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Dekoni Choice Series Earpads

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Dekoni Choice Series Earpads

Name: Dekoni Choice Series Earpads
Brand: Dekoni
SKU: dekoni-choice-series-earpads
Price: 40 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.777778 (18 reviews)

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Product Description

Next to sound quality, comfort is the most important characteristic in any pair of headphones—and no component is more crucial to comfort than earpads. If you have a favorite pair of headphones that need an earpad replacement, the Choice Series from Dekoni has you covered Read More

Customer Reviews

4.8

(18 reviews)

(14)

(4)

(0)

100% would recommend to a friend

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A_COC0NUT

Aug 23, 2020

Verified Buyer

Best comfort but the sound changes a lot

These have the best comfort of the three pads I've tried, but the sound change is not what I really like. These add I bit too much mid bass and reduce the sound stage. These are great if you want great comfort for hours for gaming.

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ohPhuck

May 16, 2020

Verified Buyer

Soft plush

I can wear for hours on end & my ears don’t get sweaty at all.

Recommends this product? Yes

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JaegerD

190

Apr 29, 2020

Verified Buyer

Great feeling

I much prefer these to the stock earpads that the 6XXs come with. I am not able to tell a difference in sound... But I am sure there are people who are out there who can, or at least, say they can. I do not get unusually hot in the ears when wearing these pads

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f.angest

Apr 10, 2020

Verified Buyer

Great addition to DT177X

Bought these as I didn’t love the pads that came with the DT177X and they made a huge difference to the enjoyability of that headphone, all I’ll say is that they can get a bit warm!

Recommends this product? Yes

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CaptainSaif

Apr 10, 2020

Verified Buyer

love them

10/10

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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peaceful_distance

Apr 3, 2020

Verified Buyer

[Update 10/17/2020] These pads basically fix the Sennheiser HD 560s that released recently. I preordered the cans and was hyped up by most reviewers and previews, only to be disappointed by a dry and shouty signature (albeit clean and balanced). I was having major buyers remorse until I decided to try putting the dekoni's 598 pads on. Great move, almost as if the pads were tuned just for the 560s, they are now listenable to my subjective standards. This also doubles as a perfect swap since my 558 were in desperate need of new velour pads. If anyone else has bought a 560s and finds the signature too dry, cold, or soundstage in your head, this is your fix. Recommended. [Original Review] Item Purchased: Sennheiser Choice Leather Objective: High quality leather that feels smooth to run your finger across, feels more premium than the sticky or rough leathers found on other headsets. Inner foam is memory foam; highly retentive so may come across as stiff during wear. Subjective: I own the Sennheiser 558. I've heard the 598 and 598 SE before, so I know the 598 tend to be more bass light and detail heavy than the 558. I bought this because my stock velour pads were given to my brother's 518 since his disintegrated, and I was looking for an opportunity to try out new pads. My incentive was to try and smoothen the mids and highs without messing with the bass of the 558. Upon installation and enough listening, I reached half of my goal. The mids and highs were smoothened and refined, highly enjoyable. The bass took a Major boost, in a bad way. I usually don't mind bass heavy for fun factor and musicality, but this was just bass city, midbass bleed, and actual driver distortion on kick drums. The pads also made the headphones heavier than with stock velour, so my neck feels strained wearing them. By how much I do not know precisely, but I can feel the difference. Conclusion: Objectively, these pads are top notch, and would do the 598 great justice in giving it the bass boost it needs as well as a smoothening of the upper registers, which is also much needed. If you own a 598 and want leather pads, this is it. Subjectively, I messed up. Even if you were a basshead, any self respecting basshead wouldn't enjoy midbass bleed and distortion to the max. It gives me a headache. Any consumer or enthusiast class Sony headset still gives the best bang for buck in the bass department. If you own a 558, don't get these unless you're into distortion and overwhelming bass presence. And for those of you wondering, it doesn't really affect the original perceived headroom and soundstage, still semi wide and semi deep, same as the velour pads. Moral of the story, only buy choice leather pads from Dekoni if you know your headphones lack a ton of bass and have grainy mids/highs. tl;dr A bit on the heavy side for pads but does what it advertises to do to the frequency response and in a high quality material way. Would I recommend this to a friend? If 598, yes, otherwise no. Make a velour version tuned for the 558 or 518 and I'll buy it in a heartbeat.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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OakParkMusicGuy

Mar 10, 2020

Verified Buyer

Love'em!

Had other types of Dekoni earpads which I liked. Tried these out and put them on all my Beyers & Sennheisers. VERY comfortable.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Gueri

Feb 1, 2020

Verified Buyer

These pads are just epic.

I ordered choice leather for my mmx 300 gen 2. And it is epic purchase. Absolutely happy with these pads. I love sound and super comfort that i got. Build quality is just top. Was kinda scary to replace them. Especially compared to my Akg k7xx way of installing pads. The only thing that u have to remember about, leather/ choice leather acumulates heat. So in realy warm places use air conditioner or suede/velour pads.

Recommends this product? Yes

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thefitz

377

Jan 3, 2020

Verified Buyer

Choice pads could be the best audio purchase ever... under the right circumstances.

NOTE: This review has been updated to reflect my experience with both the Choice Suede and Choice Leather earpads. This headphone hobby can really be insane. The price people pay for freaking headphone cables that make no measurable performance difference (expensive cables always seem to magically cure whatever a headphone's ailments are, and they always "open up the mids"); claiming to be able to "hear" USB jitter (it sounds "metallic" and "fatiguing"); leaving your DAC on so it's always at the right temperature (OK, I do this!); endless tube rolling; the list goes on. Yet, there are things that have a huge impact on a headphone's sound that are difficult (if not impossible) to find consistent and reliable information on: things like a device's output impedance (crucial for balanced armature IEMs); a BA IEM's impedance curve (what will happen when plugged into something with a little impedance?); the effect earpads and eartips can have. Earpad/eartip rolling is a hobby unto itself. It has turned some IEMs from harsh messes into audio perfection (every try 2-flange SpinFit tips on the Noble Kaiser 10?) and has turned some of my headphones from "For Sale" listings into crucial pieces of kit. Dekoni pads are a huge reason for this, particularly the Choice offering. While I wish they’d revisit the measurements of some important headphones since purchasing Tyll’s storied measurement rig (I’m looking at you, HD800!), their latest measurements have really demonstrated the impact pads have on a headphone. Not all of it is good; it appears that there’s no salvaging the HD700, the HD650 turns to mud with anything other than stock pads, and beyerdynamics seem to explode when using certain materials. I’ve experienced this first-hand, and I’ll elaborate on that in a bit. However, you do notice that certain earpad materials have attributes in common, regardless of what headphone they’re on. Both the Choice Suede and Choice Leather pads appear to have very specific characteristics that are consistent across all their available measurements, and I can personally verify that the Choice Suede and Leather pads do what the measurements say they do. The Choice Leather pads appear to smooth out the 8kHz-10kHz region tastefully and fortify and smooth out the 2kHz-5kHz area, but they also seem to have a bit of a bump at 45Hz before divebombing in the sub-bass. The Choice Suede pads appear to leave the bass alone, while retaining that 2kHz-5kHz consistency. The real magic here is the fact that they completely smooth out whatever spikes exist at the 8kHz-10kHz range, for better or for worse. I find this area of the sound spectrum particularly irritating when it’s boosted, and in my experience a lot of headphones have trouble here. I have a pair of Audeze LCD-X headphones that I was actively shopping. They sounded fine, but I had an Audeze LCD-3F I liked better. Both headphones had a little too much heat in the 8kHz-10kHz area for me, and the Audeze LCD-X had a withdrawn low-treble which made this peak stand out even more. When the LCD-3F’s vegan pads started to fray (oh no!) I decided to pull the trigger on the Choice Suede pads to see if they’d calm down the treble heat. When they arrived, they did precisely that – that smoky, romantic presentation remained, with nary a hint of unbecoming crispiness up top. The whole 2kHz-10kHz spectrum seemed to flow into itself much more evenly, and I thought it was a great match. At that point, I revisited Dekoni’s LCD-2F measurements (https://dekoniaudio.com/audeze-lcd-2-measurements/) and noticed the Elite Sheepskin pads also provided a small 8kHz-10kHz cut yet extended the bass to 0. My curiosity got the best of me, and I purchased them for my LCD-3F, where they remain today (partially because I don’t know how many pad swaps those 3M adhesive rings will handle!). I wasn’t getting much interest on my LCD-X ad. Instead of lowering the price, I decided to throw caution to the wind and remove the stock leather pads and replace them with the Choice Suede pads I just took off the LCD-3F. I mean, these pads should cool the treble here too, right? My goodness was I ever right. Whatever magic they performed on the LCD-3F was tripled for the LCD-X. It’s like it inverted the headphone’s frequency response from 2kHz-10kHz – the transition was so much more natural, and there wasn’t a hint of harshness in the upper extremes. With the LCD-X’s drier midrange relative to the LCD-3F, the presentation was so balanced it ventured into “boring” territory in the best way possible. I can imagine a Choice Suede armed LCD-X would be the mastering headphone to rule all mastering headphones: every shred of detail is available from 10Hz-20kHz, yet nothing is emphasized. This headphone went from having an irritating treble profile to becoming a consummate all-rounder, almost to a fault. I revisted the LCD-2F measurements again – and it made my curious to hear how the Choice Leather’s similar if not quite as drastic treble attenuation and 45Hz bump/divebomb would sound on the LCD-X. Off I went to purchase a set, and I installed them. First of all, the adhesive rings of the Choice Suede pads were quite worse for the wear after their second removal. I bet they’d stick on a third time, but I anticipate a third removal would require a new adhesive ring. Who knows where to source those? Hopefully Dekoni can help on that front. The Choice Leather pads have a fantastic synergy with the LCD-X, and they shall remain on them (although I wish pad rolling was easier on Audeze headphones!). This “45Hz divebomb” is a fascinating artifact: while the lack of extension was evident, the texture and speed of the bass improved considerably and left me appreciating the bass response more than I did before. You could hear the pump of kick-drum skins and the satisfying ‘thunk’ of an upright bass in addition to feeling the air move, and I believe these details were lost under the sheer wallop of the LCD-X with other earpads. The treble was toned down to a point where it is almost beyond reproach, sitting at a near-identical level with the bass. The Choice Suede pads definitely imparted a warm quality to the LCD-X, whereas the Choice Leather pads kept things neutral without a touch of harshness. Snare drums and cymbal work that used to cause a squint with stock pads or carried a tastefully warm timbre with the Choice Suede pads, now sat perfectly in the mix, to the point where I am more easily noticing aural cues compared to before. I am amazed at how much detail can get lost in a haze of crispy treble and far-extended bass. The upper-mids were as tastefully fortified as they were with the Choice Suede pads, which made the LCD-X much more cohesive sounding compared to it in the stock configuration. Jumping between the Choice Leather-clad LCD-X and Elite Sheepskin-clad LCD-3F lead to some very interesting comparisons. The LCD-3F definitely lead the charge on the bass extension and treble presence front, although the treble was just a hair crispier than I’d prefer. The LCD-3F’s romantic mids yields one lush mass of sound, where your focus is on the overall soundscape before you delve into the details. The LCD-X’s drier mids, even treble, and speaker-like bass response allowed you to be the judge, allowing me to drift your attention between the macro and the micro with ease. I feel that both Dekoni-clad cans are all-rounders, with the LCD-3F being a euphonious all-rounder, and the LCD-X is a more traditional all-rounder. I could not have asked for a better duo of headphones to be able to jump between. I twice owned an LCD-XC and twice ditched it due to the sheer treble onslaught I was presented with – I felt like I was listening to a concert in a venue with all the lights on, and the bulbs being 5k “cool white” lights. I figured these Dekoni pads, particularly the Choice Suede pads, would be a complete game-changer for them. I was so curious that I tracked down a third pair, and immediately put on the Choice Suede pads as soon as I received them. I was spot on in my presumption that the Choice Suede would cool that upper treble "cool white" timbre - however, what I didn't expect was how that 2k-5kHz "smoothing" would interact with the XC. In hindsight, you can clearly see on any frequency chart response of the XC, there's a bit of a hump around 2kHz, and this really adds to the glare. While the upper treble was smoothed out, the lower treble hump was actually increased, and the headphones became quite "honky" or "nasal" sounding, particularly resonant around the 2kHz area. To my shock, I actually preferred the stock sound of the XC (especially after EQing) - so much so that the pads I salvaged from my original LCD-X are now on my LCD-XC. Now, my dumb ass also ordered a set of Choice Suede pads for my beyerdynamic T1, instead of the Fenestrated Sheepskin ones I meant to order. I can confirm the horror of those DT1990 measurements (https://dekoniaudio.com/beyerdynamic-dt1990-measurements/) on the T1. The bass increased to this indistinct mass that would shame a TH900 in its quantity yet compliment it in its quality. Yes, the 8kHz hell-spike of the T1 was smoothed out, but next to that atomic bomb of a bass profile it was a dreadful mix. There are other headphones that can give you this sound for a much better price. For a time, the beyerdynamic Choice Suede pads were relegated to my “unused Dekoni pad” shelf. Then, I thought I’d investigate if I could get these going on my HiFiMAN HE-560s, which can be glaringly bright in the very problem area I’ve been describing for some time now. Yes, they’re a little too small for the HiFiMAN mounting rings, but I had a spare set I trimmed down that came from a pair of Focus pads that inevitably came apart. Now we’re talking. It gave the HE-560 the warming up it direly needed. Frankly, the entire HiFiMAN HE range could use a fair bit of treble reduction, and Dekoni is sitting on goldmine if they decide to release Choice Suede HiFiMAN HE-series pads… as much of a goldmine as aftermarket earphone pads can be, of course. With Choice Suede, the HD700 just might be listenable after all. It might turn the HD800 into the HD650 successor people hoped it would be. It might be the HE-6 pad. Yet Dekoni has no official offering for any of these headphones. What a shame! With the currently available offerings, however, I used to have headphones that I was considering/actively selling, and now I proudly listen to them. And it's due to the Dekoni Choice earpads. tl;dr Choice Suede pads are great for cooling the treble of hot headphones. The Choice Leather pads provide a more tasteful treble tempering, at the cost of some sub extension – just check the measurements to ensure they don’t make the bass explode.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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thefitz

377

Mar 8, 2020

To combat something that specific or severe, I'd just take a look at getting a parametric EQ plugin and dialing it out. This isn't a matter of the entire treble range being too hot or the bass being too thin - there's a specific spike that could be dialled out with EQ. Controversial, yes (and why bother pad rolling then!?), but effective.

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ItsAeolus

Mar 8, 2020

thefitzHaha thanks I'll take look more into that. Should probably try that first anyways given that it's readily available. Thanks for the advice!

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CrisisHawk

Dec 23, 2019

Verified Buyer

Great pads, but EU buyer beware.

This was delivered this afternoon and on first impressions these pads are great on my MMX 300 2nd gen. However, and this is not an issue with the product itself so I am not removing any stars from the review. This was shipped with UPS, who applied a charge of €44.40 to deliver it, this was broken down between "taxes" at €25.95 which while it seems a little high, import taxes were expected and acceptable at time of placing the order, and "other" at €18.45 which was not expected or acceptable. This just seems like they are just charging both ends of the transaction as they know they can get away with it. This was on an order of $52.54 which included shipping costs, so nearly doubled the cost of the order. While I would hope that in future Drop would not use UPS for EU orders, this mostly meant as a warning for other EU customers that are considering these pads should there be another drop for them.

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