Shipped. Come Tuesday, I had three Dekoni emails within an hour; one a 'thanks for shopping with us' order completion; another the formal invoice with added note; and the final one screen-captured at left. Clearly their order-fulfillment communications were in top form. This was buyer mollycoddling at its finest. By 6AM on Thursday, UPS had the package in Dublin.

I also had a VAT bill of €48.79 so with ship fees, $99 pads nearly doubled to €184.76. As though to apologize, the second item listed here is freebie swag Dekoni threw in unsolicited with my order. I've had a lot less cheer with far bigger orders elsewhere. Splendid positive vibes all around; and VAT pain is simply a reality of living in the EU and importing items from outside it. With that paid, delivery was early Friday exactly one week after I'd placed my order.

Physical inspection to geek out over posh stitching and foamy plumptiousness (or not)) coming up. First, a look at these originals. Very thin pleather glued to the narrow plastic frame's lip without any reinforcement. As already stated, I never had prior reason to swap pads. I'd thus never tried to take these off before. Looking at them now, I doubt this flimsy construction in the aged state of my pair would have lasted one swap seeing how one must manipulate the frame to free its tabs. Not impressive considering Susvara's elite positioning. Dekoni had much improvement room.

Susvara's wedge pads are channel-specific and directional. We pick the correct right/left unit then align the cross seam just slightly off the cable entry. With all four tabs seated, we can turn the pads so that the cross seam sits directly above the 2.5mm ports. Done

Is foam fatigue a real thing? Compared to my more resilient and stiff newbies, the originals' foam felt spongier and so a bit worn out. Over the years it probably lost some bounce. We all age. Let's kick no can while down; though the thicker Dekoni leathers did inspire rather more confidence than HifiMan's lower-rent plastic skins. On a tactile and visual workmanship level, I was very happy with the fenestrated new arrivals.

Sonically too there was a change. I always felt that for a planarmagnetic, Susvara has a more electrostatic signature so champagne not chocolate. Now that built upon a stronger still well-damped bass foundation to shift overall gestalt more onto dynamic than e-stat turf. It meant less perceived airiness in trade for greater density and deeper gravitas. Though merely incidental so not pursued deliberately, I consider it a very fair trade. And not to put too fine a point on it… decked out in Dekoni has rather elevated Susvara's dress code to the proper sartorial splendor its elite standing demanded all along. Call me a late but happy Dekoni adopter indeed. Ceiling. Cracked.