Measuring your eyes for optimal depth, design and comfort of earpads?

Greetings everyone,

I need to purchase a pair of earpads for my Oppo PM-3s that won't fall apart in a few months, but I'm at a standstill: the current OEM pads are crushed due to the material being horribly compressed which means my ears touch the inner mesh and even the layer underneath and they're just a tad too big from my thinking.

I'm talking to Vesper Audio about a replacement set of earpads (they noted for longevity you want ventilated leather, memory foam, and... I can't remember) but they said no sort of standard to find a best fit for the earpads based on personalizing them with using measurements such as your ear's size and shape, exist.

Is that true? Is there a way to objectively (or even somewhat) find the best sizing for my earpads since they're custom made? They keep reassuring me that they can build the OEM sound into them as long as the design isn't too crazily radical so acoustics isn't a huge concern (and though I prefer the twinkle of the Audeze Zine (shoot me), the neutrality of the PM-3s has come in handy and quite pleasant more than once.

So... How should I go about figuring what the best sizing, depthness and shape should my earpads be?

Thank you in advance,

Me

 

I appreciate the fact that no one has called me out on measuring my "eyes" for ear pads.

Thank you, kind people of SBAF!

 

LOL, the forum's magnanimity is the stuff of legends. I was honestly wondering whether that was a typo or not

All I'll say is that pads are ridiculously effective at changing up the sound of something. It's not just the sealability, angling of diaphragm to ears, pad depth, cover material, or internal cavity size that influence sound but even weird stuff like what kind of foam is in the pads and how they're mounted to baffles will change sonics.

The Meze 99 is an easy offhand example of this; due to complaints about fit they chose to increase the ear capacity of the pads which unfortunately also had the added effect of messing the sound up; to the best of my knowledge having yet to try the original pads, it's all the same construction that one change aside.

Quick rant: instead of bringing the OG pads back they include a set with the Meze 99 Noir from (Mass)Drop that has even MORE bass. What.

I saw this thread early on but opted not to reply because there are modders here who've volumes more experience than I who could chime in, but possibly as a result of the sheer volume of text an in-depth explanation would entail I think it was too daunting to bother with. After a point of trying various things it just becomes second nature to have a rough idea of how it'll sound, pads and other components alike.

My offhand supposition having never tried those custom pads? Rancid bullpuke— anything other than stock will absolutely affect sonic presentation, though not always to an immediately appreciable degree and not always for the worse (or better).

Sorry about the PM-3s, I think Oppo really shot themselves in the foot discontinuing those. Got to try an Audio Zenith PMX2 (I think?) for a spell and loved it for it being a planar.

 

Thank you for the response Lyander. Since my options for information were limited (not a dig, I know how subjective nearly everything to do with audio gear can be,) I spoke to Vesper Audio at length and decided on the following magical, radioactive color scheme:



Headband will be in coral and hopefully two tone color.



Even if possible, I'm rethinking that order.

I'll post a picture of my stupidly ratty and truly flaking, falling apart, and mocking me Oppo PM-3s a little bit later so we may all laugh at the quality of the "leather" on a $300+ pair of headphones.

 

Finally remembered to take a picture of the current state of my Oppo PM-3s!

Mods: please feel free to add a NSFW / NSFL tag to the title of this thread.



Thank God for Vesper Audio - this is the third pair of OEM earpads I purchased for the Oppo PM-3s (directly from the company) and they also refurbished the headband for me since I was a ignorant bloody fool. The sound has obviously gone towards the let us say, somber end where they cry whenever I plug them in, and I cannot currently use them as the earpad foam has begin to poke out as the "leather" has lost any and all of it's stiffness.

They're at a point where I cannot even use them without damaging the underlying mechanics as the padding is so smooshed and flat, my ears press against the inner components, rubbing against them whenever I move my head.

Great sound (blah blah too analytical) but the... Parts... Leave a bit much to be desired (and the earpads were $40 a pair. Christ man.)