i recently got some shp9500s and have been LOVING them, but I have some minor issues. I’ve found that when listening to some alice in chains (in this case the song: bleed the freak), sometimes the vocals can sounds kinda grainy and piercing. and I’ve found the bass just a little bit lacking.
so in short, I want a little bit more low end, and a little less high end in in certain areas, and want everything else in the sound to remain stock (or as close as possible). and the main 3 (or 4) ear pads I’ve been looking at are the brainwavz sheepskin angled HM5’s, shure 940s, shure 1840’s, and the zmf universes.
Im also not use a dac or amp as Im running the headphone straight into my audio interface. so what pads would be best for me?
i should also mention that i really like the size of the stock pads so i would like the new pads to be a similar size of the stock ones
Sounds less muddy and gives the illusion of detail (which 9500s are not very good at) but most of all they have depth so your ears don’t touch the drivers. The gaming ones with the gel don’t seem to compress as much as the regular memory foam ones and are just really comfortable. They seem to focus the sound a lot better.
personally, I prefer dekoni suede… those hyperx are cheap and just kind of … meh in my opinion. The dekoni pads that fit beyerdynamic headphones fit the shp9500
from looking at a bunch of forums about 9500 replacement pads, i think velour/suede pads are best for keeping most of the stock sound. would that be correct?
i say that 'cause most of the pads i see are recommended happen to be velour/suede. the only pad that usually is also recommended that arent suede or velour are the leather/pleather angled HM5’s
and i dont want a massive difference. like just a bit of extra sub bass to add some extra support and somewhat reduced highs. and my issues with the graininess/piercing highs is with more droning vocals (ie; dopesmoker by sleep, bleed the freak by alice in chains). and my issue with the sub bass is more apparent with the song holy mountain by sleep where the guitars just lack a bit of strength.
well if i do just use eq, what earpads are closest to stock but are are a bit deeper, and maybe a slightly different material. as the stock pads dont really cover my ears as much as i would like them + i do want a little bit more clamp force.
its also pretty hard to know what i actually want (like it hard to easily know what something sounds like) since im pretty new to this stuff and the only store near me that has headphones i can try is guitar center.
Usually anything that puts your ears further from the driver gives you more soundstage and that’s pretty easy to do since the stock pads are so thin. The pads I linked are deep and don’t compress very much and are suede. The regular non gel filled ones compress quite a bit more and it’s noticeable. The suede helps keep a bit of warmth and velour can make them a little brighter. They’re a nice happy medium.