Changing pads on DT990 Pros

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capetownwatches

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So I found a mint pre-owned pair of Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 - always wanted a pair.
Heck, everyone should have a pair. They ARE that good.

The nice gentleman selling them delivered to my abode on Saturday morning, and right from the opening notes of Roger Water's "In the Flesh Live" in glorious 1 bit 2.8MHz SACD DSF I knew I was going to bond just fine with these.

Tested them for about 3 minutes and was well happy, paid the man and set about swopping out the velours for the pristine ones off my DT770s.
The pads are in decent nick, however my OCD would not allow me to use them before a good wash... :nutter:

Back to Mr. Waters' opus looking forward to an improvement in SQ with the fresh pads, but no - unthinkable. They sounded terrible. Really terrible, as in incredibly bass heavy and muffled. Clarity and definition had all but disappeared. Like listening through a blanket. I was horrified - had I stuffed something up? Checked my JRiver settings from A to Z - nothing had changed. Tried various tracks and music types - unlistenable!
How could a new pair of the same pads have such an effect?

Now I'm pondering and mulling over this conundrum the whole day yesterday, and decided that surely the only sane solution is to switch back to the original (still unwashed) pads.
So I get home today and do just that, all the time wondering if a simple pad change could so comprehensively change the sound quality of these headphones (and not for the better).

Bottom line is that all is good with the world again - the original pads have given me back the sound I remembered when I first listened to them, and that sound is magnificent.
Crisp, clean and powerful right through the frequencies, with phenomenal definition and clarity.

From this I have learned that pads can and do make a HUGE and MATERIAL difference to the sound of your headphones.
Yes, I already knew this but have previously never experienced such a marked difference.

My only concern is what will they sound like when I am forced to replace the pads for new ones?

 
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