So a segment of the adhesive holding the pad material for my HE4XX has failed. I’m looking at putting new pads on, but am genuinely not sure what to go for, and would love to know if anyone has any recommendations.
My stock HE4XX pads fell apart as well. I picked up some Dekoni Hybrids that have a nice sound signature. They smooth out a little of the sibilance in the 4XX. My only issue is that inside of the pad fits a bit too tightly around the ear and I just can’t wear them comfortably for long periods with the Dekoni pads.
So the hole is smaller?
Mine have the Ablet Sheepskin pads on them, they bumped the bass slightly but I didn’t notice much change in signature other than that. They’re a little stiff out of the box but they soften with use. Mine have held up for several years.
Dekoni hole is 58 x 58mm
I’m sorry, give me a moment to break out my calipers to check the hole on the stock pads. Thank you for that information though.
It seems that the Dekoni hole is larger by a whole 3mm in diameter!
Hmmm, interesting. And $22 on Amazon? Not bad. Any worse quality wise compared to say Brainwavz?
My other question would be while I know that people like sheepskin better for the softer material, but is there any extra care needed to maintain them?
I haven’t worn Brainwavz for any extended amount of time so I can’t really compare the two. All I know is that I wore my HE4XX daily for roughly two years with those pads and they didn’t break down at all. I never did anything to maintain them but I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to clean them up now and then with some sort of leather cleaner.
I work for Dekoni so I am going to tell you they are better than Brainwavz. We use better memory foam in my opinion, our sheepskin is a rougher leather. Once a year I recommend using a leather moisturizer so they don’t crack. It won’t flake like fake leather but it will dry out and become rough and discolor to white.
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I love my Dakoni Sheepskin pads on the HE4xx, so comfortable.
Fenestrated, or just regular sheepskin?
I use ZMF Ori perf lambskin on my pair. pricey but worth it especially when combined with a few other easy mods to change the sound.
What other mods have you done, and how have they changed the sound?
I talk about here in this thread; HIFIMAN HE400i vs Sennheiser HD58X
very simple and cheap mods but do a lot combined with pad roll to change the sound of the headphone for the better imo.
What foam did you use?
cheap black foam sheets from hobby lobby.
if you’re interested in modding the 4xx I would recommend checking out this head fi thread; https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hifiman-he4xx.856943/page-21#post-13965507
lots of good info on various configs with foam and pads and how they change the sound.
Regular, though next time they go on Drop, I might pick up the out as well.
Any tonal differences from stock?
As an option, I can recommend segment of the adhesive holding the pad glue, more precisely, it is aimed at gluing leather products, but I think it will help you.
The name of the glue is Barge All Purpose Cement. Also, I give a list of quality adhesives with a detailed description of what it is used for. https://leather-toolkits.com/reviews/best-glue-for-leather/
Thanks for the info… But I’ve already bought a pair of ZMF Ori lambskins, tore off the original pads from the plastic rings so I could use them