I'm not really fan of the HP-1000 series, it's too clinical sounding for me and a poor match for most of my music. It does the technical things well and I can pick out all the faults in the recordings, but I feel it sucks too much of the life & emotion out of the music. Keep in mind that my reference until the last year or so is the RS-1 so take that for what it's worth.
I did try swapping the HP100SE to flat pads, tames the brightness a bit but it also shrinks the soundstage and makes everything smaller. It's kinda like going back to a 21" computer screen when I'm used to a 27" one. IMO it's better than the giant bowls but at the price the HP100SE is going for I'd much rather buy the S950 or try to hunt down a set of PS-1 Pros.