New Sennheiser pads measured.

[lc155]

When I last looked into this issue back in 2020 or so, the only real major change with the headphone itself was due to Romanian factory mistakes that were quickly corrected. In terms of driver revisions, AFAIK there has been nothing since the early 2010s or so when they switched to the silver screens, yeah?

So beyond tolerances, the major change now are the pads? I recall the reasoning for the pads was to make them stiffer/firmer so that they'd last longer. And you're saying that when these new pads wear down, you get the same sound on the 650s as a set of fresh old revision pads?

Seems like a win/win, then?

Considering getting a HD650 again, I last owned them around 2012, so other than the pads I'm just seeing what differences I can expect.

 

[James-F]

Has anyone noticed the new pads compressed over the last 4 years at all?
I bought new HD600 and HD6XX this year, the earpad material doesn't seem to compress or change shape at all and feels great to me.
I wouldn't want the earpads to compress and change sound, I love how these headphones sound brand new.

Here's a complaint about how the pads do not compress.

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/1ac7ibx/revised_hd600650_earpads_are_awful

Now after a year and a half they still did not compress even one bit. And that's with me using them 2 hours every day.

 

[isostasy]

Has anyone noticed the new pads compressed over the last 4 years at all?
I bought new HD600 and HD6XX this year, the earpad material doesn't seem to compress or change shape at all and feels great to me.
I wouldn't want the earpads to compress and change sound, I love how these headphones sound brand new.

Here's a complaint about how the pads do not compress.

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/1ac7ibx/revised_hd600650_earpads_are_awful

I agree, I bought my HD6XX lightly used and quickly bought 2 sets of replacement pads as soon as they became available.

I measured one of the new sets and found no difference with the lightly used set which the headphones came with, so carried on using the used set.

This was 2-3 years ago... they still haven't compressed much more. The only big change is they seem to have compressed slightly differently so there is now a ~1dB channel imbalance. I think I will put one of the new sets on now to correct this but other than that there is no "veil" or treble decrease I have measured.

I think the pads should compress a little: I like how they compress a little more at the front so they angle forward slightly and mold to your head shape.

I can show some flat plate measurements when I change them if you are interested?

 

[James-F]

I can show some flat plate measurements when I change them if you are interested?

Yes, me please, thank you.

I think the new videos post 2021 on youtube from headphones.com about the HD600 series are a little misleading when it comes to earpads, they say that the pads will need to be replaced once or even twice a year, but I can't find any reports on post 2021 pads needing replacement due to compression in the past few years, so that's that.

 

[Paweł L]

For sure the foam and most likely the profile of the new pads doesn't compress as the pre 2021 pads. The old pads definitely caused the freq. response to change with time, I think my set of 58X from 2019 became much warmer as the pads collapsed within year and half of use. I'm quite happy with the newer pads, the tonal balance is more neutral, but yeah the pads don't wear down as uniform as the old ones, kind of one pad is slightly out shape. No measuring jig to confirm changes on my side.

 

[isostasy]

Yes, me please, thank you.

I think the new videos post 2021 on youtube from headphones.com about the HD600 series are a little misleading when it comes to earpads, they say that the pads will need to be replaced once or even twice a year, but I can't find any reports on post 2021 pads needing replacement due to compression in the past few years, so that's that.

The individual channels are not normalised so you can see the absolute difference (new pads measure quieter as they are literally holding the driver further away from the microphone). Average normalised at 500Hz so you can see relative difference is ~1-2dB loss around 5-10kHz.

 

[isostasy]

I didn't like these