# Ear Pad Rolling For Noobs
Many people buy ear pads from so-called ear pad manufacturers, which sell range of pads and often one pad for many different headphone models.\
\- This is often misleading.
One problem is simple misinformation.
Many people's definition of what 'good' sound is can easily become distorted and they are easily deceived into accepting a broken, hard V-shape, + boomy bass sounds great (for example Razer Kraken).\
Don't get me wrong, sometimes V-shape DOES sound great - when it's done properly.
In this exmaple I tested three headphones with the **Geekria Comfort Mesh Fabric pads (for ATH-M50**, etc, etc).\
All of them are similar to the ATH-M50 - medium sized, closed back headphones. \
Each headphone with the Geekria pads produced undesirable results.\
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• very boomy bass\
• extremely excessive treble\
• peaks and dips moved to the 'wrong' places
%20vs%20Stock%20\(dark\).jpg?alt=media\&token=3726db6e-3901-489e-b12a-cc65000d133c) %20vs%20Modified%20%2B%20Geekria%20Pads%20\(bright\).jpg?alt=media\&token=59bc6e52-77a0-4d72-9907-dc529137ba52) 
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Only one headphone I tried them with produced a somewhat 'acceptable' result.
This headphone is already bonkers, so don't pay attention to that, but the pads hardly caused any deviation at all.
%20vs%20Modified%20%2B%20Geekria%20Pads%20\(Bright\).jpg?alt=media\&token=f8a869a1-9f1f-4c0f-815d-58078e9de636)
So you never know what results you're REALLY getting, unless you can either measure the headphone, or have 'golden ears'... (yeah right).\
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This is only one example, there are countless others out there, many even worse than this.
### Things to watch out for when chosing the right pads:
• Leather pads for Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic and Grado headphones?... just no, don't do it... \
• Almost any time you see a vastly alternative material to the stock one, just run away.\
• Planars are usually the exception - they very often tolerate all pad types almost equally - but when chosing your pads, try not to deviate from stock dimensions as much as possible.
### Some more 'rules' when chosing pads:
**CLOSED BACK DYNAMICS:**
• Deeper ear pads will often produce more bass and more treble.\
• Deeper ear pads may increase soundstage, or perceived soundstage.\
• Smaller pad openings will increase bass.\
• Larger pad openings will reduce bass.\
• Thinner/flatter pads can reduce treble.\
• Going from pleather/leather to velour will reduce bass.\
• Going from pleather/leather to velour can radically increase treble sharpness horribly.
**OPEN BACK DYNAMICS:**
• The stock ear pads probably sound the best - very often this is not a joke.\
• Some of them are however VERY tolerant and going from one velour type to another can yield almost identical results, with little detriment. \
• Changing from velour ear pad to another with MORE DENSE foam (memory foam for example) will yield more bass.\
• Changing from velour ear pad to another with LESS DENSE foam will likely yield less bass.\
• Changing from velour to pleather/leather can lead to boomy bass artefacts and unwanted resonances.\
• Changing from velour to pleather/leather will almost certainly have a negative effect on the soundstage.
**ROLLING PADS FOR OPEN BACK PLANARS:**\
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• From my experience, a lot of brands don't have a clue what they're doing with ear pad choice.\
• Some planars just sound better with velour/soft type pads. \
• Some just sound better with pleather/hard type pads. So experimentation is recommended.\
• Try not to deviate from stock dimensions too much.\
• 'Angled' pads are usually DEEPER than stock donut pads, so expect these types of pads to increase bass.\
• Don't be afraid of trying alternatives like cheap aftermarket pads for AKG, Beyerdynamic, Fostex etc... as most of these headphones all use 100mm pads which are very often easily interchangeable.