Dekoni HD6XX ear pads

Discussion in 'Audio Science' started by Bill-P, Jan 29, 2018.

  1. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Got all of Dekoni's HD6XX pads in for a comparison. Baseline is against my modded HD580 (red/orange line). For those who are wondering, I'd say it's basically a slightly brighter-sounding HD650. You can find instructions on how to mod your own in my thread in the modding section.

    All of the pads were measured with the following condition: stock HD580 w/ foam piece in the back (I re-inserted the foam piece for this comparison), absolutely nothing sitting in the front (so bare driver exposed). Why nothing in the front? You'll find out soon.

    Modded HD580 vs stock HD580 w/ Dekoni Velour ear pads:
    [​IMG]

    Quick sound impression: dark.

    Modded HD580 vs stock HD580 w/ Dekoni Leather ear pads:
    [​IMG]

    Quick sound impression: decent, kinda dark but still neutral-ish.

    Modded HD580 vs stock HD580 w/ Dekoni Hybrid ear pads:
    [​IMG]

    Quick sound impression: very dark but kinda shouty as well.

    Modded HD580 vs stock HD580 w/ Dekoni Fenestrated ear pads:
    [​IMG]

    Quick sound impression: decent, not dark, kinda smooth but sharp-ish sounding.

    I like leather and fenestrated the most. Leather is a bit more shouty than my mod, but it sounds very similar overall. Warm-ish tilt. Fenestrated is a bit of an interesting beast: it's a dark/smooth sound but it has a weird sharpening effect. I'm guessing this is because bass is not as crazy, and treble is fairly linear (in measurements at least), plus there really is nothing sitting on top of the driver this time so it has a bit of that "raw" sound. Would have been interesting if this was an HD600, because I get the feeling the HD600 would be almost neutral here.

    Anyway, I don't think any of the ear pads above will play well with HD650/HD6XX, sadly. They may be interesting on HD58X and HD660S, though, and I'm guessing Dekoni did their testing on those headphones (or one of the new HD600) rather than on the HD6XX.

    Trivial: all of the pads are very well-constructed. My old Senn ear pads are close to the end of their lives now and they look very sad. Will order new pads, which come with the stock foam piece, and then I'll do another set of measurements of these pads versus the stock headphone. Right now, these pads sit at over 2x the distance from driver compared to my poor ol' Senn pads.

    Will do photos/pics later when I'm less lazy and it's no longer night time. :)
     
  2. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    My HD 600s do not sound as good as they used to and I believe the pads have a lot to do with it. It's nice to know these Dekoni's might play well with them
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I got significantly more bass with the Dekoni pads, but this was with HD650.
     
  4. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Could be a pad seal issue? The Dekoni pads have a flat top where the rounded stock foam will conform better.

    I still want to see what the Dekoni HD800 pads do. Quick measurements on Dekoni's rig showed an almost completely eliminated 6kHz peak.
     
  5. bazelio

    bazelio Friend

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    I thought Marverino measured the Dekoni HD800 maxipads and they didn't look promising. I was also considering picking up some HD800s on the cheap when I saw the Dekoni-published measurements, but it doesn't look meant to be after all.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2018
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  7. Ice-man

    Ice-man Friend

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    Same here. WAY too much bass with bleed into the mids. I thought that they were just bad with 650.
     
  8. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Bah, so the scrunchy velour Senn pads remain the best-sounding option for the HD650? Darn!
     
  9. Ice-man

    Ice-man Friend

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    The HM5 pads are bassier than stock but not nearly as much so as the Dekoni.
     
  10. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Yeah, these pads seem to be boosting the lows enough that I don't think there should be any front damping on HD580/600. This would probably mean HD650 will have mega bass with these. Especially if there is no rear damping.

    ______________________________________

    Anyway, with the Dekoni fenestrated pads and some readjustments to the rear damping scheme (not just foam piece anymore), I was able to arrive at this:

    [​IMG]

    With no front damping. That's pretty good. It eliminated the bass hump of stock pads. I'm thinking the same tweaks to HD600 will be very very interesting.

    Edit: in case it was hard to see what changed versus just having Fenestrated + stock foam piece:

    [​IMG]

    Red = Fenestrated + rear damping tweak
    Blue = Fenestrated + stock foam

    Basically: less bass hump, slightly less warm, lifted upper mid (3KHz to 5KHz) by 1dB, and lifted 8KHz by 3dB. Overall less dark/smoothed over.

    Comfort-wise, stock pads are still more comfy and less sweaty. My ears get hot with the fenestrated pads.

    Will take some photos and post instructions on how to do rear damping later.
     
  11. Shredicus

    Shredicus New

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    The suspense is killing me
     
  12. Schopenhauer

    Schopenhauer Big Boobs, Big Grin

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    Thought I might add a brief data point here. Received a pair of fenestrated sheepskin pads today and have been running them on the HD600. @Bill-P's intuition seems borne out by my experience. The net effect of the pads leaves the inherent neutrality (imho) of the HD600 intact. There's an impression of a slight boost in the bass, although I'm not sure "boost" is the precise term. The bass seems weightier, like it has more heft. It seems to hit harder. Overall the signature of the HD600 is thickened. The headphone still sounds forward but is vaguely more polite. No sense of a weird sharpening effect, or an increase in shoutyness. Subject to change, of course, but the fenestrated sheepskin pads might be good for people who find the signature of HD600 a bit thin-sounding. I'll probably leave them on.

    I haven't a feel yet for how the fenestrated sheepskin pads affect the technicalities of the HD600. I'll just say they don't seem to harm resolution or clarity. I should note that I find them more comfortable than the stock pads.

    NB: Most of my listening has been done with the foam left in. The brief impressions here http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/source-av-meet-impressions.5748/#post-189887 describe the HD600 w/ fenestrated sheepskin pads and the foam removed. I listened briefly with the foam removed and, at least so far, have preferred it left in. I'll experiment more with that variable.
     
  13. Shredicus

    Shredicus New

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    Any chance we could get an update?
     
  14. Timoteo

    Timoteo New

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    New here :) First post...I just got my Mod House HD600 adaptors & installed my pleather HM5 pads. I expected the results to be bad based on other people’s impressions. I initially bought the HM5 pads for my M50x trying anything to make those cans sound decent, nope! made them way worse. So I had the pads laying around. Figured I try them on my HD600s. Haven’t listened much but I noticed a little more umph in the bass & a little fuller sound which I liked. Going to do more A/B listening to get my thoughts together but so far not bad.
     
  15. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    Here are my quick impressions about Dekoni fenestrated pads with hd600 (no other mods). Got them yesterday.

    1. BQ is decent. Definitely way better than stock 600/650 pads. But these feel a bit inferior to expensive leather pads such as sr009 or utopia pads. Not bad by any means.

    2. Compared to stock pads, wearing comfort is better to me. Note that I generally love plusher pads, more inner space for ears, and leather-feel.

    3. Sonic change was surprising in various senses. Originally expected more subtle difference. The only unchanged (or indistinguishable) part was midrange.

    4. These pads transform hd600 to (tastefully) dark-ish sounding headphones. But also adds very noticeable and well-tuned definitions (probably 6k-8k hz) as well. I generally agree with Bill-P's expression: "Dark but sharp". Overall it kinda sounds like Senn-style LCD2C. To my ear "revealed" LCD2C and HD600+Dekoni were surprisingly similar in terms of treble presentations.

    Also tried these pads to my hd6xx (kiss mod). No.. too dark.. not my cup of tea.

    5. Stock pads seem to have righter timbre. Dekoni's timbre sounds slightly more colored. Treble cohesiveness keeps intact though.

    6. Bass is a bit tricky. Leaner sub-bass than stocks but lots of "perceived" total bass (due to recessed highs).

    7. Dekoni pads nicely absorb unnecessary (imo) mid bass humps. But this also reduces sub-bass amount. Bass sounds more critically damped (compared to stock hd600 or modded hd6xx). If familiar with focals, think of the difference in bass b/w utopia and elear.
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2018
  16. maverickronin

    maverickronin Friend

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    I've been using the velours on my otherwise stock HD650s.

    They add too much bass, but since they are much more comfortable I just EQ it back out. They 650s are my beater headphones anyway so with the improved comfort I'm not too bothered by the extra bass when I can't use EQ.
     
  17. bclark8923

    bclark8923 New

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    Got the Elite Velours for my HD600 and it makes them closer to an HD650 but still less bass while having a bit more treble sparkle which is exactly what I wanted
     
  18. ohshitgorillas

    ohshitgorillas Friend

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    I have the Elite Hybrids, I think they sound alright with the HD600 and add a little bit to the low end. I like em. They are utter muddy shit with the HD650M (coin, dynamat, spider removal). I don't understand how it's possible for the response to differ so much from phones that are so similar. I use Brainwavz flat velour and I think there's a subtle decrease in SQ and a big step up in comfort.
     
  19. Shredicus

    Shredicus New

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    Anyone pair these with an hd58x yet? Mine will be here on the tenth so and I'm interested in trying this pairing when they do since I already have a set of elite hybrids.
     
  20. Jerry

    Jerry Friend

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    I asked this recently. Probably it's not gonna pair well due to hd58x FR being closer to hd650. Unfortunate. Dekoni pads are comfier.
     

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