I know Sennheiser Hd600-660s series are pretty similar in that regard, most of it is replaceable and easy to take apart. Not to the extend of the Mezes, but yeah I agree with you.
I own the 660s but I am honestly contemplating whether these are just a straight upgrade at this point as itās making me contemplate selling them
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I would say if you are finding yourself not really needing the Senns for any specific reason then sell them. Personally the only need I see for owning a 660s is if you wanted an easier to drive portable 650s. Other than that, I donāt see a need for that specific headphone unless you really like its sound. In my mind, the reason to own a 6 series Senn is for that amazing midrange and beautification from tubes due to their high impedance. The 660s has half the impedance and is not as affected by tubes so their value (IMHO) definitely is lowered for that reason. I regret selling my 650s because I havenāt found something that does tubes as nice as it does yet. However that was very early on in my audio journey and I made an amateur āeducatedā decision selling them not understanding their importance and uniqueness. I hated their mostly plastic construction even though they were very light because of that. And I was upgrading to the Radiance so I figured why would I need this headphone anymore? I still miss it.
So TLDR: Even if the 109 may sound better to you or what not, which Iām sure it is! I cannot wait to get mine, donāt sell the 660s unless you know itās not offering you any unique reason to keep it regardless of whatever shortcomings it may have.
That is something to take into accountā¦ 109 pro here is actually only 40 ohm impedance 112 db spl this thing doesnāt take much at all to power this doesnāt respond much to tubes
I usually put my Focals on tubes, things such as elex respond fairly positively in the low end with bass buttons such as IFI and some tubes. IIRC HD 650 responds more to tubes than the 660s as well so there is that since they are of different driver/impedance
I will say that the mids in the 660s are forward and overall sound is more intimate with rolling off on the treble as a more focus point but 109 pro in comparison is more energetic and much more spacious. My only complaints as of this point are the slight peak in that treble(I eqād it back just a hair and this fixes this issue quite easily for me in the 10k range) and the pads themselves while comfortable they arenāt completely that suede type material as inside of the pads is leather instead so they are a hybrid designed padā¦ that leather likes to stick to my ear and build up a bit of heatā¦ I have been curious to maybe try a beyerdynamic pad like the suedes from dekoni(heard some good things off reddit more so if you cut off the cloth covering the driver from the pad and in terms of material they feel extremely identical but meze has a very interesting foam here) or my ZMF beyer padsā¦ but I took off the pad on these one time and it was a huge pain to actually get them back on lol
If I am being honest I would take the 109 pro over an Elex or OG clearā¦ says a lot since I love those headphonesā¦ but 109 pro doesnāt have that thinner sound of the elex or metallics of the clear to my ear
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Yeah I pretty much second everything you are saying. The fact that the 109s are easy enough to drive on almost everything was both a major selling point for myself and a negative as because of that I knew they were not going to be effected by tubes as much which is a shame. And on your note about the elex and clear, I think Iām in the same boat. If the elex is a budget clear from what I understand, then yes I agree. Iāve tried the clear and was impressed by its technicalities but just found itās not what Iām looking for. I donāt want to analyze my music anymore at this point. I just want it to wow my and lull me into euphoria. Clear made me focus on the music too much. Again, not a bad thing, but not what Iām looking for anymore.
Hm, youāll make it even more difficult now for me to decide between the 109 and clears 
, well think Iāll wait a bit and look for pad rolling experience with the 109 if they get a that less treble or find that punch I carve 
as far as analytical nature goes I would probably take a DT 1990 or something like the Focal Clears among some other sets of cans for that as I donāt find these to tear apart music and point out their flaws as much as just being a musical headphone. While a bit bright too, itās not too overwhelming either.
They definitely arenāt all that punchy in my opinionā¦ they sound a bit stronger in the upper bass but not so much in the sub bass frequencies. Itās definitely a headphone I will encourage trying though as anybody I have told to listen to this so far really enjoys them. As for pads, I might get into it way later since I donāt feel like fighting with the original pads to get them back onā¦ the pads from dekoni, zmf, etc for beyerdynamics and other brands of that sizing do seem to fit this headphone without much issue the issue with getting the original pads back on is that there is a plastic ring in the back of the pad that holds the foam in with the leatherā¦ on top of a tighter seal from the leather that goes inside the wood cups itās a rather strange design to me
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one of the reviews out there where someone removed an ear pad for these headphones. iām sure thereās more reviewers that have done it, but with this knowledge, iāll swap pads IFF i get the 109s, and dislike the treble.
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so despite my decisions lol I tried to pad swap themā¦ he didnāt try to swap them in the vid above but something I noticed when trying this is that dekonis pads from beyer are just a bit too wide and too much of a lip to properly attach to this headphone. Infact they are loose enough to slide off the headphone
while they technically fit I canāt really suggest a pad swap like this due to the strange design that is on this pad it needs to be tighter with less lip on the pads themselves to fit properly and as far as feel theres definitely a pretty large difference. Full suede pads seem to add more bass and less treble though turning it more warm than many likely would want(note: this change could be due to the dampener within the dekoni pad over the driver since the 109 pro does not have anything over the speakers but also these are a hybrid style pad ). Zmf pads from beyer just flat out wonāt work due to there just being too much lip in the back of the pad to feasibly fit on the headphoneā¦ the portion that connects into the wood is rather shallow. As far as getting the pads on the plastic clear piece you see in the video above hugs against the leather of the pad lip making it relatively difficult at times to get the pads back on without issue such as the plastic getting caught in the wood or potentially even pulling the plastic out of the pad from overly stretching the pads. after switching it off and on a few times I got used to changing the pads but nothing I have here really properly fits this headphone
Place an edit, I think a larger concern over time may be that the pad also uses synthetic leather which can peelā¦ considering the metal grating over this driver if the pads flake it can definitely get into that grating over the driver provided the pieces are small enough.
Secondary Edit after some use I guessā¦ so after removing and tinker with the pads the stitching on these pads doesnāt seem to hold up either, got some white/grey showing on the pad slightly now(where the velour connects to the leather) so I guess caution is necessary?
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Thank you for sacrificing some wear & tear of your stock pads, and trying out some pad swaps in my steed.
This was very valuable information, considering I like to swap pads often, and own quite a few Dekoni Beyer pads. I also have the ZMF pads for Beyer & Dekoni.
After reading your observations, I kinda feel like the shape of the 109ās cups are similar to the Sennheiser 600 series, but bigger.
The thing about the ZMF Sennheiser pads is the attaching mechanism is just a removable piece of plastic. That way, you can use the pads on headphones with more common designs.
Maybe if I had a 109 in-person, I could check to see if the fenestrated sheepskin could fit & tame the treble.
They are indeed, the issue I am seeing is they are a larger oval shape while also require a shallow lipped pad to properly seal to the headphone. All of this ontop of a unique type hybrid pad combination between an extremely soft velour and pleather interior so pad changing in any shape or form seems to change the sound by quite a bitā¦ the closest I seem to get to stock is full suede or suede hybrid(suede hybrid is quite a bit warmer though). I donāt feel like cutting the cloths off my dekoni suede to check the sound on those though
I have both zmf beyer and sennheiser and neither fit, beyer are too wide with too much on the lip and sennheiser are just not wide enough. Honestly, I think we would have to wait till dekoni or someone makes pads for this like the meze 99s. The beyer side pads will still fit but are too loose
Fenestrated sheepskin or a perf suede may work well if we had a pad swap to go with.
How wide are you talking about, because I luckily stumbled upon some Shure pads from Dekoni.
They seem like a Sennheiser pad, but has the width it lacks.
However, I think it might have too much material on the sleeve for the lip.
Idk if they will be thick enough to match the stock padās clamp though.
Pulled the pad off to take some measurementsā¦
The pads on these measure around 90mm(getting 92mm when I measure) in total width with the internal being 44mm wide 63mm tall. pad thickness is 25mm
Those pads for the Shure should fit but the lip on them looks to be too muchā¦ theres only around 6mm or around 1/4th an inch of lip on the back of the pad shown in the image here.
to be fair I think that would be a big concern is the pad thicknessā¦ as at 25mm the stock pads have that perfect fit type feelā¦ but any less than that and the lighter clamp may be too much