Thank you for the suggestion. Actually, postage is not Free or that cheap for that matter, being at over €5. Altogether, it's not that cheap for a fairly generic Chinese product. If I had the guarantee that they would perform well, I wouldn't hesitate...
I'm fairly sure I didn't pay any postage a couple of years ago, but that's beside the point for you. There are certainly cheaper pads around, if not by much. I bought some German orhpolsters and didn't like them, didn't like the pleather pads that came with a pair of German HD430s either, too hard. For me the Wang pleathers have the goods for the Ref1s and by some measure the best overall performance, from lowest bass to the very top end, all other pads on this h/phone for me alter the tonal balance to some form of un-balance. The beauty of the combo for me is the apparent disappearance of the headphones themselves from the soundfield. Others may find it just a little too intimate, however the sound is far from being just in head, it seems to come from all around in height, width and depth. As I've mentioned previously, it's like stepping
into the studio, not just observing from the mixing desk. The Wang pleathers seem to have just that right depth of pad for me, plus the fact that they have oval ear openings and I much prefer that to round openings, the oval space seems to allow for a deeper soundstage in height. Obviously I have found the right ones for me, it was an experiment that brought brilliant results that I love greatly to this day, particularly with the thinner inner foams from the Wang velour pads! The extra cost of buying both sets of pads is no drama for me because the end results are so worth it sonically.
I did get to try a set of pleather pads that came with a set of HD540 IIs (300 ohm) that I borrowed for a while, these were deeper with round openings and while they focused the mids a little more, they added a slight thickness and weight to the mid bass, spoiling the superb balance I'm used to without any noticeable peaks and dips (although I'm sure they're probably there, just nothing dramatic that might cause me to not dissolve into the music so effortlessly). They were good, probably the best I've heard Wang-less
and I could live with them if I had to, 'cept the owner has no idea where they came from, since they were attached to the cans when he bought them.
Each to their own and all the best on your hunt for new pads.