[510198]

What pads do you have on them now? I've found the chinese Beyerdynamic DT 880 velour pads to be best for the imaging, certainly using them for gaming that way.

Im not sure about the pads because the original owner had swapped them with these velour replacements awhile back. I got golds for $250 shipped, so I was not complaining.

I kinda wish I had the rare cloth pads like “Miori” just got on his HD540G out of curiosity. I feel like the only way to get original pads is if you find a headphone with them nowadays.

 

[dakanao]

Im not sure about the pads because the original owner had swapped them with these velour replacements awhile back. I got golds for $250 shipped, so I was not complaining.

I kinda wish I had the rare cloth pads like “Miori” just got on his HD540G out of curiosity. I feel like the only way to get original pads is if you find a headphone with them nowadays.

Original pads (with the outdated original foam inside of them) are nothing special, way too bright and thin sounding because of the old dead memory foam, so in that sense aftermarket pads will be more balanced. Haven't heard the originals with new foam in them though.

Hopefully tomorrow new thin pads with sheepskin leather will arrive as recommended in this thread before, having the intimacy of the wang pleathers, and timbre of Brainwavz Sheepskins

 

[510198]

Original pads (with the outdated original foam inside of them) are nothing special, way too bright and thin sounding because of the old dead memory foam, so in that sense aftermarket pads will be more balanced. Haven't heard the originals with new foam in them though.

Hopefully tomorrow new thin pads with sheepskin leather will arrive as recommended in this thread before, having the intimacy of the wang pleathers, and timbre of Brainwavz Sheepskins

Well, ill take your word for it on OG pads.
I also have another HD250 1 coming soon, so I can have more bass when im in the mood.

 

[sennsay]

Gee, no matter how much I play around with my HD250 Linear 1s, they still get little use. I really don't like the particular 'quality' of the bass in them, though the mids and treble are indeed remarkably linear. The German replacement pleather pads are ok and have excellent mid focus, but that bass ... mmm, it's not for me,it's like an entity unto itself that shelves above the mid/treble balance. The HD540 Ref1s are far more linear from top to bottom than the HD250s are! I will likely go back to the 'wang' DT880 velour pads and see if I can get more use out of them. Otherwise I may just sell them and buy another pair of HD540 Ref1s in case (for when!) I wear out my 30 year old veterans
The Ref1s are so well balanced that I can actually use them with almost any decent amp and get the same great results, they're easier to drive than the HifiMAN HE400S, despite the latter 22 ohm impedance! The amount of extra dialing in of the volume control for the HE400S is quite something. Nothing else brings the same level of overall natural balance that comes with the HD540 Ref1s as I have them, I'll take an organically holistic balance over a tiny bit of extra detail almost any day, especially for extended listening. The thing with the Ref1s is that I am not listening to a hifi system with them, it's just emotionally connective music that I melt into, the gear disappears and that just doesn't happen to that degree with any of the other headphones I've heard or own.

PS My HD250s are 300 ohms.

 

[510198]

I am also a little iffy about my HD250 600ohm with velour pads. They are not perfect, but on my bottlehead crack they are pretty enjoyable. I have a second pair coming in with original pads and cable. Im definitely keeping mine. Lots of fun for only $70 bucks!

 

[Miori]

I kinda wish I had the rare cloth pads like “Miori” just got on his HD540G out of curiosity. I feel like the only way to get original pads is if you find a headphone with them nowadays.

In order to save my pads like now I was thinking to try the velour ones from Ref1 OG and compare them deeply. Then I Will report It.

If the quality of Gold Will be still there I Will Be really happy.
I'm really not able to let them in the wood box.

 

[Miori]

I use to believe that trustable companies when are choosing the right pads are knowing what are doing. Sound frequences are not only three big areas, timbre of instruments Is so accurate that a little change is a big difference in what brain is hearing. Many people use to looking for fun during their sessons of listening, others are longing for accuracy. When HD540 was in production Sennheiser was trying to reproduce instruments timbre in the best way as possibile at period. I love my HD540 because when I'm hearing acoustic, folk and jazz music my brain Is telling me that everything Is as it should be. No Tricks.
My only SIN is Mogami cable but... ready to hell...

 

[Malfunkt]

So it's been a while since I have posted here. For a while I was enamoured by the reference tone of my Etymotic ER4SR.

Later the HD800.

And now finally, Utopia. I can easily say, one of the best headphones I have ever heard.

I won't get into too much depth at the moment, but I will definitely do so overtime for those interested in detailed comparisons between the Sennheiser HD540 Reference 1 (300ohm fabric pads).

My reference piece this morning was an excellent recording of Monteverdi - Teatro d'Amore l'arpeggiate & Christina Pluhar.

In short, the HD540 still bests the HD800 and now the Focal Utopia in its own masterful way. The short of it - the 540 is effortless to listen to on this type of dynamic classical recording. No sharpness to the vocals, yet with a breathy top-end realism (that will come across as bright for anything but the best recordings) that I have not heard on either HD600, HD650, HD800, LCD4 and surprisingly the Utopia.

If it was this type of recording and similar you listened to primarily, I would say the HD540 captures emotion, timbre and soul like nothing else. It isn't so much as which is better*, its that the 540 brings something to the table that these don't.

I'm actually kind of shocked. The Focal Utopia has been an incredible reference on to itself, and the experience of using it has helped me appreciate the qualities of other speakers, sound and presentation. It has only made my estimation of the HD540 that much more.

And this is all running the 540 out of my O2. Warm it up to taste - as it has room to bloom with different amps.

Nothing else brings the same level of overall natural balance that comes with the HD540 Ref1s as I have them, I'll take an organically holistic balance over a tiny bit of extra detail almost any day, especially for extended listening. The thing with the Ref1s is that I am not listening to a hifi system with them, it's just emotionally connective music that I melt into, the gear disappears and that just doesn't happen to that degree with any of the other headphones I've heard or own.

PS My HD250s are 300 ohms.

*and, yes, the Utopia is still better overall. The presentation of the 540 is still masterful and lively.

 

[510198]

So it's been a while since I have posted here. For a while I was enamoured by the reference tone of my Etymotic ER4SR.

Later the HD800.

And now finally, Utopia. I can easily say, one of the best headphones I have ever heard.

I won't get into too much depth at the moment, but I will definitely do so overtime for those interested in detailed comparisons between the Sennheiser HD540 Reference 1 (300ohm fabric pads).

My reference piece this morning was an excellent recording of Monteverdi - Teatro d'Amore l'arpeggiate & Christina Pluhar.

In short, the HD540 still bests the HD800 and now the Focal Utopia in its own masterful way. The short of it - the 540 is effortless to listen to on this type of dynamic classical recording. No sharpness to the vocals, yet with a breathy top-end realism (that will come across as bright for anything but the best recordings) that I have not heard on either HD600, HD650, HD800, LCD4 and surprisingly the Utopia.

If it was this type of recording and similar you listened to primarily, I would say the HD540 captures emotion, timbre and soul like nothing else. It isn't so much as which is better*, its that the 540 brings something to the table that these don't.

I'm actually kind of shocked. The Focal Utopia has been an incredible reference on to itself, and the experience of using it has helped me appreciate the qualities of other speakers, sound and presentation. It has only made my estimation of the HD540 that much more.

And this is all running the 540 out of my O2. Warm it up to taste - as it has room to bloom with different amps.



*and, yes, the Utopia is still better overall. The presentation of the 540 is still masterful and lively.

540s are special... I listen to so much high end hp and gear at a meet a month ago and found that my HD540 holds its own even in todays hifi market. A real gem.

Off topic, but how are the Sony F1s you have? Ive read that it has great soundstage/imaging....
not like HD600 3 blob

 

[SHAMuuu]

540s are special... I listen to so much high end hp and gear at a meet a month ago and found that my HD540 holds its own even in todays hifi market. A real gem.

Off topic, but how are the Sony F1s you have? Ive read that it has great soundstage/imaging....
not like HD600 3 blob

I can input little bit on F1 FWIW
They sound like kwap.
BUT, there is no equal in comfort. I am waiting on some dekoni fenestrated dt pads. beyer pads fit. i put 007 pads to try out. So you can control the "angle" with angled pads. from its stock i think 30 degrees you can increase to like 40 degrees or down to 20ish if you reverse angle the pad. Hopefully you understand what i mean.
Soundstage can be blobish, but generally it is immersive and 3D as sound will travel all over your head from one ear to the other and vice versa
Now, some songs sound AMAZING on them, but most won't RELATIVE to most mid-fi cans of today and the hifi of 80s/90s
In saying that, its a perfect browsing can for youtube and such and low volume music listening.
You can wear these ALL DAY with the right pads. Not like how people say you can wear hd600/ k701/ dt880 all day, like really ALL DAY all day
Its more of an "art piece" and a "brief romance" type of can. And one can live without them.
But if you get them for browsing and "easy listening" for example movies on moderate volume, older movies with very little music etc. voices and mids are "accurate enough"
and there is mid bass, though attenuated relative to something like a hd600, and no sub-bass really to speak of.
In terms of value: if one can acquire a decent pair around 100-150, and new pads for 50 and knows what they are getting, ok.
*Refurbing an old pair is a PITA (due to fabric of headband and pad where ear would make contact with (sometimes yellow on old pairs and needs to be removed or layer of thin acoustically transparent felt needs to cover,) Stock pads were thin so ear would touch, but most aftermarket will make your ear free... like a bird... perfect comfort. Just needs Focal Utopia driver mod

 

[Hairspray]

Hi there. It's been a while since I've posted here.
It might be old news, but I hope this could be interesting for some of you who worries about "rattle", which was my case.
Chances are high that it is NOT related to a driver defect.
Just clean up the cups (hair, dust, etc.) and you will be fine.
Here under a useful short Youtube vid I found:

(credits: "GamingTaylor" channel)

 

[sennsay]

I have a new set of cans to play with for a few days, I've been lent a pair of as new HD540 IIs, beautiful condition. Cables are the stock 3m replacements from Sennheiser, fairly thin, flexible and with the 3.5mm jack. I was sent a set of these cables from Sennheiser a number of years back for my Ref1s, they are 'ok', but I seemed to always go back to my old original steel cables at the time, they simply had more life (despite, but not necessarily because of, the tendency to expose the upper mids) and a more open and often deeper bass, paradoxically. The owner of the Ref IIs received them with some pleather pads when they came from Germany.
My 'job' is to not only review them for him with the various amps I've got here, but also play around with my own pleather pads (Wang) and the Mogami cables. For the moment, they are stock as I received them and running them from my hot-rodded amp (with an a-gd Earth HDAM), Elekit valve preamp/Mimby DAC and QP1R, they sound good for starters. They are fairly evenly balanced so far, not especially detailed as such, not bright yet have a tinselly treble peak in a narrow band. And it really is a thin peak that lacks body, just certain percussive instruments that take on this .. well .. tinselly colouration that is completely absent from my Ref1s. I'm guessing that those of you who have the Ref IIs will know what I mean. Bass has a touch more meat on it than the Ref1s, though does not improve the weight of individual instruments and they lack some transparency. I will work on that over the coming days to see what combos of pads and cables might take them to the best I can get them here and then pass that information on to the owner.
I haven't fully checked them over yet, but I am presuming them to be 300 ohm cans, as they are a good 2-3dB more efficient than my Ref1s. They're pretty good though and I have no need to go over 11:30 -12 o'clock on the dial with volume. Correspondingly, the HifiMAN HE400S will sit at 9 o'clock and the HD540 Ref1s at around 2. The Ref1s sound wonderful at most volumes, but really come alive with some volume, never shouting at me in the process. The HE400S are noticeably a little brighter and more forward than either of the HD540s, my Ref1s more 3D and dimensionally intimate than the Ref IIs .. so far.
Still, they sound good from the word go, almost surprisingly so, smoother than expected, I'm picking that the soft pleather pads have quite a bit to do with it and the slight blandness overall is pretty much what the stock cables sound like.
It's a great opportunity to hear another pair of HD540s and it not only gives me a wider scope of experience, but a barometer to hear how well my Ref1s are going .. or not.

 

[dakanao]

So it turns out the timbre of these pads https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07G5WVPR3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 isn't that good for music listening. It sounds a bit peaky around 8khz, while limiting the upper end extension. At the same time, it's more full bodied at the lower mids than other pads.

The imaging is the best out of all the pads I've tried though, and for gaming an absolute winner (since you don't need perfect timbre for gaming)

The wang pleathers still are my favorites for music listening.

 

[ShredOhr]

I have sold my HD540 and decided to keep my HD545 Reference. I prefer the more forward mids on the HD545 for a better vocal performance. HD540 has more distant mids and overall the instruments are spanned further apart from each other in a noticably bigger soundstage.
This tuning delivers a better sense of space and the treble has a great sparkle. Literally, when playing PUBG, on Erangel, there are houses with a lamp where you can hear electricy once in a while as an environmental sound effect and it trully sounds astonighingly realistic.
Never had this feeling with the HD650 or HD545, their highs sound muffled compared to it, lack exitement. But overall, i favored the HD545 Ref. because it gives me awesome mids, decent bass with no mid-bass bloat and acceptable highs with a bigger soundstage than the HD650 and with much better imaging capabilities. For music and gaming, i would either take the 545 or the 540. 650 cannot compete when it comes to imaging and pinpoint precision within the soundstage. I have to cringe when i spot them in the signature of someone's gaming rig...

 

[dakanao]

I have sold my HD540 and decided to keep my HD545 Reference. I prefer the more forward mids on the HD545 for a better vocal performance. HD540 has more distant mids and overall the instruments are spanned further apart from each other in a noticably bigger soundstage.
This tuning delivers a better sense of space and the treble has a great sparkle. Literally, when playing PUBG, on Erangel, there are houses with a lamp where you can hear electricy once in a while as an environmental sound effect and it trully sounds astonighingly realistic.
Never had this feeling with the HD650 or HD545, their highs sound muffled compared to it, lack exitement. But overall, i favored the HD545 Ref. because it gives me awesome mids, decent bass with no mid-bass bloat and acceptable highs with a bigger soundstage than the HD650 and with much better imaging capabilities. For music and gaming, i would either take the 545 or the 540. 650 cannot compete when it comes to imaging and pinpoint precision within the soundstage. I have to cringe when i spot them in the signature of someone's gaming rig...

While I haven't heard the HD 545, I do agree that the HD 650 isn't good for gaming. The soundstage simply is too closed in and flat, so the imaging isn't 3D.

For music listening, the HD 650, is more fun than the HD 540 Gold imo, just because it has a more intimate sound, with a more decent bass response. Though it has a little bit of grain somewhere in the uppermids, something that the HD 540 Gold is completely free of.

However, the Beyerdynamic DT 150 with DT-100 velours is more suited than both for music listening, imo. It has that refinement and smoothness of the HD 540 Gold, with a tighter bass response and more subbass presence than the HD 650.