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My search for headphones with giant pads. Also, audibility of deep but narrow dips?

Adamant11746

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Mar 22, 2022
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Southern Californa, US
Some of you may remember me posting in various threads about trying to find closed headphones for larger than average and very sensitive ears. I eventually ended up with the Sennheiser HD 620s, which is barely big enough (especially front to back). I've been looking for something bigger, and have narrowed things down to 3 options. All 3 have tradeoffs, and that's what I'm looking for advice on.
  1. Sennheiser HD 820 with a clamp force mod (a 3d printed spring held on the headband by a headband cover)
  2. AKG K553 MKII with larger pads (possibly ZMF Caldera Thick)
  3. ZMF Bokeh with Caldera Thick pads in place of the stock Caldera Thin pads
Option 1: I've already tested out the headband mod on a friend's HD 800s and confirmed it works (I am listening to them now actually). However, this is by far the most expensive option. The lowest price I've seen is open box for $1550 plus tax, and the cable is so long and unwieldy I'd have to replace it with a shorter one (another ~$100). I would not be able to buy these for at least half a year, possibly longer, as $1800-2000 is a huge chunk of money.

Option 2: By far the cheapest option, at $150-$230 plus tax for the headphones and $80 plus tax/shipping for the pads, but I have no idea how the pads will change the sound and I'd definitely have to bend the headband quite a bit to get more clamping force (something multiple other people have done, but I don't know how much more clamp that will get me). If I go this route I'd have to send them in to be reviewed in order to get measurements, and that would take a long time and be very complicated.

Option 3: Middle of the road in terms of cost, although still expensive at $1100 plus tax (and possible shipping) for the headphones and $80 plus tax/shipping for the pads, and I wouldn't be able to try the headphones themselves on before buying unless I wait for next CanJam SoCal (mid September).

For options 2 and 3 I would be able to at least see if the pads are big enough by putting them on a borrowed pair of Hifiman HE-560 (which they will fit on, albeit a bit loosely).

I'm currently leaning towards option 3, provided the pads fit when I try them out, because it is much less expensive than option 1 and has measurements available (unlike option 2), but I wanted someone more knowlegable than myself to give a second opinion on whether this dip at 6.7k (shown in the uploaded graph) is a particularly big problem. I know a similar dip is present on the Beyerdynamic DT 770 (and my HD 620s) around 4k and is not particularly obvious outside of measurements, but I don't know whether that's universal. Everything else seems mostly ok after EQ (also shown in the graph).
graph.png
 
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Not sure about headphone size/fit but narrow dips in headphone response are not that noticeable with music and IME are sometimes artifacts of the measurement that aren't replicable on-ear.

You can try it yourself, play a sweep using e.g. https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/ and see what you hear. My guess is you will find some sharp dips, but not as sharp as they look on the graphs and maybe not even in the same places.

Regarding option 2, I'm not sure that Amir is your only chance to get cans measured on a professional coupler, just probably the only person who won't charge you money to do it.
 
For the cost of those pads maybe give these a try. Read all the comments seems like they are much appreciated and might end up as nice travel backups of not perfect.
 
For the cost of those pads maybe give these a try. Read all the comments seems like they are much appreciated and might end up as nice travel backups of not perfect.
As much as I'd like an inexpensive option to work out, those are definitely way too small for my ears. In fact, I'm very lucky I don't need wireless or there would be nothing around that fits.
 
As an update to the OP: Option 1 is the only possibility out of those listed. The ZMF Caldera pads don't give enough extra space, and I'm starting to realize that the problem with the HD 620s was both height and width. The extra 5mm of height on the borrowed HD 800s I'm using makes an enormous difference, probably doubling the amount of wiggle room I have to place the headphones comfortably on my head.

If anyone has other suggestions they would be appreciated, but I don't know of any closed alternatives with at least 75mm of height, 50-55mm of width, and 30mm of depth. If I was okay with open back I would have several alternatives, but I need isolation from a noisy house (sometimes for hours) and my ear canals are so tiny that IEMs aren't a viable option for that amount of time.
 
Not sure about headphone size/fit but narrow dips in headphone response are not that noticeable with music and IME are sometimes artifacts of the measurement that aren't replicable on-ear.

You can try it yourself, play a sweep using e.g. https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/ and see what you hear. My guess is you will find some sharp dips, but not as sharp as they look on the graphs and maybe not even in the same places.

Regarding option 2, I'm not sure that Amir is your only chance to get cans measured on a professional coupler, just probably the only person who won't charge you money to do it.
Once I shifted frequency wise a deep narrow notch over the treble, while listening to white noise. Most of the time the „shhhhhhh“ on top fellt unnatural. As soon it hovered around 10,x kHz the white got really white. And the musical content, listened to for a real comparison, didn‘t leave something missing out. To be investigated further, just an anecdote.
 
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