinced.
 
Anyway, thank for your help!

 

[FuzzyD]

My M50s were purchased in December of 2010 and I used them with the factory ear pads for about 10 months or so before I really started looking for alternatives. I use these mostly at work and some days for about 5 or 6 hours. The pads had started to show minor cracking on the main surface and were losing their plushness and softness. Most importantly for me at the time however was that I just wanted something that felt softer and cooler around my ears and on my skin. The pleather tends to get a little sweaty and uncomfortable after a while. I ordered the Shure SRH-940 velour pads from Amazon. At first I did a straight forward swap. Out with the old, in with the new! They were instantly more comfortable from a texture/coolness perspective but not from a fit and form perspective. The 940 pads are a little taller than the M50 pads. They aren't really much wider except that they are much stretchier overall than the M50 pads so all together they end up feeling loose and "shifty" on your head and on the headphones themselves. They aren't so big that they fall off but too loose for my taste nonetheless. Their bigger size also gives a small amount flex or flabbiness (not speaking sonically here) to the felt covering the speaker. You can push on it and it just feels like there's too much material there in the middle where as the M50 pads of course are nice and snug and stretched evenly across the inside. I also tried Clement Zeng's sock mod at one point, but even with a thin pair of dress socks, it took up too much of the inner circumference of the pads.
 
I was finding the looseness of the 940 pads as distracting as the M50s' pads were sweaty/uncomfortable. I found my solution to all of this in a roll of weather stripping I had lying around in my basement. You can see how I applied the stripping below. My particular stripping wasn't as adhesive (it may just be too old) as I would have liked for this application making it a bit of a challenge to get the 940 pads on there without shifting it and keeping it from coving the holes around the top and bottom of the speaker diaphragm plate. Once it was on though it provided the snug fit they needed with the added benefit of a slightly larger soundstage. You'll notice in the last picture below how much thicker than 940 pad now appears with the weather stripping inside next to the M50 pad. The inner circumference of the 940 pads being larger also means more room for those of us with larger ears. 
 
So, how does this mod affect the sound? In short; only slightly. I mentioned the weather stripping inside provides the benefit of a soundstage that is just a touch larger. The primary difference to my ears was slightly less extension on the low end. This was most evident when I A-B'ed some dub step (something which I never listen to) with very deep bass but much, much harder for me to detect with the kind of music I actually listen to (acoustic, jazz, alternative rock, classical). I wouldn't necessarily regard this point as a negative either. Some may see it as the bass on the M50s now being slightly "tamed" if they felt there was a little too much to begin with. They also don't isolate quite as well as pleather but this should be expected.
 
All in all I'm pleased with the comfort now and it only comes at the expense of slightly reduced low end extension but with a slightly larger soundstage. A tradeoff I'm very happy to make. 

 

M50 pad next to 940 pad (without the weather stripping)	Side by side (no weather stripping here). Pad depth pretty comparable
M50 on the left, 940 on the right. Hard to notice a difference from this side	Application of the weather stripping
Weather stripping applied. Much fuller looking pad compared to picture number 2	Both 940 pads and weather stripping applied here
Weather stripping applied. You can see a bit more depth compared to M50, leading to larger soundstage

 
*the small burn mark on the left cup (picture 2) is from accidentally touching my soldering iron to the plastic when I reduced the length of the cable a few months back 

 

[Canadian Beacon]

hmmmmm..... I have a strong feeling they won't fit, but they're kinda stretchy so it might be worth a try, if only I could figure out how to get the XB500 pads off.

 

[FuzzyD]

If they're too big, maybe the XB300 pads would fit better. Not really sure why these would be much more or less or comfortable though.

 

[Canadian Beacon]

The xb500 pads are actually too small in diameter (the part that goes around the headphone and slips in, might work if I stretch them, the point is I have huge ears and I don't like the way my ear gets up against the driver with the m50s, something they never did with the xb500.
 

 

[imnickhello]

looks awesome, im going to do the removable cable mod and maybe order some of these pads
 
great work

 

[OmarCCX]

Just changed my M50 pads for Shure 840 pads. The comfort now is miles ahead of the stock pads. Isolation is slightly less, but still very good. Still haven't listened to it much to comment on the sound, but so far I can't seem to tell if there's a difference between them.

 

[shrimants]

sorry to bring up an old thread but its only a month old and i thought i'd comment. The srh-840 pads is what i have on mine and thats the only way i can stand to listen to it anymore. my stock pads are VERY hard pleather ,it almost feels like plastic. the srh-840 pads were initially bought from a comfort standpoint but i AB'd between my headphones and someone with stock pads (and more recently my gf's ath-m50's ) and found that the srh-840 pads give the ath-m50 a beyerdynamic-esque sound. The bass is tamed but still extends very far and is still plenty present. it is just not as loud and definitely not as overpowering. The treble is the main problem now, because that is brought out to levels that i would start to consider a bit too sparkly and harsh. The highs leave me a bit fatigued now whereas before the bass is what would fatigue me. I tried listening to some rusko despite me disliking his music and the clash between extreme highs with harshness and extreme lows made it unbearable to listen to. Nero is OK but i cant have the volume turned up to my usual levels because again, treble harshness hurts my ears even though mids and bass are not at all loud for me. I want to say that maybe adding some more damping felt directly on top of the driver holes might tame the treble harshness but i dont want to make things muddy too. maybe a cut circle of some closed cell foam or something would help. But yeah, i'm totally happy with these right now. I plan on sock modding on top of this srh-840 pad mod just to keep the pads in place and in good "health", and maybe the softness of the socks will add to the damping of the treble, who knows.

 

[OmarCCX]

Quote:

sorry to bring up an old thread but its only a month old and i thought i'd comment. The srh-840 pads is what i have on mine and thats the only way i can stand to listen to it anymore. my stock pads are VERY hard pleather ,it almost feels like plastic. the srh-840 pads were initially bought from a comfort standpoint but i AB'd between my headphones and someone with stock pads (and more recently my gf's ath-m50's

) and found that the srh-840 pads give the ath-m50 a beyerdynamic-esque sound. The bass is tamed but still extends very far and is still plenty present. it is just not as loud and definitely not as overpowering. The treble is the main problem now, because that is brought out to levels that i would start to consider a bit too sparkly and harsh. The highs leave me a bit fatigued now whereas before the bass is what would fatigue me. I tried listening to some rusko despite me disliking his music and the clash between extreme highs with harshness and extreme lows made it unbearable to listen to. Nero is OK but i cant have the volume turned up to my usual levels because again, treble harshness hurts my ears even though mids and bass are not at all loud for me. I want to say that maybe adding some more damping felt directly on top of the driver holes might tame the treble harshness but i dont want to make things muddy too. maybe a cut circle of some closed cell foam or something would help. But yeah, i'm totally happy with these right now. I plan on sock modding on top of this srh-840 pad mod just to keep the pads in place and in good "health", and maybe the softness of the socks will add to the damping of the treble, who knows.

 
I agree. The 840 pads are massively better than the stock pads, but they're a bit harsh and silibant. I'm waiting for my 940 pads to arrive next week because right now my M50s are pad-less (840 pads are stretched from the T50RPs and don't fit anymore). 
I also tried paxmate below the pads to raise them, and I really like them this way. There's more soundstage and it also gives me more room for my ears, which is always nice. I'll try to compare 940 pads with the 840 pads if I get a chance.