Audeze Micro Suede / "Vegan" Earpads on the Audioquest Nighthawk Headphones

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steve in jersey

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  These earpads seem to make a significant change in "opening up" & basically erasing any sense of congestion in the upper frequencies. There was a lot of "boominess" that is no longer obscuring a huge amount of what is
going on further up in the frequency response. Deep bass is still there but it is now very tightly controlled & more articulate.

Due to the fact that I'm now able to turn the volume control up to a higher level than was possible using the NH stock earpads. Before the change I was only able to comfortably listen to something like the Rachmaninov'
3rd Symphony at a no higher vol level than maybe a 10 o'Clock setting ! (& that was pushing it with any amount of the wonderful Orchestration not making itself evident. I'm no able to hear the Orchestration that distinguishes Rachmoninov from most other Composers with the vol. sitting at about 12 o'Clock. The gain structure of the music now is leagues closer to the actual sound of the recording.

Have I mentioned how much better I think things sound yet ? & the comfort of these pads is just exceptional.
I still can't get over this "2nd Stepchild" to "Cinderella" sound transformation. I keep looking around at my playback system to see if I made some other changes that I might have forgotten about .... Nope, this is a very nice surprise ! (I hate to even stop listening to go have some dinner !) :thumb:


FullRangeMan

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Its angled? any photo?
I never heard about a vegan suede, the leather suede came from an dead cattle anyway.

steve in jersey

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Well, here are front & back photos of these pads on the NH with the Audeze pads on them. I don't know what the dimensions are , but they are oversized by a fair amount than the NH earpad plate you'll be placing them on after you've removed the stock earpads from these plates. I really didn't have as distinct instructions on how to mount them , so I ended up just brainstorming a method of work . I cut & fit an included adhesive ring to each of the NH plates & then placed several dabs of Gorilla Super Glue Gel evenly spaced on the Audeze mounting rings (As they didn't appear to have adhesive on both sides of each ring) that I ended up using as a base for put the glue dabs on.

Then I placed an earpad in my hand with the back of each correctly oriented pad (as they're angled so that the
pads are angled front to back were facing straight up. I then carefully eyed up the position of each earcup (w/ the plates attach to each cup) & carefully eyed up where they would lay on top of each earpad & let them down into place to sit for a 15 second set time. I repeated the process for the each side & then placed the headphone on the glass dummy head for about 2hrs..

The fit & finish of what I did could be better, but it is a structurally sound mounting for the normal amount of wear & tear my headphones see. The upside of this harder than could have been install is the sonic rewards of
how much better I think they now sound. It was more the worth my effort to power through the less than ideal
install process (Once started I'm very determined to complete something)

I have no idea why they're were called "Vegan" pads at one time by Audeze, but that's where the name originated from. Hope this encourages someone to try these pads, as comparatively the stock pads really don't serve these headphone the justice they deserve  (They Black Leather free Audeze earpads were $62 a pair whereas the Brown Leather Free earpads are $79 a pair.; the stock pads are Black so it was a no brainer to go with them anyway)

FullRangeMan

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Thanks for the photos, seems they are angled, how these things are expensive! I pay $10 for the velour pads for my HE400.
Maybe they call vegan cause its a synthetic suede, just a idea.

R_burke

I have audeze regular leather pads for my Thunderpants TP-1s (heavily modded Fostex T50RPs).  They were the top rated pads by the modder and I am very happy with them. 

FullRangeMan

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I wonder what is the difference between Protein Leather and Synthetic Suede, etc.?
I mean say synthetic suede not came from a cow or animal but from a factory, I unknow protein leather.

steve in jersey

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I wonder what is the difference between Protein Leather and Synthetic Suede, etc.?

Personally ,I've never cared for Leathef pads (comfort wise) as my ears will start sweating after a few hrs in the winter  &  a much shorter time when the heat & humidity show up,

Any headphone I've ever switched from using a Leathef / leatther type pad seemed to display a much more"Neutral" FR than how it had sounded previously.. Even on headphones that I thought sounded pretty neutral to begin with,

The degree to which I think is noticeable is dependent on how detailed the headphones in question are capable of being . The NH are very capable in just about any category you could think of. Were I not able to use a "velour" type earpad though I think I'd prefer to use the NH with just a touch of EQ added .

With the Audeze pads in use on the NH , the FR appears to be a lot closer to flat across the board then with the stock pad in use. As a result of this the gain structure of the recorded music I listen to sounds quite a bit more balanced & the less prominent details in the music just jump out at you & recede just as quickly

The Audeze earpads are a bit pricey, but do I think the they add at least this much in detectable value to the NH ? Absolutely..... & then some (to be further discovered as I place more listening time on these "Overachiever" headphones)

*Scotty*

Call it petrochemical suede, it is a non-woven textile and it probably is more breathable than real leather, it can be washed/cleaned of the oils that are left behind by wearing the phones.
Scotty

steve in jersey

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Petrochemical , does'nt sound quite as "Catchy" as "Vegan" though & I think they probably stopped using this name ,because people started "calling" them on why they were using it !

(Sheesh , people can just start nitpicking & being PITA over anything I guess !)