[ballard3]

So Moondrop sells the top headphone equipped with earpads that make Cosmo sound very badly and the buyer has to work hard to find aftermarket pads in order to achieve better results. One would assume that these tests should have been done by Moondrop.

 

[eric65]

From 2:21, oh, how unpleasant it is to listen to the violin, it puts pressure on the ears. I liked the sound of the bass guitar

Indeed, the violin sounds a little “raw” with the VENUS ; a little more finesse and smoothness would be welcome, especially for your ears sensitive to high frequencies; my old ears are more forgiving; although with the PARA, the highs are “too much” and the violin sounds quite thin, and with the COSMO equipped with the PARA's hybrid pads, the little bump level at 3 Khz gives a certain harshness to the violin sound, not very pleasant to hear.
As I said in my previous post, I hope that the Dekoni's Elite hybrid HE pads, that I'll be receiving on Friday May 17, will further improve the COSMO's tonality, to a value “close to perfection” for my old ears.

 

[vicenzajay]

So, I received my Dekoni Elite Hybrid pads (for Hifiman HE series), and I installed them on my Venus headphones. First - the install is a bit difficult - these pads are built for a headphone with noticeably less ring diameter than the Venus. Obviously, you have to remove the plastic insert (the part that 'locks' into the Hifiman series headphones). Then you have to carefully manipulate the flap of leather while stretching the earpad from the inside (quite a lot) to finally get the pads to install.

I'm listening to them for the first time now, but first impressions are that there is significantly more smoothness to the mids/upper mids/treble response coupled with slightly better resolution and instrument placement (listening to "Symphonic Sondheim"). I'm really not noticing much, if any, change in bass extension or response (the graph led me to belief I'd lose a couple db there - so far that's not been a problem). I do wear glasses usually, so perhaps the same db bump in the lower bass area is keeping these fairly consistent with the stock pads in this respect.

The overall impression is increased resolution/imaging coupled with a smoother frequency response from about (I would guess) 800-900hz and upwards.

The pads are physically a bit more comfortable given the velour against the skin - hopefully that will mitigate the sweat issue with the stock pads. On the other hand, the ear 'holes' are 10mm smaller, so you will feel these around your ears (unlike the stock pads). So far, they've been comfortable overall, but I don't have much time on them at all yet.

On the negative side, the pads I received are noticeably different in 'thickness' - one is much thicker than the other all around, as if production 'stuffed' one much fuller with memory foam than the other. I'm contacting Dekoni about this as $70 earpads shouldn't have this kind of variation.

More later...

 

[b510]

Please tell me if it's worth looking at these headphones for the melodic death metal

 

[vicenzajay]

Not my genre - but the 'immediacy' of Venus' response would, I think, be great for that...

Venus is not a "sitting in the middle of a concert hall" set of headphones (like my HE1000v2 set). The soundstage is not compressed or flat (it's quite 3d) - but you are much closer to the stage at the concert, if that makes sense.

 

[eric65]

Please tell me if it's worth looking at these headphones for the melodic death metal

Imho, from what I've been able to hear, the VENUS (with its stock pads), with its slightly V-shaped sound signature, should do the trick; its bass dynamics are good, especially if you lightly unseal the pads on their front with the temples of a pair of glasses; its soundstage is wide; it's better suited than the PARA, which is too mid-centric and high-pitched.
Not the COSMO (and its stock pads).