Yeah, thats the thing, if anything, the bass seems more than I remember hearing before on an SR-X. My ears are closer to the driver, probably half the distance of the new pads. The issue with the headband is mostly that I get the pressure right on the top of my head from the wires. A wee bit of padding wouldnt have hurt anything, or even a stiff headband that distributed the weight better than a pair of wires.
Mine seems to have been hardly used, especially looking at the cable. Totally unkinked, very nice, clean, and supple. Headband has quite a bit of clamp, starts hurting the ears after a bit, though I have never run into a supraaural headphone which didnt. Best so far has been the Yamaha HP-1.