I shall try it, stock pad sounds slightly imbalanced to me. Too much midrange.
I'm a broken record on this subject. I thought more highly of the stock pads that you appear to--but the Caldera (which I purchased with the Mantle mesh installed) really elevated into something special when I put the lambskin thick pads on it. I agree with everything
@betula said about the sound with these pads.
When listening to music on headphones, we typically don't hear it as a succession of checklisted characteristics (ie, tone, soundstage, dynamics, bass/mids/treble)--we hear the gestalt of it, the overall impact of the sound. I found this is where the lambskin thicks changed the Caldera's sound in a remarkable & positive way. As I put it in my review of this headphone,
"The thicks change the whole vibe of this headphone. Especially on music with strong bass and drum parts the sound is spacious and atmospheric, as if the listener is sitting in a corner booth of a dark, smoky club. It's a chill, meditative, hypnotic sound."
I could have taken that further and said the Caldera with lambskin thick pads made the recording/performance space (the air around instruments & notes) more present and tangible. I "hear the room" more clearly w/the thicks. This benefits large- & small-scale classical, choral music, acoustic jazz & unamplified acoustic music in various genres. FWIW, these are qualities I usually associate w/dynamic drivers, not planars. Perhaps the thick pads facilitate even more of the ADS' excellent soundstage/spatial qualities....? Whatever it is, it works for me.
Those pads are never coming off!
