The foam does compress rather quickly in the mk1 pads. I put a new pair on mine shortly after buying the headphones and the pads needed to be replaced in slightly over a year. Though the O2 were pretty much the only thing I listened to in that time.
edit: coming up on my two year anniversary of O2 mk1 ownership
It's possible to rip DVD-A discs depending on the copy protection used and the type of lossless encoding is on the stereo layer. If any Windows users are interested I have a guide/program pack, though it's still quite a chore.
I am an unapologetic Wu Tang fanboy so I recommend Raekwon's latest album- Only Built For Cuban Lynx Part 2. It is one of my favorite rap albums of the 00s.
SR-007A pads ftw! Go Elephas rage against the Stax thread
Probably also explains why the SR-007A pads cost so much more than MK1 pads in Japan. Toot toot all aboard the leather train
Bleh I'm getting crazy hum with postjack's Cinemag SUT no matter where I place it, with various cables and with the ground lift on and off. Did anyone else that had this on loan have problems? I think it's a "commercially" built one and I think it worked fine for postjack.
I found this neat tool that generates an arc protractor for your tonearm once you specify spindle to pivot distance. Does Loefgren A/B and Stevenson.
http://home.comcast.net/~drnath/e/1.exe