Earphones

May 27, 2026 Last reply: 1 month ago 6 Replies

Hi,



I have a pair of earphones Sennheiser brand. HD 450BT. The sound is fantastic, but the earpads degrade very fast. I bought replacement earpads or cushions last November, and now they are degraded - see photo.



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In two weeks it will be much worse. I am using them daily (with sporadic use, they degrade in two years).


What can I do?



Maybe buy some other good earphones via BT with more durable ear pads?



In summer, the TV room has a very noisy small AC, so earphones with noise cancel are a wonder.


You might take them to the shoemaker (I assume you folks still have those) and get some made from lambskin.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

There maybe one or two somewhere...

Amazon has several earpads by several makers for this model. I tried one the previous time. Dunno how durable it be. Certainly cheaper, but worse sound insulation.

They are not easy to attach, either.

I have the same model. Yes the ear pads degrade. The only thing you can do is replace them and trying different brands or styles( fuzzy vs smooth, pleather vs plastic vs real leather) until you find ones that can survive your usage case. ME

Welcome to early death by design, timed self destruction, short life warranty, planned deterioration, etc. Few companies can afford to design products that last a lifetime. Instead, they want you to replace their failed products with nice new products that also fail. Forget about repair as parts are usually hard to find and expertise is scarce. I especially like companies that make minor changes to their plastic parts solely to discourage buyers from cannibalizing old devices to fix new devices (i.e Philips/Norelco shavers).

Instead, I suggest that you sew your own headphone ear pads. Instruction videos are available on YouTube:

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Most headsets use open polyurethane memory foam to reduce the pressure on the ear.

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The foam takes a set and shapes itself to the shape of your ear, resulting in much less pressure on the ear by uniformly distributing the pressure.

Having the plastic cover deteriorate in 2 weeks indicates that you're either washing your hair in toxic solvents or the plastic cover was improperly polymerized. Easy fix - don't use a plastic cover. Instead, I suggest 100% cotton. Cotton might need to be washed occasionally, but it's not going to fall apart. If you don't want to learn sewing, make something from an elastic cotton sock. It's not as comfortable, but it does the job.

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Not the case, you can buy the pads, there are lots of them. The brand ones are expensive.

Half a year, with daily use.

No idea. I have some Koss Pro4AA headphones I bought in 1972. I don't use them much now, but used to. They still have the original earpads which are fine (they were gel-filled for close fitting). The problem was the weight and that they were very hot after only a few minutes of wear. They'd be very uncomfortable to wear in hot weather.

They still make them:

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