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Asides

Hello world! A hot topic of discussion recently has been what gaming headset should I buy?

Reviewers like BadSeed Tech and Crinacle chimed in on their respective youtube channels which made some hubbub turn into a roar. So what gaming headsets should you buy?

The short answer: Whatever sounds good to you!

But why is this such a polarizing subject? Well everyone has an opinion, we are human after all. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/3aByRUC2BVL6Fs1zI723sd?si=3e58ce7b7349405a

There are currently two schools of thought, Immersive and Competitive. I subscribe to immersive myself just to get that out of the way, but what exactly is a competitive gaming headset?

I would describe competitive gaming headsets as either bass light or resolving. What does resolving mean? I would categorize that as crystal clear treble or high frequencies. The importance of this is for hearing your enemies footsteps or the whine of your transmission as you are on hour three of GT racing.

Another reason why competitive headset or headphones are chosen is their ability to image well or their soundstage. What is sound stage and imaging? Soundstage is the space around your head where sounds come from, the wider that space, the easier it is to discern how far something is away. Imaging is the ability of your headphones to separate left and right channel audio so you have more directional information on the location of your enemies in game.

So do you need that competitive edge? Probably not. Unless your job is to play video games for a living, you should probably just buy “Whatever sounds good to you”. Competitive headphones or headsets are really there to give you a slight edge over your competitors, which might really only be utilized for the top one percent of players.


Enjoy gaming and give into the immersive argument, buy a headphone or headset that gives you that oomph from explosions or the full spectrum of audio to really get the most out of the soundtrack. You don’t even need to buy a “Gaming Headset”, there are options to buy your microphone separately. This allows you to buy headphones that are tuned for quality of sound and not for champions of that one million dollar prize pool.

https://open.spotify.com/track/13q2SC8E8LvPmyddOkgyfS?si=c29881f279044019

So what did we learn today? Hopefully, competitive gaming headsets aren’t the end all of gaming. Gaming is meant to be enjoyed unless you are getting paid for it. Grab a Beyerdynamic DT1990 or a Koss KPH40 or if you really need a built in microphone the Drop PC38X. Gaming has some of the most iconic music out there so go out there and enjoy it!

Whatever Sounds Good to You.

 

I came home from CanJam SoCal 2021 with a lot of fond memories and one item; the Dekoni Audio/SKB Headphone Hero Heavy Duty Travel Case. This is a godsend for any Personal Audio reviewer or any headphone lover who travels. Based on the SKB 3i 1309-6 the Headphone Hero was purpose-built for use with headphones. Made from the same durable hard plastic used in the high-end travel cases designed to protect musical instruments and professional electronics, for security the Headphone Hero is fitted with TSA-approved latches and metal reinforced padlock loops.

Dekoni Audio/SKB Headphone Hero Heavy Duty Travel Case

Uniquely Dekoni’s Headphone Hero has a special pressure valve that allows pressure to be equalized while maintaining an IP67 water-resistant seal. Inside you will find a custom high-density foam Omega headphone stand that locks into the high-density foam cutout ensuring that your headphones are safe and secure while providing a convenient perch to place your headphones on while on the road. The center of the headphone stand has a cut-out for cables, DAPS, and accessories to prevent them from bouncing around and possibly damaging your headphones when placed in the case. The lid contains a layer of softer eggshell foam to accommodate oversized items.

As an added benefit, unlike a travel bag that must be carried with you at all times or stuffed into your luggage to take up space and possibly be damaged, the Dekoni Headphone Hero doesn’t identify your headphones as what they are so that they can travel in safe anonymity. Having traveled with audio gear for decades I can assure you that a hardshell case like the Headphone Hero is not only more convenient, but safer than transporting your headphones in their original packaging. A fantastic product that gets a wholehearted recommendation.

Dekoni Audio/SKB Headphone Hero Heavy Duty Travel Case

Manufacturer’s Website: https://dekoniaudio.com/product/dekoni-audio-x-skb-headphone-hero-heavy-duty-travel-case/

Price: $149.99

You can find the original review here.

One of the most intimate contacts any music lover has with their equipment is with the earpads of their headphones. But what if you love the sound of headphones A, but don’t much care for their feel on your head. Can you do something about it?

Well, there’s a good chance that you can with Dekoni Audio products. Dekoni makes a bunch of accessories – and even sells a set of Dekoni-branded planar magnetic headphones, which are a modified model from Fostex. But the great bulk of its lines are replacement earpads for quality headphones. Amongst the brands they cover are Beyerdynamic, Focal, HIFIMAN, Audeze, Sony, Audio-Technica, Technics, AKG, Fostex, Sennheiser and even Beats.

Here I’m trying out three different types, at three different prices points, with the Astell&Kern AK T5p 2nd Generation Closed Headphones, which I reviewed here.

tl;dr

Dekoni Audio Fenestrated Sheepskin fitted to headphones

A bit more information

Why the A&K headphones? Well, for one thing, as I pointed out in my review, they are great headphones. But also, they are physically compatible with the Beyerdynamic DT series, since A&K worked with Beyerdynamic in developing them.

Above I focused on the comfort element of replacement earpads. But there are other reasons why you might want new earpads … even if your headphones are new. For example, you might want to grab some now and just put them away until the original earpads – which are the parts of a set of headphones, perhaps apart from the cables, most subject to wear and tear – need replacement. Some brands have demonstrated that they will keep replacements in stock for at least a couple of decades, but that’s a long time and you don’t know what the future holds.

And then there’s the matter of sound. We tend not to think to much about it, but the earpads are a significant part of the dynamic system that constitutes headphones. The volume of air they contain between driver and head, their compliance or “springiness”, change the way that the driver works. Resonances are altered, perhaps ameliorated, or maybe introduced. Different frequencies may be absorbed more by different materials.

There are plenty of head fi enthusiasts who tweak their headphones with different pads, sometimes purchased and sometimes home made, in order to adjust the character of the sound.

Dekoni Audio Elite Velour earpads

Fitting the pads

I will confess that I hate fiddly tasks like removing and fitting new earpads. Let’s face it, headphones are not designed to have their pads changed all the time. Makers expect you to change them somewhere between never and two or three times over their lifespan. So they haven’t typically spent a lot of design time on making the task easy.

That said, with the A&K headphones the fitting wasn’t particularly onerous. There’s a narrow channel around the circumference of the earcup. At the back of each earpad is a flat ring made of a rubbery material – the ring is around 6mm wide – which can be stretched over the end of the channel to fit inside it. Once you get it started, you align the overlap with a notch in the channel, and then just rotate until the ring is entirely in the channel. The result is neat. With all three of these earcups, there were no visual clues that they were not factory fitted.

The stock earcups on the A&K headphones feature a material that feels like soft leather, although I would have expected A&K to have mentioned this if it were. The profile of the cups are rounded, so that they are like half a donut, and there is no backing material across the open space inside the cup.

All three of the Dekoni earpads are more cylindrical, with a flat face on each and with a fine black material covering the driver side of the hole. Apart from that covering and the profile, the other marked difference from the stock pads is that they are much deeper. The supplied pads, uncompressed, are 20mm thick, while all three of the Dekoni ones are 30mm.

Dekoni Audio Elite Hybrid earpads

Listening

Well, that was an interesting experience. Despite the considerations I outlined regarding the effect of earcups on sound, I was honestly not expecting to hear much of a difference. One reason why was that rapid A/B testing was impossible. Even though the fitting system is reasonably effective, it isn’t fast.

In general, I thought that the headphones sounded pretty much the same with all three of the Dekoni pads installed, although a touch brighter with the Elite Velour and Hybrid Velour than with the Fenestrated Sheepskin ones.

But the differences between all three and the stock earpads were marked. First, they were all noticeably quieter. That is, the music was quieter when the Dekoni earpads were installed. I’d say they lost at least three decibels in level. I suppose that’s because their greater thickness moves the drivers a centimetre further away from the ears, and the greater air volume takes more energy to fill.

Increasing the volume to account for that, I felt that the treble was a little more prominent and the overall presentation of the sound somewhat less weighty, with a more constrained bass. There was a slight increase in “air” – remember the A&K headphones are closed-back models – but a corresponding loss of immediacy and focus.

Dekoni Audio earpads - scale

Comfort-wise, I found the Velour and Hybrid models tighter on my head than the stock ones, thanks to the extra depth holding out the yoke of the headphones a little wider, and thus increasing the force of their spring. This was less apparent with the Fenestrated Sheepskin earpads. They seemed to have a bit more give in them.

Conclusion

The Dekoni Audio earpads are well made and well designed. On my head with the Astell&Kern AK T5p 2nd Generation Closed Headphones, I preferred the original earcups.

On your head with a pair of Sennheisers or Focals or ATs? Who knows? That’s part of the fun when you depart from stock headphone fittings. Experiment and see what you think.

What would drive a man to seek perfection? Well, a lot things really. I’m Dan, and I stream video games on twitch under the name “SamuraiDan”. Today we’ll be talking about my gaming/streaming set-up and how it helps me do what I do.

Ever since I started gaming on PC, I wanted the Ultimate Set-up, something I could come home to and run any game, application, or program with and have no stutter, hiccup or error pop up. Currently I’m pretty close to my perfect set up with 3 monitors, a monster of a PC, and a great sounding audio system.

 

20210225_180029-1Let’s talk about my PC: this PC has seen 9 years worth of revisions and it is only getting better. From case switches to hard drive additions, new graphics cards, and a complete CPU and motherboard switch, this PC has gone through a lot of iterations.

In this PC’s latest form it’s running a 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT CPU paired with 32 GB of G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 ram seated in ASUS ROG Strix B550-F motherboard. This CPU handles all streaming, gameplay and video production with ease. There is plenty of storage with 2 SSDs and 2 1 terabyte HDDs. The GPU is a MSI Geforce GTX 1070, and despite its age it’s capable of running the latest games, though the next upgrade will be an RTX 3080 once (if) the stock situation settles down. Powering all of this is a Corsair TX850M 850 watt power supply, keeping everything powered and running with headroom for any future upgrades.

 

To view, hear, and control my games and I have an array of accessories. For my mouse I am using a Logitech G703, alongside a Logitech G512 SE mechanical keyboard. During streams/recording I use a Yeti Blue microphone, giving better audio quality compared to any headset or headphone mounted mic. This also gives me the choice to use any headphone I want, thanks to not needing one with a built in mic or modmic.

20210225_175438For audio I have multiple choices, including my surround sound, my headphones, or my tv. When it comes to playing video games, the choice is always my headphones, the Audio-Technica ATH-M50xPB Professional Studio Monitor Headphones. The stock pads have been exchanged for the Dekoni Choice Hybrids pads. Most people would pick headphones with a built-in microphone, but I personally don’t like a microphone that close to my face.

The Dekoni Choice Hybrids are great ear pads, and make wearing my headphones one of the most comfortable things of the day. The Choice Hybrids have 3 materials: a leather exterior, a suede face, and the inner ring is a fenestrated leather. My favorite part of this ear pad has to be the suede face, when my headphones hug my head that suede feels great against the skin. It doesn’t make my head hot and makes wearing my headphones for long periods of time a comfortable and soothing task.

CHB Detail Shot

The pads also enhance the sound to make things clearer and more precise. With all the Apex and Call of Duty I play, ear pads just make the sounds more realistic. They add just enough bass so each gunshot and explosion has weight. Footsteps clap against the ground with clarity, helping to pinpoint your opponents location or movements.

The ear pads aren’t only good with FPS, but action/adventure games also come to life. I was playing Darksiders Warmastered Edition recently on stream and to hear the characters talking, bosses roaring, and sword slicing enemies; It just amplified everything so well. It brought back some of the excitement of playing games again, getting me fully immersed in experiencing the game.

 

Catch the original post on Head-Fi.org
ProsSuper lightweight. Great feeling material. No micro phonics. Portable length. Sturdy connectors
ConsNo options for cable length. Huge competition from all over the place for the 58X/6XX series of Sennheiser headphones. No other connector options for other headphones.

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I tend to avoid cable reviews since I find the sound quality side of cable reviews to be super subjective to a point. Plus that’s not usually why I opt for aftermarket cables. Luckily for me, Dekoni’s new Cablez doesn’t claim to be a special cable that improves sound. I was interested in their new offering since this seems to be new territory for them. Plus I like the way it looks. The Cablez comes in at a length of 1.2M and comes in 4.4mm Pentaconn. It is a fairly standard 5N copper cable.

Shoutout to Dylan from Dekoni for sending the Cablez in for review. While I always appreciate the chance to test and review products sent in from manufacturers, it never affects the rating of my review.

The Cablez can be picked up here https://dekoniaudio.com/product/dek…nnheiser-hd600-series-headphones-1-2m-length/

Gear used
IPhone 12 Pro, SMSL SU-9/SP400, iFi NEO, custom tube amp.

Looks and feel
When I got the Cablez in I was quite surprised since these had a material pretty close to my stock audeze cables. It’s hard to explain the feel of the cable material but it has a silicon/grippy feel. This material made for zero micro phonics when it was plugged into my 6xx. The cable is lightweight and didn’t tangle easy when I used it so I was pretty happy about that. It does require some effort to get them plugged into the headphones but I didn’t feel like I was breaking anything. They will wear down with time if for some reason you cable swap a lot. The cable is on the shorter side which was perfect for me. I tend to either be at my desk or relaxing on the bed/couch. This will of course be an issue if you have a setup where the amp is far from you. The other issue is that Dekoni(as of this writing) doesn’t offer any longer lengths. I hope that if the Cablez sells well, that some cable length options are added. The Cablez is also only offered in the 58X/6 everything series connectors. No options as of yet for other headphones.
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Sound thoughts
Dekoni claims the cablez won’t do any magical sound changes and they’re correct. In my testing I noticed no difference from the stock cable and the Cablez(ran through a single ended adapter). The few balanced cables I tried for the 6xx all gave a slightly wider soundstage and the same thing happened with the Cablez as well.

Cost
I can hear a lot of people screaming “WHY WOULD I PAY $120 FOR A CABLE FOR MY $170 58X?!”. Well it depends on a few things IMO. Of course you can pick up some cheaper cables of unknown build quality off Ali or amazon but here you get a really nicely made cable with no micro phonics that’s lightweight for a “middle of the cable road” price. It also depends on what headphones you plan to pair the Cablez with. If you attach it to a 58X the price is a little harder to swallow. If you throw the cable of a normal HD650 or 660s then the price of the Cablez doesn’t seem that bad. Dekoni is already running a deal on the Cablez as part of its launch so I recommend grabbing one now vs later if there is an interest in trying their new Cablez.

Overall thoughts
Like I stated in the beginning, I try not to do cable reviews as I like to avoid the subjective side of what a cable does to the sound quality. I usually buy an aftermarket cable because I have a need for a balanced cable. Looks and feel are important to me and I really like the new Dekoni Cablez. For those with the original HD600/650 and the 660S, I do recommend the Cablez! It was a blast to use and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Those with the 58X and 6XX will wanna determine if the price is worth it for the features of the cable. Thanks for reading.
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*Side note* I had planned to finish this review by grabbing my pair of 6XX from work and taking pics with the final production version of the Cablez. I’ve had the cable in for quite some time waiting for a release. I usually leave my 6XX in my cube at work since I’m the only one from my team going in currently. Someone was nice enough to take my headphones out of my cube while I was out of the office but left the custom tube amp that was worth way more behind. So unfortunately there won’t be any pics of it attached to my now missing 6XX.

You may find the original review here.

 

After seeing my review of the Dekoni earpads for the Spirit Torino Twin Pulse headphones, Dekoni decided to send me earpads for my HiFiMan HE6se headphones, which I saw as a great opportunity to not only review the earpads but the HE6se themselves.

Earpads are one of the least expensive ways to upgrade not only the look and feel of your headphone but the sound also. In fact, by selecting different earpads for different occasions you can often eliminate the need for multiple headphones to accommodate different music genres.

HiFiMan HE6se Planar Magnetic Headphone:

HiFiMan HE6se Planar Magnetic Headphone is a refined reissue of one of HiFiMan’s most popular headphones. While I admit that I acquired the HE6se for their well-earned reputation for being hard to drive, their epic sound quality sold me very quickly making them one of my top three reference headphones

In appearance, the HE6se is little changed from the original HE6, the same circular open-back planar magnetic earcup design, but the build quality is vastly improved, especially the “Hybrid” headband, which features a leather free-floating headstrap attached to a spring-steel headband with adjustable extensible steel earcup anchors which affords excellent clamping at a much lighter weight and better adjustability than the original. Another improvement is the detachable headphone cable that comes equipped with a four-pin balanced XLR connector and an adaptor for 1/4” single-ended TRS connections. The dual 3.5mm TRS connectors at the earcups make for easy aftermarket cable swapping though one might be tempted to stick with the Crystalline Copper/Crystalline Silver cable that comes with the HE6se.

In other words, they have taken the award-winning classic and simply upped the game making it a solid contender against any of the current offerings and with the current wealth of high output headphone amps, (HiFiMan recommends at least 2 Watts, to which I would add is best achieved with a triode tube amp, the bulk of which meet these power requirements, due to the extreme high-end extension of the HE6se) one could easily put together a world-class reference system for the price of many reference headphones.

Manufacturer’s website: hifiman.com

Price $1800

Specifications:

Frequency Response : 8Hz to 65 KHz
Impedance : 50 Ohm
Efficiency : 83.5 dB
Weight : 470 g

Dekoni HiFiMan HE6se Elite Series Earpads:

The Dekoni HiFiMan HE6se Earpads came in four flavors; HiFiMan HE Series Elite Hybrid which has a Sheepskin outer, a Velour face, and a Fenestrated Sheepskin inner (in appearance these are the closest to the Original HiFiMan HE6se Earpads); HiFiMan HE Series Elite Fenestrated Sheepskin (all surfaces); HiFiMan HE Series Elite Sheepskin (all surfaces); and HiFiMan HE Series Elite Velour (all surfaces).

Though similar in appearance to the HiFiMan HE6se’s original earpads, the Dekoni Elite Series earpads are slightly thicker than the HiFiMan originals and all, with the exception of the Elite Velour, are made from real sheepskin as opposed to Pleather (an artificial leather) which is used by HiFiMan.

HiFiMan HE Series Elite Hybrid, HiFiMan HE Series Elite Fenestrated Sheepskin, HiFiMan HE Series Elite Sheepskin, HiFiMan HE Series Elite Velour

Manufacturer’s website: dekoniaudio.com

Price:

HiFiMan HE Series Elite Hybrid: $79.99 USD

HiFiMan HE Series Elite Fenestrated Sheepskin: $79.99 USD

HiFiMan HE Series Elite Sheepskin: $69.99 USD

HiFiMan HE Series Elite Velour: $59.99 USD

The Listening Tests:

After spending some time listening to a couple of the Dekoni Elite Earpads, I decided I needed to go back and do some basic evaluations of the HiFiMan HE6se so you have a frame of reference for my impressions of the performance changes. I will note at this time that changing the pads is not a simple process as it requires extensive manipulation of the mounting ring (there are four outward-facing plastic tabs that have to be slotted into notches on the driver faceplate), but with practice, it only takes a few minutes.

I began my listening test using my iFi Pro iDSD driving my two Questyle CMA 800R amplifiers (in dual mono balanced mode) but discovered that the Pro iDSD in high gain had sufficient power to drive the HE6se which benefited from the added musicality of the tube amp.

Consulting my regular playlist I began with “Can-utility And The Coastliners” from the Genesis album “Foxtrot” (DSD) because it tells me a lot about bandwidth (and having lived with the HE6se for several months now I knew that was their strong point). The basic tonal balance is dead neutral with a slight uptick in the extreme high end, but what was especially impressive was the tightness and depth of the bottom end offering performance I had only heard in closed-back headphones previously. The soundstage was shallow but three dimensional with a great deal of space.

I next cued up Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s performance of “The Firebird Suite” (“Stravinsky: The Firebird; Borodin: Music from Prince Igor” – 24-bit/96kHz vinyl rip) and I was transported to a box seat in a huge concert hall, the timbre of the instrument true and compelling with each musician etched out before me in their seat on stage. The plucking of the cellos and the contrabass resonated off the distant walls of the theater. As it turned out, to hit the proper impact of the crescendos I had to return to the CMA 800Rs so I left them on for a few days to let them mellow out and resumed my evaluations (it is often best to leave solid-state amps on continually as it can take a long time for them to fully reach operating temperature of all the components). Since I was still running the Pro iDSD in tube mode as a straight DAC this retained the musicality noted above. When supplied with sufficient power (which is 4.5 Watts with the CMA 800 Rs) the HE6se comes across as extremely tight and dynamic.

I switched to the Dekoni HiFiMan HE Series Elite Hybrid pads first as they were the most similar to the originals in appearance and immediately noticed an expansion of the soundstage and a slightly more robust bottom end, not in an artificial sense, but with more weight while listening to the above tracks.

Led Zeppelin III

To further explore that feeling of space I put on my favorite Led Zeppelin song “Tangerine” (“Led Zeppelin III” – 24-bit/96kHz) and was not disappointed, Jimmy Page up close and personal providing three tracks of acoustic guitar with Robert Plant slightly behind in a vast auditorium. John Paul Jones and John Bonham adding power to the choruses the bass rich and full the drums tight and impactful, while Jimmy’s slide guitar and electric leads filled in a massive tapestry of sound.

I next tried the HiFiMan HE Series Elite Fenestrated Sheepskin expecting a marked change in tonality and was surprised to find the tonal balance was consistent, with a slight drop in efficiency and commensurate increase in soundstage and low-end extension. I’ll also note that they had a much more luxuriant feel against my ears and head than the previously tested earpads.

Green Onions - Booker T

This seemed the perfect combo for Booker T. & The MGs’ “Green Onions” (“Green Onions [Stax Remasters]” – 24-bit/192kHz) providing that large club soundstage with the reverb guitar bouncing off the distant walls.

Now it seemed time to go the opposite direction and engage maximum isolation with the HiFiMan HE Series Elite Sheepskin pads. Mirroring the Fenestrated Sheepskin, they were notably more efficient with a slightly more intimate soundstage and lighter bass that was yet still expansive and rich.

The Nylons “Seamless"

Figuring this would be the best combo for vocal I selected “The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)” as performed by the a cappella troupe The Nylons (“Seamless” – 16-bit/44.1kHz). The experience was riveting representing the vast soundstage previously noted.

Finally, I finished up by going in a completely different direction with the HiFiMan HE Series Elite Velour. At this point, it was hard to know what to expect as it became clear that Dekoni had the tonal balance of the earpads well in control, though what I suspected might be the case was in fact true. Lovers of the traditional open-back sound of a slightly warm but shallow bottom end and an intimate but immersive soundstage will love this sound. By far the least efficient combination I had to push the amps pretty hard to achieve the necessary excitement for the crescendos of “The Firebird Suite”, conversely, the impact was increased to match the greater output.

Liz_Phair_-_whitechocolatespaceegg

Not being a fan of Hip-Hop I played Liz Phair’s “Polyester Bride” (“Whitechocolatspaceegg” – 16/44.1) to take full advantage of the punch of this poppy sound and it was visceral and fun.

Conclusions on the Dekoni HiFiMan HE6se Elite Series Earpads

The HiFiMan HE6se Planar Magnetic Headphones are the most linear open-back headphones I have heard short of an electrostatic, that coupled with their huge three-dimensional soundstage and deep bass make them well deserving of their reputation as a world-class reference headphone and make their thirsty lust for power and finicky amplifier demands forgivable and worth the effort and expense.

On the other hand, I never realized how much of that amazing presentation was due to the earpads and while the original HiFiMan earpads are no slouch, the Dekoni HiFiMan HE6se Elite Series Earpads greatly upped the game in both sound quality and elegant luxuriance. It was shocking to discover how well the Dekoni earpads retained the essence of the HE6se sonic signature while adding just a little bit more magnificence. Clearly, for my tastes, the HiFiMan HE Series Elite Fenestrated Sheepskin were the top performer in both feel and sound, but I would happily recommend any of the pads tested.

Overall a truly rewarding and enlightening experience and a definite thumbs up for both HiFiMan and Dekoni.

 

Gary Alan Barker

Gary Alan Barker is a writer who has been a member of the Audio Industry since 1978, having acted as technical writer for several high-end audio companies, and been an electronics hobbyist since 1960. He has also been a musician and writer since the mid 1960s.

Pros– Great build quality
– Improved durability
– Increased comfort
– Fine tuning of the sound
– Six options to choose
Cons– Sound always slightly different than stock

Preface

Dekoni Audio asked here on Headfi for users willing to test ear pads for various headphones and provide their unbiased impressions.

We have applied and luckily we were selected to test the replacement ear pads for the Sennheiser HD660S so Dekoni Audio kindly provided a pair of our choice free of charge.

The USA based Dekoni Audio is the largest and most well known maker of aftermarket ear pads for various models of headphones.
They also make aftermarket ear tips plus hearing protection ear plugs and some other very useful accessories.

More info can be found at their website https://dekoniaudio.com/

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Now what sets Dekoni apart from other similar manufactures is that their ear pads are not just copies of the originals but they are designed with three parameters in mind.
First to offer way better comfort , secondly to be made more durable and thirdly and most important to offer minor corrections and improvements to the sound signature of the applied headphones.

Most ear pads are offered in various versions made from different materials each one providing it’s own tuning plus varying in comfort results.

And the best part is that usually all this sound tweaking is supported by frequency measurements so the potential buyer will have an idea what’s all about.

For the Sennheiser HD6– series (plus 58x) we are offered six different replacement ear pads to choose from.
Two are the Choice more budget oriented variant and the other four are from the top tier Elite Series.

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Measurements are provided for all the six pads although only for the Sennheiser HD650 but since all the other compatible headphones have well known frequency measurements and comparisons available online it is easy to choose.

Build quality – comfort

We have opted for the Hybrid variant since it is our beloved and we have been using it for years with great success with our Sennheiser HD800 and HD800S.

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It is luxuriously made with great care and workmanship featuring velour at the face contact side , sheepskin for the outer part and fenestrated sheepskin for the inner circle.
All this materials engulf a pad of slow rebound memory foam of better quality than the original.

As we have been using the hybrid pads for a few years with our above mentioned headphones we can confirm that they outlast the original ear pads about two times so as you can understand there are way better value since they will not need to be replaced so frequently.

Regarding the specific HD660S hybrid ear pad we thought of it as being more comfortable than the original due to the better touch feeling to the face and the much more roomy inner circle.
It can fit without depressing or touching the ear , something that
happens with the stock pads.

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Sound variations

Sound wise we heard some minor but really welcomed differences.
As you can see from the photo the Dekoni pads are a little more deep so they push the driver a bit far away from the ear resulting in a better stage width.
Don’t think this as a wow difference but it is there and happily noticed adding more air between the instruments and even better positioning accuracy.

Bass extension is slightly increased and we can hear better layering with improved clarity and detail retrieval with the last being true for all the frequency range.
Finally there is a slight decrease at the upper mids – presence area making for a more natural tonality reducing some echo or glare that it was otherwise present especially with some voices.

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At the end

The Dekoni Hybrid ear pads for the Sennheiser HD660S are highly recommended for their increased durability and extra comfort and above all the ability to tweak and fine tune the sound with a welcomed improvement at least for our particular taste.
Don’t forget that you can choose from six different offerings to slightly modify your beloved headphones tuning but if you are hardcore fan of the stock sound then go for the original pads.

Postlude

Several members after reading this review have complained being more about comfort than sound.
Well yes and no!
This are replacement ear pads so yes comfort and quality is the first thing to be discussed here.
Then we come to sound and we must understand that ear pads won’t buy you a new sounding headphone.
We are talking here about fine tuning , minor tweaks that for someone will be considered as improvements and for some others not.
So people don’t expect night and day differences and as it is noted above if you like stock sound then stay with stock pads.

Copyright – Laskis Petros 2020.

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