I bought Sennheiser hd 800 s, and they don’t seal around left side of my head, there is a gap large enough to put my pinky through above my jaw line. They appear to sound fine and image is in center, however running a frequency sweep I noticed a pretty substantial dip between 7.6k and 7.8k that gets better if I apply a bit of pressure on the cup.
I’m not sure how much effect would that have on the sound, should I consider returning them and picking up different headphones?
Never mind, I’m an idiot, I just realized I hear it on both ears, and the same dip is on the measurements. 
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At least you put in the leg work to figure it out rather than writing off a perfectly good pair of headphones. When I wear my HD800Ss there isn’t a pinky sized gap anywhere, but there is one section where it doesn’t quite touch. I enjoy the sound of the headphones and I don’t find that I get a sound quality increase by pushing that small section to seal so I don’t worry about it.
Edit: I should add that in my experience, open back headphones often aren’t all that picky about making a perfect seal to begin with.
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You could also try some thicker dekoni pads and doesn’t zmf also make 800s pads ?
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Problem is all the dekonis make the already bass light and bright HD800 even more bass light and bright.
The ZMF ones could work though.
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BTW, my HD800S are only a few months old and I actually just realized that the pads have worn in just a touch so now they actually do seal FWIW.
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Sorry for going dark everyone, right after I postd i started feeling funny, it turns out I got c0v1d and it messed me up pretty good, I’ll get back to you soon. thanks for pad suggestions!
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I hope you get better soon. I’m just getting over Covid myself after getting it from my bassist at Thanksgiving.
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I’ll definitely get new pads probably ZMF suede.
I remember seeing this https://youtu.be/Qiz4pDN1Boc?t=81 while I was looking for HD 800 S reviews, could Dekoni pads measure differently on 800 vs 800s? Only measurements they provide is of original 800.
Joshua is the only one I know who says the dekoni pads improve the sound. On reddit and headfi you will find more feedback, mostly negative. Tried dekoni pads on my hd700 some years back, Soundstage was completely gone.
Result will be the same on the 800 and 800S.
If you EQ anyway oratory1990 has a EQ profile for the dekoni pads.
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/dekoni-elite-pads-for-sennheiser-hd800-hd800s.23806/
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I got my ZMF suedes, and wanted to give them some time before leaving any feedback, apart from being a lot more comfortable I couldn’t tell any difference in sound, but keep in mind that changing the pads on hd 800(s) is one of the most painful pad swaps out there excluding the glued ones, so I didn’t wanna do it more than twice. dekoni’s guide is the easiest way to do it. Anyway pretty happy with them, good job ZMF!
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