Replacing Headphone Ear Pads for Fun and Profit

[Bob Womack]

Today I found myself with an hour of free time and happened to notice that the ear pads on the Sony MDR-7506 headphones in the recording room were going bad. Now, it wasn't just wear developing on the cushions: hours of sessions with pretty ladies had left this gronky pink sludge of makeup ground into the surface where alcohol wouldn't bring cleansing. It eventually ate the covering material. Yum.

I pulled out the replacement pads, took a seat, put on some soothing music, and set to. Have you ever had one of those jobs you struggle with where that nagging feeling of, "You know, I might not be able to pull this off," creeps into your feverish mind? There are jobs you have to plan for, jobs that require experience to successfully accomplish, jobs that require brute force, jobs that require the will to ignore repeated bloodied knuckles, and jobs like this one. This one, this one, requires infinite patience. Slow but steady, boy.

You begin at one end of the ear cup and tug the little edge of the pad into the cup's retaining slit. By the time you get around the circumference by a whole inch the pad is fighting you. In fact, all that holds the pad onto the cup is the fact that the edge of the pad is too small to fit around the mounting flange of the cup at the widest point and must be gently flexed over the flange. Flexed, but not broken. So you start on one side of the circle and begin working around. All the while, that wily other side is watching and stealthily working itself back out whenever you take your eye off it. Make progress on one side, loose it on the other. It's almost comical. Almost. You have to anchor the ends of whatever progress you've made with a couple of fingers on each side and fight to flex the rest of the edge over the flange and into the retaining channel.

As I was struggling with the third pad, with each assembly having required a slightly different approach, my fingers beginning to tire, and skin beginning to come off, I realized that I had reached the point of "may not pull this one off" on each and every pad. Now, I've replaced a few ear pads in my career, but surely there is a little corner of HELL reserved for the worst miscreants from this mortal coil where they will spend their eternal lives replacing ear pads on MDR-7506s.

But this time, the job is done. I survived. No tears. We are good for a few more years. But wait, the ear pads on the AKG K240s will go soon...

Bob

[muscmp]

i have the same headphones and i just covered them with a pair of thin, black cotton socks. then, i just take the socks off, wash them and put them back on. they are also less sticky than the original coverings so they feel comfortable. quick and easy.

play music!

[ac]

They do have leather earpads exactly for this Sony. Maybe that would be the last time you need to change them.

Saw them at B&H Photo. Amazon likely has them too. More expensive but sheep skin.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...r_Earpads.html

I bought my last headset primarily because it was alsoa a brand and model that had leather ear pads made for it (not this Sony). I was sick and tired of the plastic ones falling apart after a year or two and pieces of black vinyl sticking to my ears--and the sweat.

[Bob Womack]

Very cool indeed!

Bob

[Rudy4]

Coincidentally just re-padded my Beyerdynamic DT 770 phones. I love the velour pads, especially when they are baby's-behind soft and new. Such a lovely sounding set of cans deserve a new set now and then, but it's hard to drop the $30!

Your experience rings true for me; changing pads always brings back memories of wrestling a new tire on my bicycle, but that was actually much easier!

[dhalbert]

I had two sets of Sennheiser 414s (1970's original and black reissue). Both are now broken, unfortunately. I replaced the foam pads on those about six times (extremely easy to do). Most comfortable headphones I've ever owned; I sometimes wore them for 6-8 hours at a stretch while doing homework in college.

[paulp1960]

I recently put some new pads on my 12 year old Sennheiser HD25SP phones.

It was like trying to stretch a condom over the head of an elephant but I got there in the end and they look and feel like new now.