Frankly, I was hesitant to fork over 40 for velvet cushions ... but I do not regret today. The pads are "clipped" without problems and can even replace the foam sheet that veils the transducers (or not: some in the HD-600 and HD-650 recommend letting the transducers outdoors for greater treble finesse). The result: the helmet is like new (I must say that my old HD-600 had more than 12 years and pads had turned gray-brown over time and travel). If Sennheiser could simply reduce the price to an acceptable level (30 for example) would be perfect.