Regarding
pads, I am slowly getting this sorted out. Few more months and best pads will be found
. Brainwavz pleather pads have thicker pleather wrap, therefore the overal sound changes into less natural sound (someoone said it kills them) but the amount of bass increases (though it is more soft) and clarity of treble decreases. Tonality goes lower (more lower frequencies) and sound is more meatier with them. So you see, thick pleather pads sound both considerably better with bass light headphones (especially with HD560 reference 1 that has brighter tonality), but also considerably worse in terms of natural sounding characteristics. Then there are those cheap chinese pleather pads from ebay whose material looks like the material from stock HD265 pads. It is pleather but it is much softer pleather, and these pads are also less thick. These pads add less bass and do not alter the sound by changing it to meatier and duller sound. They are very good option for keeping sound characteristics while making the sound a little more bass heavy and bass tighter and more clear and less soft then velour pads. Then there are original HD430 pleather pads from Thomann. Their sound is probabably very similar to cheap chinese ebay pleather pads, because they have similar height and the pleather is similarily slim. I will need to compare both. Modern pleather pads from other manufacturers are again mostly made from thick pleather wrap, so they will probably sound similarily to Brainwavz pads. Then there is perforated pleather - yet to be tested. Then there are hybrid pads, but as you know, original Hd540 Reference 1 pads are hybrid in opposite direction. Current hybrid pads have pleather sides and soft circles, while original pads had cotton sides and pleather circles. I will need to test at least one hybrid. Then there are velour pads of different thickness (some of them have thin pleather bottom circle, some of them are completely velourish). My experience is that velour makes the sound too soft and untight and warm, and that it does not suit well this generation of Sennheiser headphones. Last option is original cotton pads: some models had cotton pads that were hybrids (pleather circle) once, before the pleather circle got ripped off. Their sound is currently too bright thanks to worse condition of inner foams and absence of pleather ring, but some magic can be done with them stuffing them with wool or inner foam from any set of new pads. But they still will sound too bright. Someoone prefers it, someone will prefer soft pleather pads (including me). These cotton pads have a slim plastic ribbon inside two foam pieces, which adds tightness to the bass in the same way pleather does it. If you mod your original cotton pads, use 2 plastic ribbons instead - one in between the 2 foam rings , as it was done by Sennheiser, and one more ribbon ring below the outer side, where pleather ring used to be. Then you will get closest to the original experience.
Summary: thick pleather wrap adds soft bass and sound body but alters sound signature. Thin pleather wrap adds tiny bit of bass and tightens the bass and adds clarity. Velour sounds less clear and more warm and soft. Hybrid pads and perforated thick pleather pads will need to be tested. Cotton pads need to be modded but they still may sound too bright.
