[ConnorG]

Gidday, ConnorG, nice write-up there. You've brought up a couple of points for me, it was Brainwavez that were the second set of memory foam pads I tried with both the HD6xx and HD540 Ref 1s (I couldn't remember the name a few pages ago when I described them), they were as horrible as the Dekoni versions - I think memory foam with velour faces. As with you, "Dismay" was my experience too. Secondly, those white-faced pads in the pad pic are the ones that came with my second set of HD540 Ref1s, also hideous, thin and bright with almost no bass at all, I suspect that the foam was perishing, as it was a tad 'crunchy' without actually breaking up. The opposite sound to the memory foam pads.
I've had no experience with the HD540 Golds, having owned my 34 year old main Ref1s since new and not been impressed with others I've heard or needed anything else. The only time they have been 'bright' is with thin velour pads combined with the stock cable. They aren't inherently bright sounding cans. Mine are as smooth as silk as I have them here and especially so with the FrankenDAC/Burson Vivid V6. They will show up that a recording is either brighter than neutral or has the sound of digital processing that isn't especially organic. A good example being Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love album, one I have avoided for many years, even on LP, with it's quite processed digital sound. It presents, now, as the very best I've ever heard it! Frankie and the Vivid V6 let all the music through while showing the hard compression that Kate has used throughout the album, yet allowing it to be listenable and even admirable in it's creativity. Mine now sound more like the slightly lusher and fuller sound of the HD650s, yet without their staging flaws and lack of sheer timbral expression. Bass detail and focus is much better!
I'm not surprised at all that your Golds held their own at a Schiitr meet-up I'd like to have seen the looks on some of their faces.
BTW, what is the little amplifier with the fold down door flap? It looks a little familiar, as if I've seen it a long time ago but can't place it. Good of you to add all those photos, even though I don't own a pair of Golds ... yet ... it's good info to have available. Thanks for chiming in!

Thank you! Yes- the Brainwaves pads were pretty uninspiring in this application, but they weren't as bad for me as the original OEM Hybrid pads. Speaking of which, the hybrid pads I have here are like-new, except of course the pleather lining on the front of the pad falling off, and leaving the white fabric behind. This won't change sonics though, as the pleather only comes in contact with the head. The foam in my hybrid pads is like-new and is still as spongey as any new pad I have here with me. I can't stress enough how much better the 540 Golds sound with the OEM velour pads. It is truly night and day. I haven't tried the Wang velour pads, but I have heard they don't hold a candle to the originals. Shame. The originals are unobtanium now.

People at the Schiit meet were indeed very surprised - Facial expressions included. Many of them stated they sounded nothing like how they'd expect a vintage Sennheiser to sound. The tiny amplifier shown there is a Sony TA-P7F. I brought it along with me as it sounds mighty fine driving the 540 Golds. It also has a variable loudness contour circuit which, when added, really helps the 540 Golds out on the low end side of things. It's a remarkably built and great sounding little integrated amp that can even drive loudspeakers! You can learn more about it here.

 

[sennsay]

Thank you! Yes- the Brainwaves pads were pretty uninspiring in this application, but they weren't as bad for me as the original OEM Hybrid pads. Speaking of which, the hybrid pads I have here are like-new, except of course the pleather lining on the front of the pad falling off, and leaving the white fabric behind. This won't change sonics though, as the pleather only comes in contact with the head. The foam in my hybrid pads is like-new and is still as spongey as any new pad I have here with me. I can't stress enough how much better the 540 Golds sound with the OEM velour pads. It is truly night and day. I haven't tried the Wang velour pads, but I have heard they don't hold a candle to the originals. Shame. The originals are unobtanium now.

People at the Schiit meet were indeed very surprised - Facial expressions included. Many of them stated they sounded nothing like how they'd expect a vintage Sennheiser to sound. The tiny amplifier shown there is a Sony TA-P7F. I brought it along with me as it sounds mighty fine driving the 540 Golds. It also has a variable loudness contour circuit which, when added, really helps the 540 Golds out on the low end side of things. It's a remarkably built and great sounding little integrated amp that can even drive loudspeakers! You can learn more about it here.

No, I can't answer to Wang pleathers on the Golds either, I only know how fine they sound on my HD540 Ref1s and I keep ordering them, on my third set now and will order more very shortly. Soundstage is really fine in all dimensions, well ... in at least three of them anyway ... if there is little or no bass present in a recording, then there is no extra lushness added, while bass guitar is very fluid, as are low organ notes from a pipe organ, Hammond or any other keyboards. The tautness and textural detail in drums is the best I've heard yet, though much of this goodness is down to Frankie and the Burson Vivid V6 and sheer neutrality of the silver Slinkylinks ICs, they just pass through what they're given without any distortion. I'm still getting used to how fine this 15 year old DAC really is after Bursonisation though I still enjoy the Audio-gd Earth HDAM in it's place from time to time, and while it doesn't have quite the pinpoint focus of the Vivid V6, it's communication skills and very intimate connection to the emotional how and why an instrument is played (or vocals) is instantly felt in the body. This is especially true when using a good BluRay as a source and a fine main speaker system playing live shows, like the wonderful Alt-J Live at Red Rocks, it basically takes me onto the stage and you just get utterly involved with the music. No filters. Through the Ref1s, there is no head or headphones in the way, they just vanish. Since the Mogami cable connected to the cans allows all this to happen, then I have no interest in looking elsewhere for the time being there either. Like yourself, my gear is honed from years of listening and experimenting, I put the cans on my head and I'm instantly smiling.
Have you noticed that if you tap any of the surfaces on the Ref1s/Golds with a metal spatula or similar item there are no resonances? Try that with so many of todays cans, they ring like a metal can too, especially the headbands, like my HifiMan HE400S f'rinstance. Tinnnngg. No wonder they have a metallic lower treble peak, or at least a flaw in the driver that is not ameliorated by the resonant headband. They are not alone, including megabuck examples, even Hifi News magazine tests headphones regularly for such resonances and very few pass the test.
I thought I recognised the little Sony amp, I've seen one many years ago now.
The very original cloth pads that came with my Ref1s were awesome, though they would highlight the exposed upper mid peak of the stock cable .... I still loved them. Unbelievably comfortable, I used to wear them for hours at a time while dancing around the room. The Wangs add their own benefits, like a focused intimacy and bass tautness that I enjoy.
I'm a photographer and appreciate the nice pics you've shared with us.

After re-reading what you've written, I realised that you said "Wang velours". I can only add that I agree with what you've heard ... they DON'T hold a candle to the original pads! This from experience. May we never mention them again ... ... though they may be good for something ... just not anything with HD540 and Reference in the title.

PS Love that Sony gear, so well made.

 

[lantian]

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!

You still have the second felt rings that go on top right? Those are pretty important. If not that would explain your treble experience.
Don't trow those whole felt pads, their very worn by now and the foam inside is kind of half desintegrated.
Originally they had felt on them, most have it worn of or peeled off by time. My recommendation would be to find closest foam possible and restore them, their 50%of the headphones tuning.
Recently reworked two pairs of these cloth pads into one. Opens them up, took foam out. Turned out only 5-7mm of it had disintegrated rest was in pretty prestige condition. So cut that part of it, which leaf time with two sets of foams each about 13mm high.
Combined them each on top of other and put them back I to one set of my pads, had to squish it in a bit, but worked as a charm have a restored set of pads that will last for atleast a year now.
Also have a set of almost new ones that came with my 14xxx 600ohm model, which do sound the best tbh, pleather on top is mostly just for comfort.
They do have very light base compared to other tunings, but in no way is anything missing, feel like ground beneath my feet is shaking with these.
Also pretty sure colour of the silk dome screen has no affect to sound no more than the variations in them selves. So far habe. Had 6 sets go through my hand and while all have this magic sound tuning and general properties, all of them sounded different, no two sets sound alike.

 

[ConnorG]

You still have the second felt rings that go on top right? Those are pretty important. If not that would explain your treble experience.
Don't trow those whole felt pads, their very worn by now and the foam inside is kind of half desintegrated.
Originally they had felt on them, most have it worn of or peeled off by time. My recommendation would be to find closest foam possible and restore them, their 50%of the headphones tuning.
Recently reworked two pairs of these cloth pads into one. Opens them up, took foam out. Turned out only 5-7mm of it had disintegrated rest was in pretty prestige condition. So cut that part of it, which leaf time with two sets of foams each about 13mm high.
Combined them each on top of other and put them back I to one set of my pads, had to squish it in a bit, but worked as a charm have a restored set of pads that will last for atleast a year now.
Also have a set of almost new ones that came with my 14xxx 600ohm model, which do sound the best tbh, pleather on top is mostly just for comfort.
They do have very light base compared to other tunings, but in no way is anything missing, feel like ground beneath my feet is shaking with these.
Also pretty sure colour of the silk dome screen has no affect to sound no more than the variations in them selves. So far habe. Had 6 sets go through my hand and while all have this magic sound tuning and general properties, all of them sounded different, no two sets sound alike.

Yes! I have the felt tuning rings. They came with my set when I received them and I have them installed in my pair at all times.



My OEM hybrid pads (the white faced pads) are still like-new. They were likely stored in a climate controlled environment and had next to zero use, judging by the color of the fabric still being white and not faded. Like I said, the foam is still like-new, so I am not inclined to rip the pads open to replace it. I don’t use these pads though as I’ve found them to be detrimental to the sound in many ways. My two favorite pads for the 540 Reference and Reference Gold headphones are easily the OEM velour pads, and the Wang pleather pads. I use the Wang pads on my 600 ohm 540 Reference all the time. I keep the OEM velours on my 540 Gold.

 

[Domus]

A lot has already been mentioned in this thread but my tip to improve the sound of these phones imo,
the foam, see photo, was completely dry, replace it with small felt discs. I experimented with different densities until I kept the one that allowed me to feel that the sound had improved, without losing the previous quality. This tip is completely subjective, I have no scientific evidence to back it up.
PS.The foto is not mine.

 

[Backsplash7]

Yes! I have the felt tuning rings. They came with my set when I received them and I have them installed in my pair at all times.

I've never seen a picture of these showing two differently sized felt rings before. The one underneath looks similar to the ones in my 560II, but don't think I've ever seen the one with the wider hole spacing before. Has anybody tried the 540II with these before?

 

[Backsplash7]

A lot has already been mentioned in this thread but my tip to improve the sound of these phones imo,
the foam, see photo, was completely dry, replace it with small felt discs. I experimented with different densities until I kept the one that allowed me to feel that the sound had improved, without losing the previous quality. This tip is completely subjective, I have no scientific evidence to back it up.
PS.The foto is not mine.

Have you tried putting new foam here instead of felt? If so, what did you feel the felt added?

 

[AudiophileJargon]

Yes! I have the felt tuning rings. They came with my set when I received them and I have them installed in my pair at all times.



My OEM hybrid pads (the white faced pads) are still like-new. They were likely stored in a climate controlled environment and had next to zero use, judging by the color of the fabric still being white and not faded. Like I said, the foam is still like-new, so I am not inclined to rip the pads open to replace it. I don’t use these pads though as I’ve found them to be detrimental to the sound in many ways. My two favorite pads for the 540 Reference and Reference Gold headphones are easily the OEM velour pads, and the Wang pleather pads. I use the Wang pads on my 600 ohm 540 Reference all the time. I keep the OEM velours on my 540 Gold.

Nice my g!

I have owned about 4 different pairs of golds… 5 including a 300ohm version

Just looked through my photo archives as well

Same boat as @lantian
Every pair I have owned was different

Same with hd250 linear 1
I have owned about 10 pairs, variation madness basically lol

Based on the photo you posted… I have not owned /grey/white driver 600ohm…

What are the first two digits of your serial #?
My guess would be late production.
You have red and black cables as well

Added a pick of my golds

 

[lantian]

I've never seen a picture of these showing two differently sized felt rings before. The one underneath looks similar to the ones in my 560II, but don't think I've ever seen the one with the wider hole spacing before. Has anybody tried the 540II with these before?

Don't try they'll sound dead to you, only golds and hd 250s are intended to have them. Highs will be completely gone and mids recessed beyond belief.

 

[Domus]

Have you tried putting new foam here instead of felt? If so, what did you feel the felt added?

I experimented with foam also with different densities, but I ended up using a thin layer of felt and added a tiny amount of Visaton lambswool.
the differences are not extreme but closer to my reference audio system.

 

[trollchu]

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!

My serial number is 002823 with the white screen, so mine is likely a much older unit.

Listening to the recording of yours through my Focal, the decay and midrange character I hear sounds very close to what I know of my pair and the amount of treble energy I pick up is just about what I'd expect from my own. Going by that as an example, like lantian says, I wouldn't expect a significant difference if I had my pair on a table next to yours.

I'd also like to admit, I don't have the secondary ring shown in the other photo, however, I see it's identical to the ring on my Linear I, is the second ring really that important?

 

[lantian]

My serial number is 002823 with the white screen, so mine is likely a much older unit.

Listening to the recording of yours through my Focal, the decay and midrange character I hear sounds very close to what I know of my pair and the amount of treble energy I pick up is just about what I'd expect from my own. Going by that as an example, like lantian says, I wouldn't expect a significant difference if I had my pair on a table next to yours.

I'd also like to admit, I don't have the secondary ring shown in the other photo, however, I see it's identical to the ring on my Linear I, is the second ring really that important?

From my own experience, yes very much so, you can just put the ones you have in your 250s in there and see what it does. I have never tried golds without them only 250s. Cause they came with non and where very disappointing without the rings, way to sharp and felt like treble was 3db higher than base perhaps even more so. Luckily a member from here came to rescue and gifted me a pairs of those original replacement felt rings for my 250s. B fore that had to take one in and out of my second gold pair. Should make the sound more refined.

Ps checked my golds all of them have the black silk dome resonator thing 2690 black, 6824 and 14164. Every single one sounds different, the 14164 being the best.

 

[trollchu]

I was actively listening to Moonchild's Voyager album with them from my tube amplifier, so I went ahead and gave it a try. The treble energy came down a bit, but the biggest change is in the mids, they're much less lean in character and have become thick. It reminded me a bit of Aeolus and surprised me initially. This is a very refined sounding headphone with or without the rings, but with the added mid character, it yields a more beautiful presentation. Vocals are smoother as well, if anything, I might prefer the additional grain in human voices without them, but otherwise, you're right @lantian, this is both different and better.

 

[Backsplash7]

From my own experience, yes very much so, you can just put the ones you have in your 250s in there and see what it does. I have never tried golds without them only 250s. Cause they came with non and where very disappointing without the rings, way to sharp and felt like treble was 3db higher than base perhaps even more so. Luckily a member from here came to rescue and gifted me a pairs of those original replacement felt rings for my 250s. B fore that had to take one in and out of my second gold pair. Should make the sound more refined.

Ps checked my golds all of them have the black silk dome resonator thing 2690 black, 6824 and 14164. Every single one sounds different, the 14164 being the best.

This is basically my experience with the ref II, even after all the tinkering, which is why I feel I'd probably have a more comfortable listening experience with some rings. Maybe I'll try popping in the ones from my 560 at some point. I have tried it with normal felt, which killed the detail and staging, but I imagine its a bit different to having proper acoustic felt

 

[lantian]

I was actively listening to Moonchild's Voyager album with them from my tube amplifier, so I went ahead and gave it a try. The treble energy came down a bit, but the biggest change is in the mids, they're much less lean in character and have become thick. It reminded me a bit of Aeolus and surprised me initially. This is a very refined sounding headphone with or without the rings, but with the added mid character, it yields a more beautiful presentation. Vocals are smoother as well, if anything, I might prefer the additional grain in human voices without them, but otherwise, you're right @lantian, this is both different and better.

Spot on, glad you have a chance to check it out.