THEY’RE HERE.
Here are my detailed first impressions after some listening, modding, and measuring.
Preface -
I took some rough measurements using this method - Easy (but rough) frequency response measurements!
I will be discussing measurements, but will not be posting any plots right now as they can be misleading. They don’t take into account the transfer function of the phone, and it’s a shitty microphone, so they’re not good absolute measurements, but good for direct mod comparisons. If I talk about comparisons of mods, it might be from the measurements, but if I talk about how they sound, that’s from listening, not measurements.
One more note is that I don’t have much listening time with these yet, so their sound may just take some getting used to.
I also used this online tool - Online Tone Generator - generate pure tones of any frequency
It really helps to highlight suppressions or enhancements through the frequency spectrum. Great for EQ’ing if you have good ears.
Last preface - I’ve been listening almost exclusively to my 6XX’s, so most listening impressions are relative to those.
Packaging -
Well, I only got one set of pads… Everything else was included.
First listening impressions -
I listened and took measurements with stock, microsuede XL, and brainwavs pleather oval angled pads, all with the headphones in stock form, with the grills off, and with all the foam removed + grills off.
To my ears the best setup was with everything off and the brainwavz angled ovals. I also think that the XL are a bit too big for these, I had the ovals lying around and they stretched over fine. Going to order the standard round ones and try those out.
Well, first impressions, to be honest, are that @DMS was right…
There is a very clear dip from 1.5 kHz to ~2.3 kHz that you can hear very clearly with that tool linked above. His measurements show an even deeper dip from ~3 kHz to ~6 kHz, but I didn’t hear or measure any such dip on my set. There is rolloff though from ~2.3 kHz - 10 kHz.
I definitely perceived a lack of detail, probably due to that dip and rolloff. The angled pleathers seemed to remove this dip the most, but not completely. I will say, for what it’s worth, these measured astonishingly flat in my setup from ~50 Hz to 1 kHz, so that was neat. The bass sounded good to me from the small amount of listening I did.
I did find a random change that actually cleared everything up for me but I need to experiment with it more. I’d be interested if other people find the same thing.
I essentially made these semi-closed by covering up the backs with a thick cloth I had. It was a knee-sleeve actually, so dense, elastic cloth (was just lying on my floor, lol).
This took them from sounding sort of veiled and dull to more clear (less soundstage though). This was a measurable difference as well. It improved but the 1.5 kHz dip and the roll off compared with other mods.
If anyone can find a mod that removes that dip or really noticeably mitigates it, and also improves the roll off (using the slider tool linked above), then these will sound dramatically improved (to me at least 
).
ANYWAY, they’re burning in now, so we’ll see after a few days of listening and tampering if they improve. I’ll post a more detailed review then. I’m thinking now that the mesh on the grills was an attempt to add some volume at frequencies…
TLDR - clear dip from 1.5-2.3 kHz, then roll off after 2.3 kHz makes them sound veiled/dull to my ears. I have hope after some initial experimenting. Going to try and find a mod-set that improves these things.
edit - listening with Topping D70 and THXAAA789 if people are wondering