Hey all,
I've posted a few times on this thread in the past. Very cool to see just how much attention the 540 Golds get, especially when seeing how many posts this thread has! I have a few things to add to the thread, which may or may not have already been specified here before. With over 250 pages of content, you'll have to forgive me if I've missed some posts.
First of all, I've owned my 600 Ohm 540 Golds since early 2020, and have enjoyed every moment of ownership. They are a very nice balance between the technical performance I hear with my STAX headphones, and the tonal balance and richness I get with cans like my BS650. They don't have the lush and full-bodied low end that the 650's have, but they definitely come pretty close on the right chain. They are a much more lively can with better headstage, layering, and laser imaging. I definitely prefer the 540 Gold to the lsn HD800 I compared it to. The HD800 was way too diffuse sounding and had very thin midrange. The HD540's sounded much better to my ears. The 540's share somewhat of the same 'diffuse' presentation, but it is much realer sounding without hiding vocals too deep into the mix. I like that they can be incredibly intimate when the music calls for it, but also have a fairly wide and believable stage at the same time. Some may consider them to be bright, but I feel they are just on the bright side of neutral. Their bright presentation may be accentuated by the lack of bass on specific chains. Upper midrange can become fatiguing at higher listening levels on an unforgiving chain, but I rarely have this issue. The bass that is there is pretty clean and punchy. Definitely has more body and impact when compared to the hollow bass that most STAX cans offer. The midrange clarity and timbre are what keep me coming back to these headphones. They have a special 'magic' that is very addicting. It is something that has to be heard to be understood. I also own a couple pairs of 540 Reference 1s (600 ohm), but they don't give the same impression I get with the Golds.
Some of my favorite albums to play on the 540 Golds are 'Water Falls' by Sara K, 'Companion' by Patricia Barber, 'Nightbird' by Eva Cassidy, 'Love Scenes' by Diana Krall, and 'Sessions from the 17th Ward' by Amber Rubarth. These albums captivate exactly what the 540's do so well - from vocal intimacy and timbre to spatial presentation and emotion. The 540's really excel with female vocals, piano, strings, and brass instruments.
I have rolled through quite a bit of pads for the Reference Golds, and I have to admit the OEM Sennheiser velour pads offer the best sound signature. I spent a considerable amount of time searching for the OEM hybrid pads, but to my dismay they sounded pretty terrible. They made the Golds extremely bright, and took away the midrange texture and bass body that made these headphones special. Too bad, as I paid a lot of money for them. They came on a cosmetically mint pair of early Reference 1 600 ohm 540's which arrived with one driver not working! So a total loss for me. I have also experimented with pads from Brainwavez and the "Wang" pads sold on eBay that have become ubiquitous in this thread. The Wang pleather pads have come closest to the OEM velour pads, but they still aren't the same. I am beyond thankful that the 540s do not have a high clamp pressure like the 6x0 series that need new pads every few months. My OEM velour pads are still going strong after all this time and they don't show any signs of degradation. I am thinking of sending my pads out to a company like Vesper to have them replicate the pads all the way down to dimensions, velour material, and density / thickness of the foam. I remember hearing someone mention doing this, but I have yet to see anything come of it. So I may have to be the guinea pig.
I have been researching the 540 Golds for a while now, and have a few notes I would like to add to this thread which include serial numbers, baffle colors, and impedance variations. It is well known that the early versions of the 540 Gold are 600 ohm, and the later versions (S/N's past ~13,000) are 300 ohm. The general consensus is that the 600 ohm versions are the ones to have, but something that is not too well known is the baffle variations within the 600 ohm versions. I have gathered that there are are two baffle versions of the 600 ohm 540 Golds - White screen and black screen. Serial numbers don't appear to correspond with the changes, as a friend of mine owns a pair of white screen 540 Golds that were very close to the serial number of my black screen 540 Golds. Friends that have compared the white screen 600 ohm versions to the black screen 600 ohm versions agree that they are inferior, even with the same pads and tuning rings installed. I will attach photos to this thread to illustrate what I am talking about here:
As you can see above, the center screens are different. I have no firsthand experience when comparing the two, but I trust my friend's ears here.
If you have a pair of 540 Golds, I would appreciate if you posted the baffle you have, along with the serial number of your pair. The black screen 540 Golds posted above are S/N 009437, and the white screen pair is S/N 009030. Both of which are stamped 600 and measure 600 ohms static resistance. It is interesting that Sennheiser changed the baffle/screen material arbitrarily between these examples, but the same can be said about the 580/6x0 series headphones as well. Photos of the internal structure / damping of my 540 Golds can be found
here.
I went to a meetup held by Schiit Audio in MA a handful of months back, and brought the 540 Golds along with me to let others hear. Most everyone was extremely surprised with their sound signature / performance. The room was filled with multi-kilobuck headphones, and the 540's held their own. I had a few people tell me that they were going to search for a pair too. It was very cool to see others enjoy such an old 'antiquated' pair of unsuspecting headphones
I have a short video uploaded to YouTube showing the 540's playing some music. Not meant to be an accurate representation of them, it was more for fun when I originally uploaded...
I may come back to edit / update this post in the future as I am always interested in researching deeper into the 540 Golds. Happy listening!