Thanks for nothing, Sony. (WH1000-XM5)
Took me a long time to find decent headphones that last long.
I’ve tried several times with beyerdynamic, my DT 880 lasted for quite a while, but then got issues. I sent the DT 990 and the DT 1990 PRO back, they both lost audio on one side after a few weeks. I totally gave up on headsets (with a microphone), they are always shoddy quality wise and either the mute button breaks or one side gives out… or the headband snaps.
I’ve had the Sennheiser HD 660 S for 5 years now and the best thing about it: The cable goes to both sides. So when the cable finally broke on one side I could simply replace it for 15€. It’s also much easier to switch out the earpads, they just click in. Compared to the DT 880 where it feels like you’re going to tear something and you have to stretch the thing onto the plastic.
If you’re in the market for open back, fiio jt7. Quite cheap and the sound quality is great. Build is also insane for the price
I have templates for metal parts you can cut and bend with hand tools and a cheap dremel. I can send it to you if you want.
Would love to see a picture of the metal headphones
At least they were probably expensive.
250€ 🫠
Same happened on my hph-mt5 yamahas, i took a piece of wire and my soldering iron and basically melted rebar into it, and that fix is still going 3 years on
Sony parts prices are insane. The urethane pleather on my headband started cracking on my xm4’s. A replacement headband was half the price of a new unit. So I ended up getting a silicone cover that will hopefully keep the pieces from flaking off into my hair. I also needed new earpads. Oem pads were around $40 for EACH side. The pleather just has a certain degradation time and once it hits, it all falls apart at the same time. Replacing all the pleather parts on my unit would have cost just as much as a new headset.
I hate having something designed to be somewhat repairable but practically speaking it isn’t due to pricing.
I have found that the backing cloth under the pleather is durable as hell. Take some masking tape and do a wrap around your fingers - sticky side out like you’re gonna de-lint a shirt - and use it to pull off the peeling pleather. Took me all of 20 minutes to get my ancient Denons free of the peeling pleather…
I already bought 3rd party replacement pads, but I’ll keep that trick in mind for the future.
The urethane pleather on my headband started cracking on my xm4’s. A replacement headband was half the price of a new unit.
This is third-party, but it’s $19.
It’s also just the pad, but I assume that that’s what’s failed, if you’re talking about pleather.
Yeah it’s a pain to install however. One of our dogs had a chomp on the wife’s set, took me quite sometime to disasemble the headphones just to install it.
Honestly if you can get something to wrap over / stitch over the top go that route. The XM4 are fiddily as fuck to tear down just to replace the headband.
Oh those are a clip on version. FML might have to get that to replace the black band on the grey set of headphones.
Wicked cushions had some good replacement parts for xm4s. I bought a couple replacements from them. They had really good customer service when I had a bad clip on one or the earpads too.
I paid 30$CAD 2 years ago for mine. The Sony OEM ones are very comfortable but they compress quickly imo. My ears are a little angled so they are always pinching when the OEM pads compressed too much. The wicked cushions ones I got are a bit taller to start off with and haven’t had a single problem with them compressing so far. Only bought the second set of pads because I wanted a different colour.
I will buy more from them when I get a new headset. Stupid hinges on xm4s
Steel stick. Set with krazy glue first, so it’s aligned then get the steel stick and mix up a marble-sized ball and mold it around the break. Leave to harden for 24 hours. Shit’s amazing.
I’d never heard JB Weld called steel stick, so I had to click!
PC-7 is another brand that’s identical to JB.
Built to Fail: The story of 21st century consumer technology.
Built to Fail*
*after 3 years, when mandatory warranty expires in the EU.
Absolutely. Added to that, they seem to be actively ruining their headphones with software updates as well. My XM5’s randomly turned off every few hours and thanks to a Chinese hacker I was able to downgrade the software - guess what, the problem went away.
They’re either doing this deliberately so you buy the latest model or their development team is utterly incompetent.
Yeah, several years back I had a pair of the Sony earbuds that I bought refurbished off of eBay. A firmware update borked the battery in one of the buds and Sony was replacing them free if charge, but since mine weren’t bought new and weren’t from an actual store, they told me to screw off, so I did and haven’t been back. Before Sony ruined then they were really nice buds, but I’m not trusting them with my money anymore since they have proven a willingness to unilaterally decommission their devices.
They’re either doing this deliberately so you buy the latest model or their development team is utterly incompetent.
I’m gonna choose Door Number 1, Monty…
Maybe they vibe coded the driver. :-D
This shit right here is why I don’t let working stuff update anymore. I shouldn’t be sweating if the software update I’m downloading is going to make my life worse or not.
It’s a dangerous position to put people in: run vulnerable software or we will break your device. No one should have to choose between breaking their TV via update or staying on an insecure OS version and getting hacked.
In a functioning economy, the consumer goal of not getting hacked and having a functional device would be shared by the consumer AND the manufacturer.
Especially if you look at the Samsung Fold/Flip-phones, god damn do they break. And they’re not cheap.
I’m pretty sure I almost bought those years ago. Instead I bought the Seinheiser PXC 550. This was 2018. I’ve had to replace the ear padding once. Which was super easy. They just unclip, and the new ones clip right in.
I have a pair of PXC 550 as well from 2017 and they’re still going strong too though I don’t use them every day.
Ack! Sennheisers…
I still want to kill myself over getting rid of my Sennheiser HD 414’s. Vintage, from the early 80’s, sounded phenomenal. Dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Gave them to a younger cousin who lost them within a year. He thought they were cheap because of how they looked and left them in a pile of junk when he got kicked out of his apartment…
(from the departmnt of No Good Deed… Oyy!)
So now i’m using some vintage Denon AH-D210’s from the early 90’s ad they are fantastic.
Denon AH-D210
I had a pair of Denon AH-D2000 that were flat out amazing. They ended up getting fried in a power surge from a bad storm which also took out my receiver.
Just had the same problem with my LucidSound LS45 … the headband is metal, I saw the recommendation to get them in one of those “buy it for life” threads so I did …
Turns out that the end caps of the headband are plastic and prone to breaking … I was able to save them by buying a non working “parts only” set on eBay and replacing the parts
This thing has been with me for 8 years and counting … they’ve been along for 3 motherboards, 2 cars and 6 girlfriends LOL
That just looks like a terrible design. The background joint looks as if all the pressure of the ear cup is pressing outward on that exact spot where the foreground joint broke since it’s at that weird angle with no other support.
Sony are the worst with form over function bullshit on headphones.
I have a set of Soundcore Q20i that I use anything rough (travel and such) and they’ve held up like champs.
I don’t know if heads have gotten bigger over the years, I have a mutant oversized melon for a head, maybe they just design the phones for small heads?
I’m a little biased as I work for Bose but we still use a metal yoke and hinge.Will admit the hinges on my QC ultra headphones have been pretty good.
The things that annoy me about them are:
Unable to switch off noise cancellation
The earphone cushions fell apart after 6 months
Custom button action can’t toggle an aware mode
On head play pause was buggy enough to turn the feature off
They semi regularly decide to reboot in the middle of calls and meetings
I’m assuming you are retail and not on the design / software side of things but if you have any power to pass the feedback up the chain plz do ❤️
Check Ali for replacement cushions!
Unfortunately be aware that there are 2 types of cheap replacements, some are identical to the real thing and some are really cheap foam that is nowhere as comfortable. I don’t know how to tell the difference without ordering…
I guess the quality has gone down because my Bose 700s don’t have any of those issues besides the ear pads degrading about every 2 years.
Yep, I came from QC 35 IIs and everything but the noise cancelling quality has felt the same or a downgrade 😔
Heyo. Does Bose offer 3dprinting files to fix it’s gear? Please convince them to, I have been looking for a brand that is willing to support buy it for life and right to repair.
I am using Sony xm4s and the build quality is terrible on the hinges so I am expecting to have to replace them and Bose is a good brand that I might be interested in if they have something comparable to the ones I’m using in the same ish price range.
I found a 3d printing file to fix my current headset but Im not sure if I can flip it and print the other side now or if that will work.
Anyways if they don’t I would absolutely love it if you could convince them to lol
I have been looking for a brand that is willing to support buy it for life and right to repair
I have headphones from Meze (Massdrop X Meze 99 Noir) and my understanding is that they don’t use glue in the constructrion of their headphones but everything is held on by screws so that it can be repaired if necessary. I however don’t know where you can get the actual spare parts for them - I’m assuming you need to contact Meze directly for that.
Edit:
If you’re looking for a specific part and can’t find it, just let our Customer Support team know. You can email us at support@mezeaudio.com, and we’ll be happy to help you.
Hey thanks for sharing I will go check out the link. (And thank you for the link too!)
My Bose headphones didn’t break, but they looked awful after two years of usage, like garbage. So I decided to buy a Sony… Sony broke after one year after they fell off the bed (cheap headphones would survive this without a scratch, but those were expensive)
Make them so you can use ANC wall powered even if the battery dies. Some of us don’t destroy our headphones and want them to last and not be disposable.
Stop making headphones so they only last 5-10 years.
I quite like that design, but it’s just a little too floppy. Would be nice to have a bit of resistance so it’s not clanging around when carried
My broken QuietComfort headphones with the plastic earcup hinges would like to have a word…
I love my Bose headphones but man, don’t ever dare dropping them on the floor by mistake, they will shatter on the first hit.
To be fair in the past when this happened you could bring the broken pair in store to get a replacement or upgrade at a good price, but I hear the policy was abused too much so it was retired many years ago.
This is the second time these broke on my WH1000-XM5’s. At least they’re easily replacable by just removing a few screws and dropping in a new one.
Compared to that, this bad boy is over 30 years old and never broke once - thanks to a headband which is made out of metal. Despite that, it’s even more comfortable than Sony’s modern one:
I have a pair of AKG 240 of the same age if not a bit older that have seen plenty of other headphones come and go. Not the best headphones in any other categories but damn the most reliable and durable of studio cans ever built.
Those are over 30 years old???
Yeah dude if they’re 30 years old I feel like 2 “easy” replacements is … good.
The good ones are 30 years old. The one they needed to fix is the sony one, which was not specified how old but “modern” implies not very.
Yeah well what if I can’t read?
Yeah WH1000XMs are a very popular bang for buck wireless set. 5 is the latest.
That said, I have 2s that still go strong besides the battery. 4s going strong for a few years. Partner has had 5s for a while, no issues. All plastic hinges.
Not sure what OP is doing. Seems like a difficult part of the headset to break.
5 has notoriously bad hinges
5 isn’t the latest, the 6 is out
Not sure what OP is doing.
Nothing special, I just wear them every day and I have a regular-sized head. I also have XM2’s which still work, they have a more sturdy hinge design. Sony cost-optimized their latest models too much, the headband is much thinner than on the XM2’s as well, which puts more pressure on my head and makes them slightly more uncomfortable. I can only suspect they did that so they have to mold less plastic and save a few cents on each model…
How did the arm break? I have a pair that’s a year old, I’ve been tossing them in a bag with other bulky items and generally not being too gentle with them so your post has me worried.
I just put them on my head and it made “crack”. You have to slightly flex the headband every time when putting the headphones on your ears, and I guess doing this for a few hundred times weakens the plastic to the point where it just gives up.
The older headphones there don’t look like you can rotate the pads, yeah? I mean, it’s that rotating hinge which failed here.
I guess one could say “well, I don’t want headphones with rotating pads”, but it’s that rotation that lets the XM5 headphones fit into a fairly-flat carrying case.
I will say, though, that the XM5s probably weren’t going to last over 30 years, if for no other reason than because they use an internal battery…
On their older models, they had a different design and you could fold the earcups inwards. It was a really useful feature, they easily fit into a small bag. The newer ones can’t do that anymore and come with an extremely large carrying case. Sony has really lost the plot, but they still have excellent noise cancelling (the main reason for me buying them).
But that’s gonna be my last model now.
