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Comment by shiandow | Hacker News Reader

It is worth pointing out that not all parts age equally well. The cushions especially are not that durable and should be considered consumables.

Sennheiser provides replacements should you need them. The effect they have on the sound is much bigger than you might think.

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> The cushions especially are not that durable and should be considered consumables.

This is because they're mostly synthetic "leather", which doesn't last long. Everyone is probably familiar with how synthetic leather starts to flake off. Icky. If you get some pads made from real leather (usually lamb is the go-to choice) they'll last virtually forever. However since real leather is heaver and less porous, this changes the way they sound very noticably (makes them sound less open). If you use open/half-open headphones anyways, the difference won't be too extreme: just moves the sound closer to closed headphones. On closed headphones leather cups make it feel something is covering/plugging my ears. Uncomfortable. Would not recommend.

Worse than how quickly fabric and synthetic leather degrades is arguably that those cups can hardly be cleaned and even when not that old get icky quickly, with dirt stuck in fabric and fine cracks.

Is there any way to preserve those synthetic materials and gain a longer shelf life (eg. 15+ years)? Eg. Heat sealed foil bags with excess air removed, or even filled with nitrogen? The idea is to buy several spare consumables when you first purchase the equipment, and break them out at regular intervals.

I have the same problem with vulcanized coatings that go sticky after several years (looking at you, 3D Connexion SpaceMouse, Saitek X52, etc).

You can remove the sticky vulcanised coating by rubbing will isopropanol or acetone. It's a bit of work, but beats throwing a working device out.

Yeah but then you're left with a hard plastic surface. Have you ever successfully re-coated?

No, I've just left it smooth. You can buy spray-on rubber paint that would probably work though.

If you manufacture something it's nice to ask what part breaks first and consider making it easy to replace.

> Sennheiser provides replacements should you need them.

Not anymore for my old 380 pro. Had to settle for aftermarket versions that feel a little softer but also sound a bit different.

Yeah, i got couple of third party replacements recently for my 2 hd380pros.

The leatherette one was useless within 2 years. Outside became slimey / sticky, the inside just shrunk.

The velour one works fine but feels different to original. I just ordered a mesh one to try too.

I've had to replace the pads on my Sony 7506 cans as well. I was very impressed with the parts that can be replaced on these cans. The packing includes an exploded diagram of the parts.

I love my 7506s. And I have a recurring event on my calendar to remind me to buy new pads every 2 years. That's almost exactly how long they last. I've tried 3 brands and they've all lasted almost exactly 2 years. The original Sony pads also lasted 2 years.

Yeah the sound stage definitely gets impacted. I tend to use leather cups in the winter and fabric ones in the summer. Nothing worse than sweating from your temples while you work.

I bought the official ear pad replacements for my PXC450 back when those were available, for 1/4 of what the headset cost. They are so terrible that I stopped using the headphones entirely. I lost faith in Sennheiser after that, now I just use cheaper ear buds.

I bought the $21.99 Chinese replacement “Sennheiser” pads from Amazon. Straightforward to replace (though not trivial). Very comfortable. My headset feels as good as new.

I have some Sony cans that have lasted for over a decade and multiple third party suppliers have made the foam pieces easy to procure.

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