Ollo S4 - Not impressed enough. Pad swap?

[Itamars]

Hello,
I just got the above set of cans recently to be used for mixing-mastering.
I heard non but good things about them and was a little bit negatively surprised with the sound.
They sound nice but relatively closed sounding, too much high-bass (60-400hz) and lack sub bass (20-50hz) high mids (1-4khz) and highs (12-20khz).
I managed to improve the sound using sonarworks and i burn them in, but still it sounds closed and boxy.

Untill now I used my good old Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro, which I know should sound bigger in soundstage and brighter, but after fixing both's sound
(DT990 had too much highs in 4-20k, lacks a bit of sub bass in 20-50hz, mids in 600-100hz and high mids in 1.3-3khz)
The Beyerdynamic sounds much more natural and open (maybe because I use it for around 8+ years?)

Since I have 30 days trial period with Ollo I was thinking about changing the pads. I saw there are some nice and cheap ones on Aliexpress.
Did anybody experience them and tried things or have some recommendations regarding pads that will open the highs and soundstage and lower the hi-bass, and will over make them sound less boxy and closed and more flat? What material, thin vs. thick, etc...

Thank you very much!
Itamar.

[Sam Inglis]

I reviewed them in SOS recently and came to exactly the same conclusions, except that I'm not confident a pad swap will do much to flatten the sound. If you don't like them the way they are, I'd return them and get something else.

[John Willett]

⬆︎ What he said

[Itamars]

Thank you for the insights. I don't know how they market them as flat to be honest...

Nevertheless, they do sound good with the right eq and the more you burn them in. focused and detailed especially in the mids. But they are still boxy and closed sounding as I said...
You don't think velvet/velour pads will fix it?

By the way I ordered also HD6XX which should arrive in a week. You think they will sound better? I bet they will be more comfortable than this small pads with big clamp force...

[John Willett]

By the way I ordered also HD6XX which should arrive in a week. You think they will sound better? I bet they will be more comfortable than this small pads with big clamp force...

Yes

[Bob Bickerton]

The HD6xx may not be as comfortable as the D990s. I found they where tight for prolonged periods. I ended up with D880s........

Bob

[Smellthevalve]

Not wishing to confuse matters but I've found the HD600 to be more comfortable than the DT990pro as the beyerdynamics seem to exert a stronger force on the head but maybe it depends on your ear and head shape (there is also the headphones shape - elliptical versus circular)

[Itamars]

Thanks for all the kind replies!

Clamping force is easy to be dealt with with a bit of contrast bending... The more problematic i think is wether it's on ear or over ear design. The on ear at least to me is less comfortable (which only the ollo has from the above headphones).

But the most important for me is the sound which should be able to represent truth as much as possible, at least in use with sonarworks... I feel like the the Ollo S4 doesnt do that enaugh to this moment with their degree of burn in (not a lot) and original pads