It looks like the sound did change after all.
Got a new version in (with the shorter cable) and it is indeed different so the subjective reports of less clarity seem correct.
No idea why the product manager did not know about this.
View attachment 314152
It looks like the
newer version has also had changes to the driver as the frequency response is slightly more extended in the lows and the treble above 4kHz is an (audible) 3dB lower in level compared to the
original version.
It could do with a little less lower treble (4-7kHz) but the upper treble did not really need to be lowered.
Hi All (& hi solderdude, we've DM'd recently about this so you're already aware of my results), so I decided to buy the new version of the HD560s with the shorter cable and have measured it in comparison to my 3 units of the old version of the HD560s, and basically I've come up with a similar trend as solderdude noticed. In fact I've measured 2 units of the new version because the first unit had not particularly good channel balance which I noticed during listening first & then during measuring, so that unit went back to Amazon and they sent out a replacement which sounds pretty much bang on re channel balance and also measures reasonably well for channel balance, so I'm keeping that one.
Ok, so to keep it relatively short & sweet at the start of the post here's the main takeaway of the results: the new version is tilted down in frequency response above 1kHz in comparison to the old version, and has just a tad small more bass, so following is the old version vs new version (old version is an average of 3 units, new version is an average of 2 units) (note that these are measurements done on a miniDSP EARS rig so they look different to solderdudes & different to Amirs, but we're interested in comparative differences between the measurements I did, for which this is still valid):
Difference between Old Version & New Version:
So the upshot of this is that indeed the new version sounds different to the old version, and the new version does sound better balanced than the old version when used without EQ. The new version does indeed have softer pads than the old version, easily noticeable, but the negative of this is that there's a bit less room in the earcup for your ears (because they compress more) - so I found it harder to position the headphone so that my ears weren't touching, because in the old version the pads don't compress so much so there's a bit more room in the earcups for your ears (on the old version my ears don't touch at all, and on the new version I have to place it very carefully to avoid touching & sometimes there's always very slight light touching).
Given that the new version is different to the old version I thought it would be quite useful if I created an EQ that would enable owners of the new version to apply to change their new version into the old version, which means that if you do that then Oratory EQ's will be more accurate for you, because most (maybe all) of Oratory's measurements will have been based on the old version. So the idea is you'll apply both my following EQ on top of Oratory's EQ, following is my EQ to change new version into old version:
EQ to change New Version into Old Version:
Note that the first filter (HSQ) is a High Shelf Filter
Note: there is a small difference in bass here that I've not corrected for, primarily because it's a small difference & bass level has proven to be personal preference (from Harman Research), but also because I think Oratory's HD560s bass measurement is potentially showing a bit more bass on average than I perceive (vs my other headphones in my experience) so I decided to not correct for it as I think the HD560s benefits from a tad more bass in the EQ than Oratory's measurements suggest (by literally just 1dB, which is the difference we see in this measurement anyway).
So that's the main thrust of the post so far, and following are just some titbits.
Following is the channel balance seen in my first unit of the New Version, not all that much different in measurement but noticeably shifted to the right during listening on voices, this is the unit I sent back:

Following is the Channel Balance of the second unit of the New Version, and this is the one I decided to keep & I don't really notice any channel balance issues with the following one:

Following is showing the average of Unit 1 & average of Unit 2 of the New Version, showing that "overall" unit to unit variation within the New Version is good (albeit of course only 2 units measured, and noticeable channel balance issue in the first unit as previously discussed):
Further possible work: I may compare in detail the difference solderdude saw between old & new version vs what I saw between old & new version by digitising his plots and analysing & comparing it in detail vs mine, but to be honest I can see that the general trend is the same, and given that we have both measured different units then of course there will be some unit to unit variation that can explain away some of the smaller differences anyway, so may not be a particularly useful piece of further work to do (which is probably why I haven't bothered doing it yet!). Either way, both me & solderdude know & can see that there has been a change between the old version & the new version with the new version having less treble (tilted down from 1kHz, and just a tad more bass).
Last footnote: following graph is showing New Version converted to a GRAS style measurement and compared against Harman Curve, but take this with a pinch of salt because I've converted it based on measuring 3 units of old version on my miniDSP EARS rig and comparing that against Oratory's measurement which is based mainly on old version and then applying an "EQ/difference" between the two which converts approximately my miniDSP EARS measurement of the New Version into a GRAS measurement, it's approximate as it assumes that the 3 units of the old version I measured are similar or close to the units that Oratory measured, so grain of salt!
New Version (average of 2 units) converted to GRAS style measurement vs Harman Curve Target:

And for comparison to above graph, following is latest Oratory measurement vs Harman
Latest Oratory Measurement vs Harman:
EDIT: if you have any questions, then please ask, and particularly if you want clarification on how to apply what I've shown here into an EQ that makes the Oratory EQ more valid for owners of the New Version.
Personal Note: I wanted to buy this latest version of HD560s as I wanted a headphone that was more usable at stock without EQ, and in my listening this has born out to be the case, so I'm pleased I bought the new version (to go along with my other units of old version, lol). So far though haven't managed to get an EQ on the new version that rivals my best EQ for the old version, so old version is my preference when able to use EQ, but may experiment more with EQ'ing the new version.