Skip to content
Menu
PersonalAudioNotes
  • Home
  • Who, what and whatnot
    • Who, what
    • …and whatnot
PersonalAudioNotes
Sonorous Earpads

final Sonorous Earpads

Posted on 15 February 202215 February 2022

Final Sonorous Earpads are the original final audio earpads for their Sonorous headphone series. They available in 7 variations, and I tested 4 of them on my Sonorous-II and Sonorous-III models.

Final Sonorous-II and Sonorous-III are in my opinion the absolute best closed back headphones you can buy for less than 500$ (either costing much less than that actually). You can find them stuck on Audioreviews’ Wall of Excellence, and reviewed here.

Table of contents

  • At-a-glance Card
  • Why and how
  • The range
  • My direct experience
  • Conclusions
  • Disclaimer

At-a-glance Card

PROsCONs
Significantly help finetuning Sonorous headphones presentation to one’s own preferenceNot inexpensive (yet not unaffordable either)
Good build quality
Easy to swap

Why and how

Ear pads – their internal structure, size, thickness, and external fabric – do change headphones sound even more than what eartips do to IEMs. And final Sonorous Earpads are no exceptio.

First and foremost, the distance between the actual sound transducers and the ear modulate low frequency sound pressure, which obviously significantly influences the presentation. Based on this fact, final Sonorous earpads are filled with sponges of different thickness and consistency. Their external material is synthetic leather featuring equal horizontal and vertical flexibility. Finally,

Another important aspect when it comes to closed-back earphones is avoiding sound appearing “muffled” due to lack of backside venting. Final accomodates for this by carving small apertures on the inside and the outside of the pads “donuts”, achieving superb results in terms of sound clarity.

audioreviews
https://snext-final.com/en/products/accessories/detail/earpads.html

Lastly, final Sonorous Earpads feature a quite ingenious system to facilitate swapping. By direct experience it does work. You may want to take a look at the final’s official quick tutorial video to get an idea.

The range

As I mentioned, final Sonorous Earpads are avaialble in 7 different variations. Here are the lineup specs, directly taken from final’s website.

ModelSurface MaterialSpongeFilterStock onPicture
Type Asynthetic leatherthick, strong standard type spongesingle layerSONOROUS VI, IVaudioreviews
Type Bsynthetic leatherthinner/softer sponge compared to Type Asingle layerSONOROUS VIaudioreviews
Type Csynthetic leatherW-shaped sponge combining Type A and Type B types3 layerSONOROUS X, VIIIaudioreviews
Type Dsynthetic leatherthick, strong sponge3 layerSONOROUS IIIaudioreviews
Type Esynthetic leatherthick, strong spongesingle layerSONOROUS IIaudioreviews
Type FPolyurethaneexpanded foam body
with superior breathability and special polyurethane fibers
n/dD8000audioreviews
GPolyurethane + Toray Ultrasuedeexpanded foam body with superior breathability and special polyurethane fibersn/dD8000 Proaudioreviews

My direct experience

Final of course issues a number of pairing recommendation for each of such models. You can find the entire story here.

That said, I only directly tested the 4 models which are recommended for my 2 Sonorous headphone models (II and III). Here is a recap of my opinions.

ModelApplied onto Sonorous-II Applied onto Sonorous-III
Type BBass is faster than stock (E) and even faster then (C). Mids are similar but highmids get some adrenaline. Trebles stay vivid and sparkly. Overall sensibly brighter compared to stock, might be excessive for some users, and definitely for some genres.Mids are more recessed than stock (D) and furtherly back compared to (C), while still very well defined and detailed. Bass is even faster. Highmids become the star of the show.
Type C
More bodied bass and mids compared to stock (E). More evidently polished / tamed trebles which come accross less sparkly. Definitely more balanced.Darker than stock (C). Mids are recalled from full forward position. Some air is lacking.
Type D
(Sonorous-III stock)
Bass is very similar to stock (E). Mids add some body. Trebles get a bit polished. Overall more a “balanced bright” rather than “netural bright” effect. Still very good for jazz and probably overall ever more loveable than stock pads.
*my personal preference*
Obviously midcenteric. Fast-ish bass. Good trebles.
Type E
(Sonorous-II stock)
Neutral-bright. Fast detailed bass. Good mids, not a specialist for vocals. Very nice detailed and quite airy trebles. Love this.Faster bass compared to stock (D), mids pushed a bit back and made faster and more precise, sparklier trebles.
*my personal preference*

So the aftermath is… I could have saved the money for Type C and B, and just swap stock pads between Sonorous-II and Sonorous-III to reach my preferred configuration on both. But how could I have known it without trying? 😉

Conclusions

final Sonorous Earpads significantly contribute to alter and finetune Sonorous headphones.

They are not inexpensive – retailing from ¥ 5810 / € 44 to ¥ 9300 / € 70 a pair – but their build quality is ace and they are a more than solid recommendation for any Sonorous user.

Disclaimer

All the earpads I tested are my own property, they did not come from the manufacturer or a distributor on review/loan basis.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • TRN Kirin – inoffensive planar
  • Kinera Hodur review
  • Questyle M15
  • Final F7200 – telling voices apart
  • Ikko OH5 Asgard – music better than the rest

Recent Comments

  • alberto on Intime Miyabi – uniquely special
  • John on Intime Miyabi – uniquely special
  • MrWalkman on Experimenting with Sony NW-A55 & MrWalkman’s DMP-A50 vs DMP-A50R firmware
  • alberto on Fiio BTR5 : great sound, terrible vendor value (and I won’t buy Fiio anymore)
  • Phil on Fiio BTR5 : great sound, terrible vendor value (and I won’t buy Fiio anymore)

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020

Categories

  • ACCESSORIES
  • AMP
  • DAC
  • DAC-AMP
  • DAP
  • EARBUDS
  • EDUCATION
  • GREAT STUFF
  • HEADPHONES
  • IEM
  • RANTS
  • TWS

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Contents

  • At-a-glance Card
  • Why and how
  • The range
  • My direct experience
  • Conclusions
  • Disclaimer
©2023 PersonalAudioNotes | WordPress Theme by Superbthemes.com