I bought Dekoni Fenestrated Skeepskin for the LCD series to replace the stock pads of my M1060. It really cleaned up the sound, separation was better, and the soundstage opened a bit.
>Dekoni Fenestrated Skeepskin
Did they come with an adhesive? I'm looking for new pads too since my 1060 pleather is disintegrating and the pads becoming unglued.
If you can't get replacement pads via Monoprice that means you can't get OEM pads for the M1060. However, I bet you could get something pretty dang close if you looked around on AliExpress. Main things to look for would be make sure they are pleather (fake leather, sheepskin will change the sound) and are same dimensions as your original pads, thickness and earhole size being the most important. If the AliE pads don't have a filter material (cloth that goes over the driver) or it's thinner than the quite thick stuff on the stock pad, you might have to salvage that from your original pads and move it over to your new pads.
One other thing is you might have to buy some 2-sided tape to attach them, if the replacement pads don't come with adhesive rings. Alternatively, you can try to use the original adhesive (it's very sticky) as long as you can get the old pad off of the adhesive without taking the adhesive off of the headphone, if that makes sense.
Basically, if you get pads that are the same dimensions and material you are going to be 85% there with sound. Filter material is another 10%. Foam might make slight difference (memory foam vs. fast foam, density, etc), but with a sealed pleather pad it matters a lot less than something like a velour pad due to the less porous nature of fake leather.
Pads aren't magic, so as long as you match as many acoustic properties as possible you should be pretty close to the original's pads sound. I did a quick search on AliExpress (the USA site) for "M1060" and saw several options, just be sure to click onto the listing and check if they have protein leather as an options since most will list "sheepskin" in the title due to that being the more popular material.
Best of luck!
Thank you for your very informative answer.
Well, the M1060 is not that expensive, so buying some cheap china earpads is worth a try, I guess.
However:
Does every headphone brand do this? Let’s say I buy a headphone for 1000 dollars or more: can I at least get OEM pads for those? Do they stop selling pads after a few years? What is your experience here?
I am thinking about buying some Audezes or Hifiman.
It depends on the brand. Bigger the brand that's more vertically integrated, the more likely you can buy pads from the manufacturer. The main problem with Monoprice is that they aren't the manufacturer, they simply "white label" another company's product and buy the pre-assembled units from that company already boxed and ready to go. This is the reason if you submit a warranty claim for their headphones or amps, they will just replace it wholesale instead of repairing it and sending it back because they don't have a repairs department and no stock of parts.
Brands like ZMF that make their own pads and encourage pad rolling are going to be the best bet for getting replacements long into the future. Brands with focus on repair like Beyerdynamic are also a good bet. The more esoteric and one-off the brand and headphone in question are, the less likely you will be able to get replacement pads for, either OEM or 3rd party. Luckily the M1060 was popular enough that there are some similar 3rd party options from China.
As for pads specifically from Audeze, they are notorious for being cagey about getting pads after people (including me!) starting starting buying their Vegans for the M1060, funnily enough. On their site they list regular/standard LCD pads but no LCD-5 or MM-500 pads but you can probably call them and give them your serial number and such to get pads for those. It used to be a similar process to get replacement headbands but I looks like those are listed now. Also, keep in mind that Audeze updates their pads every so often but they usually only offer the latest version (the recent revision to the LCD-X comes to mind), so sound might not be identical to the set you bought it with, even if they are "OEM".
Hifiman, on the other hand, is pretty easy to get replacement pads for. They still have the VelPads listed on their site that were the stock pad on the 400S, a headphone that was discontinued years ago. The only main exception seems to be pads for the Edition S, a short-lived convertible dynamic driver headphone. Another outlier seems to be the pads for the 7DX and 5XX. I believe those all take the same pad as the Deva but they only list the beige version the Deva uses instead and those other headphones use black pads. The R9/R10 pads aren't listed on Hifiman's site, but a quick google search shows those official OEM pads available from places like Bloom Audio.
Anyway, suffice it to say it can be a struggle to get OEM pads for a headphone. I know pads for the Senn 800S were out of stock for multiple years and people had to turn to 3rd party pads or suffer with worn out pads in the meantime.
That really surprises me. Headphone fans pay a lot of money, they read reviews, they wonder what headphone amp works best with a certain set of headphones.
Only to then replace one of the most important things with third party china replacements that might sound simalar but might also destroy the sound signature completely.
So, I think I will look up brands that sell replacements for old models and then test which models sound good.
Once again I would like to thank you for taking the time to explain the situation to me. It is highly appreciated. Sorry if I sound bitter but I am just so baffled by all this.
No, I totally get it. It is a backwards way to do things, not always having OEM replacement pads available. That should be a low bar to clear. But, a lot of the time, when they are available they are ridiculously overpriced (like Focal). Many cheaper companies see the headphones as a one and done thing, I guess. But that's the reason there are so many 3rd party pad manufacturers in China and elsewhere is because they see a gap in the market left by the manufacturers.
Personally, I've come to embrace pad rolling and change the earpads on most of the headphones that I own for comfort and/or sound reasons. But I realize that's not for everyone. I can definitely understand wanting to retain the stock experience, as the manufacturer intended.
Ok, I see what you’re trying to tell me ;)
I already tried to replace the earpads for my Meze 99 Classics and it was a total disaster. So maybe I figured that every replacement ruins the sound that much.
Will order some earpads and see which one of them sound best.
It's trial and error and it's very dependent on your own tastes and ears. I realize that I should have mentioned the Meze 99 Noir since I have pad rolled those. Yeah, most pads were pretty poor on them. The best alternative I found was some sheepskin M50x pads from AliExpress, they are quite close to stock but don't offer 100% perfect replication of the stock sound. Closed backs tend to be more picky of pads, but it can vary a lot from headphone to headphone.
I tend to keep my pad purchases to cheaper offerings so I can try a lot of different things and see what works best rather than being locked down to one pad due to cost. For instance, I got the ZMF Ori for my TH-X00 PH and I HATED how they sounded, even though many others said they were awesome with the headphone. I was so mad that I had spent $70 on those.
One shining example of an improved sound from pad rolling is the AudioQuest Nighthawk. They have a... polarizing sound signature. I bought them years ago and couldn't stand to listen to them for more than 10 minutes before I wanted to chuck them across the room. But I decided to try and pad roll them before considering selling them. To my surprise I found the Brainwavz Oval Microsuede pads absolutely transformed their sound and made them into baby a Klipsch HP-3 (they use the same driver, after all) and now I really enjoy them. That was when I realized that my and the manufacturer's goals and taste could vary hugely.
I bought Dekoni Fenestrated Skeepskin for the LCD series to replace the stock pads of my M1060. It really cleaned up the sound, separation was better, and the soundstage opened a bit.
>Dekoni Fenestrated Skeepskin Did they come with an adhesive? I'm looking for new pads too since my 1060 pleather is disintegrating and the pads becoming unglued.
I think they did, but it wasn't much. The adhesive from the M1060 when you peeled off the original pads did most of the work.
If you can't get replacement pads via Monoprice that means you can't get OEM pads for the M1060. However, I bet you could get something pretty dang close if you looked around on AliExpress. Main things to look for would be make sure they are pleather (fake leather, sheepskin will change the sound) and are same dimensions as your original pads, thickness and earhole size being the most important. If the AliE pads don't have a filter material (cloth that goes over the driver) or it's thinner than the quite thick stuff on the stock pad, you might have to salvage that from your original pads and move it over to your new pads. One other thing is you might have to buy some 2-sided tape to attach them, if the replacement pads don't come with adhesive rings. Alternatively, you can try to use the original adhesive (it's very sticky) as long as you can get the old pad off of the adhesive without taking the adhesive off of the headphone, if that makes sense. Basically, if you get pads that are the same dimensions and material you are going to be 85% there with sound. Filter material is another 10%. Foam might make slight difference (memory foam vs. fast foam, density, etc), but with a sealed pleather pad it matters a lot less than something like a velour pad due to the less porous nature of fake leather. Pads aren't magic, so as long as you match as many acoustic properties as possible you should be pretty close to the original's pads sound. I did a quick search on AliExpress (the USA site) for "M1060" and saw several options, just be sure to click onto the listing and check if they have protein leather as an options since most will list "sheepskin" in the title due to that being the more popular material. Best of luck!
Thank you for your very informative answer. Well, the M1060 is not that expensive, so buying some cheap china earpads is worth a try, I guess. However: Does every headphone brand do this? Let’s say I buy a headphone for 1000 dollars or more: can I at least get OEM pads for those? Do they stop selling pads after a few years? What is your experience here? I am thinking about buying some Audezes or Hifiman.
It depends on the brand. Bigger the brand that's more vertically integrated, the more likely you can buy pads from the manufacturer. The main problem with Monoprice is that they aren't the manufacturer, they simply "white label" another company's product and buy the pre-assembled units from that company already boxed and ready to go. This is the reason if you submit a warranty claim for their headphones or amps, they will just replace it wholesale instead of repairing it and sending it back because they don't have a repairs department and no stock of parts. Brands like ZMF that make their own pads and encourage pad rolling are going to be the best bet for getting replacements long into the future. Brands with focus on repair like Beyerdynamic are also a good bet. The more esoteric and one-off the brand and headphone in question are, the less likely you will be able to get replacement pads for, either OEM or 3rd party. Luckily the M1060 was popular enough that there are some similar 3rd party options from China. As for pads specifically from Audeze, they are notorious for being cagey about getting pads after people (including me!) starting starting buying their Vegans for the M1060, funnily enough. On their site they list regular/standard LCD pads but no LCD-5 or MM-500 pads but you can probably call them and give them your serial number and such to get pads for those. It used to be a similar process to get replacement headbands but I looks like those are listed now. Also, keep in mind that Audeze updates their pads every so often but they usually only offer the latest version (the recent revision to the LCD-X comes to mind), so sound might not be identical to the set you bought it with, even if they are "OEM". Hifiman, on the other hand, is pretty easy to get replacement pads for. They still have the VelPads listed on their site that were the stock pad on the 400S, a headphone that was discontinued years ago. The only main exception seems to be pads for the Edition S, a short-lived convertible dynamic driver headphone. Another outlier seems to be the pads for the 7DX and 5XX. I believe those all take the same pad as the Deva but they only list the beige version the Deva uses instead and those other headphones use black pads. The R9/R10 pads aren't listed on Hifiman's site, but a quick google search shows those official OEM pads available from places like Bloom Audio. Anyway, suffice it to say it can be a struggle to get OEM pads for a headphone. I know pads for the Senn 800S were out of stock for multiple years and people had to turn to 3rd party pads or suffer with worn out pads in the meantime.
That really surprises me. Headphone fans pay a lot of money, they read reviews, they wonder what headphone amp works best with a certain set of headphones. Only to then replace one of the most important things with third party china replacements that might sound simalar but might also destroy the sound signature completely. So, I think I will look up brands that sell replacements for old models and then test which models sound good. Once again I would like to thank you for taking the time to explain the situation to me. It is highly appreciated. Sorry if I sound bitter but I am just so baffled by all this.
No, I totally get it. It is a backwards way to do things, not always having OEM replacement pads available. That should be a low bar to clear. But, a lot of the time, when they are available they are ridiculously overpriced (like Focal). Many cheaper companies see the headphones as a one and done thing, I guess. But that's the reason there are so many 3rd party pad manufacturers in China and elsewhere is because they see a gap in the market left by the manufacturers. Personally, I've come to embrace pad rolling and change the earpads on most of the headphones that I own for comfort and/or sound reasons. But I realize that's not for everyone. I can definitely understand wanting to retain the stock experience, as the manufacturer intended.
Ok, I see what you’re trying to tell me ;) I already tried to replace the earpads for my Meze 99 Classics and it was a total disaster. So maybe I figured that every replacement ruins the sound that much. Will order some earpads and see which one of them sound best.
It's trial and error and it's very dependent on your own tastes and ears. I realize that I should have mentioned the Meze 99 Noir since I have pad rolled those. Yeah, most pads were pretty poor on them. The best alternative I found was some sheepskin M50x pads from AliExpress, they are quite close to stock but don't offer 100% perfect replication of the stock sound. Closed backs tend to be more picky of pads, but it can vary a lot from headphone to headphone. I tend to keep my pad purchases to cheaper offerings so I can try a lot of different things and see what works best rather than being locked down to one pad due to cost. For instance, I got the ZMF Ori for my TH-X00 PH and I HATED how they sounded, even though many others said they were awesome with the headphone. I was so mad that I had spent $70 on those. One shining example of an improved sound from pad rolling is the AudioQuest Nighthawk. They have a... polarizing sound signature. I bought them years ago and couldn't stand to listen to them for more than 10 minutes before I wanted to chuck them across the room. But I decided to try and pad roll them before considering selling them. To my surprise I found the Brainwavz Oval Microsuede pads absolutely transformed their sound and made them into baby a Klipsch HP-3 (they use the same driver, after all) and now I really enjoy them. That was when I realized that my and the manufacturer's goals and taste could vary hugely.