Dekoni Earpads for the Sennheiser HD 600

Softening the HD 600’s Edges: What to Expect From Dekoni’s Earpads

Comfort first, a warmer tuning second — and Dekoni’s own description of the change turned out to be accurate.

The Sennheiser HD 600 is the headphone I keep coming back to for tonality, and one of the reasons it has lasted five years of constant use here is that Sennheiser will sell you every part of it separately, pads included. That also makes it the most modded open-back on the market, and Dekoni build more pad variants for the HD 600 fitment than for anything else they make. I have been curious for a long time what Dekoni earpads actually do to the sound of a headphone I know this well, because an earpad is not a cosmetic accessory: it sets the seal, the distance from driver to ear and the volume of the cavity in front of the diaphragm, so it changes frequency response whether the buyer wants it to or not.

Dekoni sent me three of their HD 600 variants to find out — Choice Leather (EPZ-HD600-CHL), Elite Velour (EPZ-HD600-ELVL) and Elite Sheepskin (EPZ-HD600-SK) — and this review goes through what you should expect from Dekoni earpads on the HD 600, using those three as the worked examples rather than as the subject. Each is thicker and softer than the stock velour, which is easy to establish; the harder question is what they do to a tuning that is already the reason people buy the headphone.

The executive Summary is that these pads soften the HD 600 rather than reshape it: the extra depth and foam make it more comfortable over long sessions, and all three take energy out of the 2–5 kHz presence region, which is where the warmer, darker character comes from.

I fitted all three sets and measured each against the stock pad, and the measurements turned out to be the most interesting part of this review — not because the pads change a lot, but because what they change is a little different than what Dekoni’s own marketing suggests. I feel the change is just enough to make these interesting alternative earpad options. But first, let’s take a look at what arrives in the box.

Unboxing and Build Quality

Each pair arrives in its own small magnetic-lid box, colour-coded by product line: blue for the Choice series, dark green and pale green for the two Elite sets. It is more packaging than a pair of earpads strictly needs, though it does make the material obvious on a shelf:

The rear labels identify the three sets by model number rather than by colour. Left to right they read EPZ-HD600-CHL, EPZ-HD600-ELVL and EPZ-HD600-SK, all marked “Sample Not For Sale” and made in China:

Inside the lid Dekoni print a short thank-you note describing themselves as a luxury brand for headphone accessories and asking for a review, with the pads sitting below it in a moulded tray:

The Choice Leather is Dekoni’s synthetic leather, which they describe as soft, supple and durable, wrapped around slow-rebound memory foam. In the hand it has a fine pebble grain and a slight sheen, and the mounting ring is moulded plastic rather than the card-and-fabric arrangement Sennheiser use:

The Elite Velour is the one variant that keeps the stock material category but changes the weave. Dekoni’s claim is that a tighter velour makes the pad behave more like leather, so that the bass and isolation normally lost with velour are retained while the fabric stays cooler than leather. The nap is visibly shorter and denser than the fuzzy stock Sennheiser velour:

The Elite Sheepskin is real sheepskin over the same dense slow-rebound foam, which Dekoni say gives a better seal and more isolation than their protein-leather pads while staying more breathable. Next to the Choice Leather the grain is finer and the finish less shiny:

The inner wall of the leather pad is a smooth, continuous, unperforated surface, which is a reflective boundary right beside the ear; and the material comparison shows how different the three surfaces are at the point where the pad meets the side of the head:

Build quality on all three is a clear step up from the stock HD 600 pad in materials and stitching.

Fit and Comfort

The single most consequential physical difference is thickness. All three Dekoni pads are noticeably deeper than the stock pad, which pushes the driver further from the ear and enlarges the cavity in front of it. Seen from the side, the two leather-family pads are the thickest, with the Elite Velour a little slimmer but still substantial:

Stacked against the stock pad the difference is easier to judge, and the two velour pads make the weave difference obvious — Dekoni’s is a short, dense pile, the Sennheiser one a longer, softer fuzz:

In comparison with my aftermarket Soulwit cooling-gel earpads, the Dekoni are clearly deeper.

From above, the aperture is the other thing to watch. The Dekoni leather pad’s opening is a slightly different shape and size to the stock velour pad’s, and how much of the ear sits inside the opening rather than under the pad affects both comfort and the seal:

Dekoni’s comfort claim is that the extra depth plus slow-rebound memory foam reduces perceived clamping force, which on a 300 Ω headphone worn for long sessions is a reasonable thing to want. It is also the claim I am most willing to endorse: comfort is the strongest thing these pads have going for them, and it is the reason the features score is a 5.

Fitted, the leather pads sit visibly deeper than stock and change the profile of the earcup:

Off the headphone, the depth and the smooth unperforated inner wall are easier to see:

Sound Impressions

All three pads move the HD 600 in the same direction: warmer and darker than stock. That is consistent with what the measurements show, and it is consistent across the three materials rather than being a property of one of them. To my ear that includes a real sense of added bass weight on all three — even though the measurements below show the low end barely moving, pulling that much energy out of the presence region is enough to make the bottom end feel bigger by contrast. Dekoni have described the direction of each pad’s change correctly, but the three sound closer to one another than their charts suggest: the gaps in bass between Sheepskin, Choice Leather and Velour are smaller than the bars imply, and what separates the pads from stock matters more than what separates the pads from each other. Of the three, the Choice Leather is the one I find most appealing, and all three are worth having if a warmer presentation is what you are after. If it is not, the stock pad is still the one that sounds like the HD 600 people recommend.

Choice Leather

Synthetic leather over slow-rebound foam, unperforated inner wall, and the thickest of the three. On paper this is the biggest change from stock: a sealed, reflective boundary replacing an acoustically open fabric one, with more distance between driver and ear.

Dekoni’s chart shows a bass lift, a smaller lift in the mids and a touch less in the highs, and the direction is what I hear: the bass is uplifted and the top end is a little softer than stock. Measured against stock, the Choice Leather adds a small bass lift, while the more noticeable change is a reduction around the upper-midrange presence peak. This shifts the balance towards a warmer sound with less upper-midrange emphasis. To my ear, the bass feels fuller, even though the measured bass increase is modest.

Elite Velour

The variant closest to stock in material, deliberately woven tighter than typical velour. If Dekoni’s reasoning holds, this should be the pad that changes tonality least while still adding depth and comfort — making it the most interesting of the three for anyone who likes the HD 600 as it is.

Dekoni’s chart has the Elite Velour with the smallest bass lift of the three and slightly less in the mids and highs, and that matches what I hear: a small bass lift with a slightly softer midrange and treble than stock. Measured against stock, the Elite Velour shows a small sub-bass lift and the most pronounced reduction in the presence region of the three pads. The bass differences between the pads are small; the reduced upper-midrange and treble energy is the more noticeable feature of this curve.

Elite Sheepskin

Real sheepskin over dense memory foam, sealing more firmly than either of the others. This should be the isolation and bass-weight option, and on an open-back headphone isolation is a limited prize, so the tonal cost needs to be worth it.

Dekoni’s chart gives the Sheepskin the biggest bass lift, with the mids and highs close to stock, and the bass uplift is what I hear here too. To my ear, the Elite Sheepskin adds bass weight. The measurements show a small bass increase, but the more obvious change on the graph is reduced midrange and treble energy relative to stock. That changes the balance towards the bass and is consistent with the fuller low end I hear.

Comparisons

The comparison that matters most is against the pad the HD 600 ships with, because that pad is part of the tuning the headphone is famous for. In my HD 600 review the midrange and treble were the reasons for the score, with sub-bass the one area I sometimes EQ up. A thicker, better-sealing pad is a plausible way to address that sub-bass shortfall without EQ — but it also moves the driver away from the ear and dampens the fabric-open boundary beside it, so it is unlikely to move only the bass. That is the trade to test, not to assume.

I also have a set of Soulwit cool-gel pads for the HD 600 here, which attack the same problem from a different direction — a gel-filled cushion aimed mainly at comfort and heat rather than at changing the seal material. That comparison is the practically useful one for an HD 600 owner deciding where to spend on pads, since the Soulwit sets sell for a fraction of Dekoni’s price. Measured on the same rig, the difference in intent is obvious:

The Soulwit gel pad tracks the stock pad far more closely than either Dekoni pad does, particularly through the 2–5 kHz region where the Dekoni pads show a clear reduction. That makes the choice a clean one rather than a close-run thing: if you want the HD 600’s tonality left alone and are buying pads for comfort, the cheaper Soulwit is the more conservative swap. If you want the presence region brought down and are happy to pay for better materials while you are at it, that is what the Dekoni pads are for.

Specifications and Measurements

Dekoni publish one dimensional specification for the whole HD 600 fitment rather than per material. Taking their figures as the manufacturer’s published specification:

Dekoni do not publish frequency response measurements for these pads, so there is nothing here to reproduce as a manufacturer measurement — the claims are verbal only. That leaves the measurements as the substance of this review rather than a supporting section, because a pad swap changes exactly the things a coupler measures: the seal, the distance from driver to ear, the volume of the cavity, and how absorptive the surface beside the ear is.

Two photographs show why. With the pad off, the driver, its damping mesh and the vented earcup baffle are all exposed, and the pad is the only thing standing between that assembly and the ear; the stock pad also carries a foam disc that sits over the whole aperture, which the Dekoni pads do not replicate:

Frequency Response

Each pad was measured on the same HD 600 on my KB501X Soft Ear/Pinna with a 711 clone coupler, re-seated and re-measured several times per pad and averaged, so that seating variation is separated from the change the pad actually makes. What matters here is not the absolute curve — a pinna and clone coupler is not an ear — but the difference between two pads measured the same way on the same rig.

Starting with the simplest case, the stock velour pad against the Choice Leather, referenced to the Harman OE 2018 target:

Below about 500 Hz the Choice Leather sits slightly above stock. Higher up, it runs a little higher through the lower part of the midrange before dropping below stock around the upper-midrange presence peak. The result is a small bass increase alongside a more noticeable reduction in upper-midrange energy.

Adding the Elite Sheepskin and Elite Velour shows the same pattern across all three materials:

The pattern is clearest normalised to the KB501X diffuse-field curve with a −1 dB/octave tilt, which takes the rig’s own signature out of the picture and leaves the pad differences:

Three things come out of that graph. The first matters most.

The bass differences are small on the graph. All three Dekoni pads show a modest increase relative to stock, with little separation between them. That does not mean the bass sounds unchanged: to my ear, all three add bass weight, including the Sheepskin. The reduced midrange and treble also make the bass more prominent in the overall balance.

The larger measured change is in the presence region. From roughly 2 kHz to 5 kHz, the Dekoni pads sit below stock, with the Elite Velour showing the most pronounced reduction. The treble is also generally lower. Alongside the small bass increase, this gives the warmer, darker balance I hear.

The changes are larger than seating variation. The broad reduction in the presence region was greater than the variation between re-seatings of the same pad, so it reflects the pad change rather than seating alone.

Rating Explanation

The Pragmatic rating is a 5, but it is conditional: if you want what Dekoni promised — a deeper sense of bass from your HD 600 — then these are great options. If you want to preserve the original sound profile, other earpads, including options from Dekoni, would be more suitable. This is a case of understanding what you are buying: if this is the change you want, you get a quality product. The features rating is a 5 and comfort is the reason: the extra depth and the slow-rebound foam make long sessions easier on a headphone that is otherwise worn for hours, and that is the improvement I noticed most.

The measurement rating is also a 5. The pads don’t make the HD 600 “better” in any objective sense; they make it different.

The price rating of 4 reflects what you should actually pay rather than the list price. Dekoni’s own $69.99 for a pair of pads is hard to defend when dealers sell the same part for $39.99 and the European reseller for €29.95. At €29.95 to $39.99 these are good value for the materials and the comfort; at $69.99 they are not, and a buyer should shop around rather than buy direct.

Conclusion

These are well-made, comfortable earpads for anyone who wants a warmer, bassier-sounding HD 600. To my ear, the bass feels fuller, although the measurements show a small bass lift and a larger reduction in the presence region. The Choice Leather is my favourite of the three and the one I would fit to my own HD 600.

If you want to preserve the original sound profile, keep the stock pads or choose an alternative that stays closer to their tuning, such as the Soulwit cooling-gel pads. If you want the change these Dekoni pads make, you get a quality product — just shop around, because the dealer prices make more sense than buying direct.