I didn't notice a more open stage, but perhaps deeper?(1) a much open feeling soundstage,
That I did hear, absolutely.(2) cleaner transition from bass to lower mids/
Yeah, we all hear differently and of course upstream gear plays a huge role as well.In contrast, for me the suede pads had a better treble extention vs. more recessed and rolled of treble with the thin calderas pads. Go figure
I was testing out some metal tracks earlier and this track simply lost all of its attack and bite with the suede pads for me.
The bass is no joke on the AC with the lambskins! I think for blues, country, rock depending upon upstream gear, the AC is awesome. If you have a bass heavy DAC and/ or amp, the suede pads might be the way to go though.To my ears this was reudcing from too elevated to slightly a little elevated. Different strokes etc.
For bass intensive genres, like trance & psybient this headphone with the lambskin pads is INSANITY! I havent had this much fun in years with trance. The HD250, which has been my go to headphone for trance for over 6 years, has slightly more sub bass, and perhaps slightly less midbass slam, but the sub bass on the HD250 isnt as tight, and it in no way can it compete with the AC when it comes to the stage and 3Dness. Keep in mind I also intentionally rolled in a relatively bass light rectifier in my DAC too.
I'm looking forward to DAC rolling in the coming weeks to see how those will impact the AC