ScubadudeSA
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2015
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Closest thing to HD540? Stax comes to mind.
I tried pads with DT990 and in my opinion they don't fit and make the sound like with closed headphones, adding bass, but reducing the level of midrange. All the magic of the HD540 sound is lost. But I am now using these pads from 990, but completely redesigned. In my opinion, the inside of the pads should be solid, not perforated like in Beyerdynamic. And the outer velor part should breathe. In standard Beyerdynamic pads, the inner velor side has a film layer. I cut these pads along the seam, glued the part with perforations with powerful Gorilla tape, and peeled off the film. And then I sewed it back together. Now everything I listen to with these headphones sounds unreal. If you know how to sew, I can describe the process in more detail.Someone tried edt770 pads on hd 540?
Could be the internal spring contacts. Had to mess with them in my 540s. Never had both fail at once with same pair though.My HD 540s bought a couple of years ago in excellent condition from a German seller on eBay have suddenly stopped working They are just completely dead, no sound at all from either channel. There was no gradual loss of sound, or fall out in one channel, just complete silence. At first I thought it could the be custom XLR cable, but I tried with the original cable, also no luck. I am using a Topping A90 amp, but all my other headphones work perfectly. Any suggestions what the problem could be?
Sennsay,Ah, many of us long for those delicious original pads, so soft that they could be worn for hours and I did often! Until the second set died some years back and by then they were unobtainable. The second pair of HD540 Refs I bought a couple of years ago came with the same looking pads in your second pic, they were simply awful and have been binned. Yours look better, but the foam in mine was also rubbish and breaking down. The stitching was coming apart as well in places. I have never found anything approaching the original pads and now stick to just the wang_yifei pleather pads. They improve the bass significantly and still allow an astonishing level of out of the head openness, sometimes uncannily so. I've only just received a new set of wang pleathers in the mail today for the second pair of virtually immaculate HD540s. My 35 year old original pair are still going strong and are shod with the same wang pads. I have not found anything better overall ... yet.
Around Sept/Oct last year, some of us were talking about ordering some pleather pads from Ali (non)Express, I did so and they never came, despite emails to said non-express company. Amazingly, until the end of last week when a set of pleather pads turns up in the mailbox out of the blue, no foams, just pads with the net backing and smaller than I prefer ear openings. I'd so forgotten about the Ali pads I wasn't sure where these things had come from and it took me until the arrival of the new wangs to realise .... oh my ... these must be the pads I ordered from Ali non-Express some six months ago! They are a lot like a pair of German Orhpolsters I use on my HD430s in style, but 30mm in depth, some 10mm thicker than even the Orhpolsters (!) and more than that compared to the wang pleathers, which are a little shallower again, while having the benefit of the oval and more spacious ear openings I prefer, some 48mm x 67mm in shape. The Ali pads are more like a 54mm x 35mm tunnel, certainly giving plenty of distance from driver to ear, yet I'd imagine some tunnelling of midrange effects and less expansive soundstage. I'm yet to try them. The shape of the wangs, I find, allows for superb height of the soundstage and images appearing below chin level both centrally and outside of the ear cups, almost as much as the original cloth covered pads but with superior balance. The out-of-head images can be quite uncanny and the same goes for the HD430s with some YouTube videos, REALLY uncanny! Some vocals are so out in space that I'm looking around the room wondering if I've actually got the iMac's speakers on.
So, for me, a good day and they all arrived before we leave this little home for some traveling on the road to find a new home.
wang_yifei was brilliant when I asked if he could expedite shipping the new pads and why, he answered emails promptly and they arrived in 8 days.
More specifically, vintageaudioholic, in answer to your question, dense earpads are NOT music to the ears for the HD540s and most certainly not memory foam. Despite being moderately thick pads, the German Orhpolsters are relatively soft to wear and very comfortable on the HD430s. The wang pleathers are shallower and a tad softer again, the pleather seems to be more pliable. A number of we HD540 fans here use them. They also soften a bit with some use.
I remember when my Senns had their original pads, I could still get bass so deep that it seemed to come from my chest, it may have lacked sheer impact, but the openness was outstanding. Especially with some synth bass. Does any of this help you at all?
Hi IgorUA, I buy from this seller, it may be the same as you've tried before. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/261338110308?var=560432574135Can someone give me a link to these wang_yifei pads? I seem to have bought them from this seller, but they turned out to be thick, bigger than the diameter of the headphone cups and sounded terrible. Maybe I ordered something wrong? In my opinion, pads cannot be made of leatherette, but only of something resembling velor. The foam inside should be quite hard and under pressure.
If there are people in London, we can organize a HD540 geek meetup and I'll bring mine for a test. I spent a lot of time with these hellacious pads and can share my experience.
Thank you very much for your answer! I will order a pair to try. I don't use foam in front of the drivers at all - only a very thin cloth. To my ears, anything that covers the center of the driver kills all the magic of the sound.Hi IgorUA, I buy from this seller, it may be the same as you've tried before. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/261338110308?var=560432574135