CoffeeCakeLoL t1_itxmeuz wrote on October 27, 2022 at 1:20 AM

I had two different 560S (due to price change) and the different in sound due to pads was astonishing. Both were refurbished from Sennheiser. One had much denser pads similar to those on the 600 and another one had very thin/soft pads (maybe it was just worn?).

The one with dense pads had more bass punchiness and somewhat smoother treble. It was also more intimate sounding. It basically sounded 95% the same as my HD600s.

The one with the thin pads was a little too bright for my taste, but did seem to have a bigger soundstage.

RB181 t1_itylp5j wrote on October 27, 2022 at 7:08 AM

Sennheiser switched to a different earpad vendor some time ago; ASR measured the 600 series with new earpads, and they sound brighter than old pads like you mentioned. The way they can be told apart is that old pads have black mounting rings on the back and new ones have clear mounting rings.

The same applies to the 500 series, as seen in this video. There's still plenty of new-old-stock pads on the market (at least for the 500 series) so that might be the difference between the ones you have.