Velor Replacement Ear Pads for HyperX Cloud & Alpha, ATH M50X, Steelseries Arctis, Logitech G Pro & More Headphones, Soft Velour, Memory Foam & Long Lasting Earpads by Brainwavz - Black

I bought these for the HyperX CloudX Flight because the stock earcups are rather shallow. After reading many, many reviews, I decided to try out the suede ones.Pros1. Intensely comfortable. The microsuede material is soft to the touch and feels good against the side of my head.2. The suede ones also use memory foam, so after a few seconds, the fit is exceptional.3. The CloudX Flights no longer slide around on my head.4. My ears no longer press up against the driver enclosure like they did on HyperX's pads.5. Relatively cheap and easily available. I can't tell you how many headphones I've owned where good replacements are easy to find like this.6. I can hear the room around me when I mute the headset, but I can't hear it if I have any sound playing. So, not perfect sound isolation, but definitely good enough. No complaints there.Neutral1. The sound signature does change a bit. The bass gets a tough more boomy and the treble gets a touch less punchy. I suspect it's just a function of my ears being further away from the drivers. I actually quite like the difference, it sounds like a more refined version of what the CloudX Flights sounded like before. It doesn't seem to change the sound signature, but rather it feels like it calms down a lot of the harshness in the high end while boosting the low end every so slightly. I quite like it and makes it much easier to listen to stuff for a longer period of time before becoming fatigued.I also acknowledge that this change may not be a positive one for all headphones. Your mileage may vary.2. Installation can be a bit of a pain. These do fit and they fit just fine. However, I had to trim off a bit of the material off of the back in order to make it fit. The notch where the headphones connect simply wasn't deep enough. It isn't a big deal, but if you use a HyperX product, you may need scissors for installation.Cons1. I was hoping a cloth ear cup would cool these down a little bit. The velour might, but the suede does not. They still get a bit toasty after some use, just like the stock ear cups.2. Since the pads are literally twice as thick as the stock ones, it does increase the lateral pressure (clamp force). It doesn't bother me at all, but it is still a downside to using a thicker pad.3. I am concerned about long term cleanliness. Velour, for all its pros and cons, is reasonably easy to clean. Suede, on the other hand, generally isn't, so I'm still Googling around to figure out how to clean face oil off of suede (I shower daily, but genetics are genetics, sadly). Hopefully I can find a solution so these don't end up a crunchy mess after like 6 months.Overall, the microsuede ones are a big improvement over the stock earcups for the HyperX CloudX Flights (and, probably, the other Cloud headsets lol). The sound is smoother, the comfort is worlds better, and the increased clamp force keeps them from sliding around on my head. I do wish they were a bit cooler, but at least they fixed every other problem I was having. I may also get the velour editions just to see how they go (velour has regular foam, which is more breathable, which usually means cooler ears)...but to be honest, the sound on the suedes are phenomenal so I might just live with it.In any case, these are winners. 100% recommended, at least for HyperX Cloud users.

At this point the Brainwavz earpads are well known and well regarded in terms of comfort, quality, and sound. There are many reviews for the pleather and velour versions of these pads, which you can find here:Brainwavz HM5 Velor Memory Foam Replacements Earpads - Suitable For Many Other Branded Large Over The Ear Headphones - AKG, HifiMan, ATH, Philips, FostexBrainwavz Replacement Memory Foam Earpads - Suitable For Many Other Large Over The Ear Headphones - AKG, HifiMan, ATH, Philips, FostexThere was also a post about those earpads on Cnet's Audiophiliac blog. I was looking into these to use with a newly purchased pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50x, which you can see here:Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Studio Monitor HeadphonesBasically, I was having an extremely hard time deciding between the velour and pleather options. On the one hand, pleather makes my ears sweat a lot, which is extremely uncomfortable. On the other hand, velour provides less noise isolation, and I intended to use these headphones almost exclusively on the go. Velour also reduced bass response compared to pleather. For me this was a concern, but a secondary one to comfort. I went back and fourth for a while, but eventually found this hybrid pair on Brainwavz website. They have velour where they touch your ears, and pleather on the inside (perforated) and outside. These are very similar to the earpads that Hifiman is using on their newer high end models, and they are called focus pads. In any case, these seemed like they would offer the best of both worlds for my needs, and were only slightly more expensive than the non-hybrid versions, so I bought a pair.I have to say, I am extremely happy I made this choice. As many others have noted, the difference in comfort is day and night. I found the stock pads on the ATH-M50x to be okay, but not very comfortable. They didn't fit completely around my ears, and they were relatively shallow, putting pressure on my head. The small pleather pads also made my ears sweat quickly. After only one day with the stock pads my Brainwavz already arrived so I switched immediately. The process of swapping the pads is not super easy, but pretty much anyone can do it with a little fiddling. With the Brainwavz on, my Audio Technica's easily became the most comfortable headphone's I own. Before the pads, they were only slightly (though still noticeably) more comfortable than my Monoprice headphones which cost less than $20.The Brainwavz earpads are nice and thick, and extremely soft. They really do feel like pillows on your head. The velour feels great against my skin, and the noise isolation is completely adequate for my needs. You still hear everything around you, but it's muted enough to enjoy the music. As for sound, I think most people make a slightly bigger deal about it than they need too. Yes, the sound is slightly different, but the difference is not huge. It is definitely not better or worse though, so whether you like it more or less is really up to your personal preference. As others have noted, the bass is slightly less strong. There is more room between your ears and the drivers with this pad, and the perforated pleather probably also softens it a bit. The drop in bass is only slight, and it isn't any less accurate. For me the Brainwavz pads also made the mids a little more smooth. Ultimately, YMMV. But the most important thing I can say about the sound is that you shouldn't worry too much about it (for what it's worth I don't know if the same can be said about the velour pads, I haven't tried them myself). Get these if you want to exponentially increase the comfort of your headphones.A short anecdote. I recently took these on a flight with me. The flight was delayed for 5 hours so we got on the plane tired from sitting in an airport. Then we found out the air conditioning on the plane wasn't working so it was extremely hot. The plane took off and I put on my Audio Technica's. (For those curious I was listening through a Fiio E17 connected to my iPhone digitally using Apple's Camera Connection Kit). After a few minutes, I was completely into my music. The pads blocked out just enough of the engine noise to let me hear my songs, and they felt great on my head. I listened for at least 2 hours straight, and despite the plane being extremely hot, and listening to my music relatively loud (to compensate for the engine noise), I was still feeling comfortable at the end. The velour kept my ears from sweating and the headphones didn't even feel stuffy! The sound quality was great and honestly, after that flight I knew 100% that I had made the right decision.Conclusion (TLDR):These are extremely satisfying earpads that will transform the comfort level of any headphone you put them on. Additionally, if you like the feel of velour but prefer the sound/isolation of pleather, these hybrid pads are literally perfect. It's totally worth the $25 I paid and I will recommend these to all my friends.

I purchased these earpads to go on the ath-m50x. The earpads went on fairly easy and they were a nice fit, which I was very pleased with. These are bigger than the stock earpads that come with the ath-m50x, which was nice for me as my ears are a little on the larger size. With these my ear fits entirely in the pad. As well, the pads make the headphones stand off your ear a little, which for me was also a plus.This was my first ever experience with velour earpads. I had read several reviews before purchasing these and many reviews agreed that these were cooler (temperature), washable and more comfortable than their pleather counterparts. I decided to take the dive and get the velour pads based on this information. My opinion of the velour pads is that they have a very nice soft cloth-like texture. They felt good on my head at first but after a long listening session they do make me itch a little. As well they seem to let a little more background noise in (I did notice, however that there are some hybrid pads available that might help with this Brainwavz Hybrid Memory Foam Earpad - Black PU/Velour - Suitable For Large Over The Ear Headphones). For these reasons I'm not 100% sold on the velour pads and may still try the pleather ones down the road. For now, however, I am sticking with these as they are much better than the stock pads.In conclusion, these are a great way to make your headphones feel and sound a little better than the stock pads. Brainwavz has several colors and options to choose from and they are high quality. I gave the velour pads 4 stars as I'm not sure that I "love" them, but they are far superior than the stock pads! I may definitely try the pleather pads soon.