poo
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Apr 9, 2007
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I've decided to have a go at sorting out my Sennheiser HD-800 headband and earpads once and for all (hopefully). Looking about on Head-Fi I was surprised that few others had posted with similar issues to the one I have experienced for the last couple of years: the deterioration of the material used to cover the headband and pads. I baby my headphones. I really don't have the budget to afford any of the gear I buy and haven't for some time so every purchase is very considered and once I have something, it's treated like it's the only one I'm ever going to get, because to be frank, it probably is.
So when the material Sennheiser chose to use on their flagship headphones started to deteriorate after a couple of years (maybe less) I was really surprised. Both the inner foam and outer cover (I believe it is a material called alcantara) have been falling apart for some time. And what a horrible mess it makes! I can best liken it to black icing sugar being shaken from a bag at height, it goes everywhere, all over hands, under finger nails, all over desk etc. Once it starts to happen, you'll know pretty quickly!
Sennheiser consider the head band and ear pads to be consumable items, they are designed with the idea of being replaced regularly. In theory that's fine, good even. My issue with it is the cost of doing so. Once I factor in shipping to New Zealand on top of the already very high price of these items, we're talking hundreds of dollars. Regularly. For Sennheiser, this is a brilliant way of avoiding warranty claims and the like for this issue, as it is intentional that these consumable parts have a limited lifetime before requiring replacement. Sneaky buggers.
So below is my attempt to DIY my way out of the problem and hopefully come up with a permanent solution that means I don't have to purchase replacement parts from Sennheiser every couple of years. My intention is to pull the headphones apart, remove the offending materials and replace them with longer lasting closed cell foam (internals) and leather (externals).
First, here are a few (average) images showing the headband removed from the headphones. I've tried to capture the deterioration but I'm not sure it's especially obvious at all, at least the images don't do anything to illustrate how much black crap comes off them every time I touch them, it's seriously horrible:
And some images of the pads:
The white area you can see is a thin plastic film that helps to hold a thick black plastic bracket in place within the pad, just behind it, the bracket is also shown on its own below this image.
This is the bracket removed from the pad. You can see some slots and raised clips around its edges, which is how the bracket attaches the pads to the headphones.
And the pad with the bracket removed:
Headband with the alcantara and foam removed. Really wish I had taken images to show the state of the foam under the alcantara, it was terrible, as if it had been washed up on a beach. Removing it was a bit of a nightmare, the foam is glued into place with a very tacky messy adhesive. Having taken it apart, I'm confident that the adhesive used is in some way responsible for the way the materials deteriorated. It's tacky, almost moist to the touch. Exactly the kind of moisture that would cause foam to deteriorate slowly as it has.
I've used some closed cell foam here and cut it to size and shape to act as replacement padding on the under side of the headband.
And a couple of angled strips to replace the foam that runs along the top of the headband. Getting the width of these just right is important as it is this part of the headband that helps to hold the adjustment slider in place and not slide in and out loosely once set to the right position for your head size.
Caps from the end of the headband cleaned and ready for re-use:
For the ear cups I decided to create a template which I used to trace onto a large piece of closed cell foam (pictured below in blue) and cut out. This template is fine for both cups, just needs to be flipped for each side:
These are the new cups I cut from the new foam which I have started shaping. I used an exacto blade and plenty of patience to do the reasonably akward cut. for shaping I used various grades of sandpaper, starting with something rough and then using a finer grade once I was happy with the general shape:
The final result of the new ear pads, ready to be covered in leather. I'm not 100% happy with the way these have turned out, they're not exactly alike, but something that is very difficult to show in the photo is that I have been able to customise them to my head shape a little, mostly in terms of their depth. If I was doing this again I would have used a squishier grade of closed cell foam, what I have chosen is a bit firm but I've selected it because at this stage I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to make the leather, pads and bracket come together so I've chosen a sturdier foam as insurance. One important aspect that I've taken into account is the finished thickness of the new pads so that the drivers sit at the correct difference from my head as per the original ear pads.
So that's all the messy work done, will update soon (hopefully) with further progress.
So when the material Sennheiser chose to use on their flagship headphones started to deteriorate after a couple of years (maybe less) I was really surprised. Both the inner foam and outer cover (I believe it is a material called alcantara) have been falling apart for some time. And what a horrible mess it makes! I can best liken it to black icing sugar being shaken from a bag at height, it goes everywhere, all over hands, under finger nails, all over desk etc. Once it starts to happen, you'll know pretty quickly!
Sennheiser consider the head band and ear pads to be consumable items, they are designed with the idea of being replaced regularly. In theory that's fine, good even. My issue with it is the cost of doing so. Once I factor in shipping to New Zealand on top of the already very high price of these items, we're talking hundreds of dollars. Regularly. For Sennheiser, this is a brilliant way of avoiding warranty claims and the like for this issue, as it is intentional that these consumable parts have a limited lifetime before requiring replacement. Sneaky buggers.
So below is my attempt to DIY my way out of the problem and hopefully come up with a permanent solution that means I don't have to purchase replacement parts from Sennheiser every couple of years. My intention is to pull the headphones apart, remove the offending materials and replace them with longer lasting closed cell foam (internals) and leather (externals).
First, here are a few (average) images showing the headband removed from the headphones. I've tried to capture the deterioration but I'm not sure it's especially obvious at all, at least the images don't do anything to illustrate how much black crap comes off them every time I touch them, it's seriously horrible:
And some images of the pads:
The white area you can see is a thin plastic film that helps to hold a thick black plastic bracket in place within the pad, just behind it, the bracket is also shown on its own below this image.
This is the bracket removed from the pad. You can see some slots and raised clips around its edges, which is how the bracket attaches the pads to the headphones.
And the pad with the bracket removed:
Headband with the alcantara and foam removed. Really wish I had taken images to show the state of the foam under the alcantara, it was terrible, as if it had been washed up on a beach. Removing it was a bit of a nightmare, the foam is glued into place with a very tacky messy adhesive. Having taken it apart, I'm confident that the adhesive used is in some way responsible for the way the materials deteriorated. It's tacky, almost moist to the touch. Exactly the kind of moisture that would cause foam to deteriorate slowly as it has.
I've used some closed cell foam here and cut it to size and shape to act as replacement padding on the under side of the headband.
And a couple of angled strips to replace the foam that runs along the top of the headband. Getting the width of these just right is important as it is this part of the headband that helps to hold the adjustment slider in place and not slide in and out loosely once set to the right position for your head size.
Caps from the end of the headband cleaned and ready for re-use:
For the ear cups I decided to create a template which I used to trace onto a large piece of closed cell foam (pictured below in blue) and cut out. This template is fine for both cups, just needs to be flipped for each side:
These are the new cups I cut from the new foam which I have started shaping. I used an exacto blade and plenty of patience to do the reasonably akward cut. for shaping I used various grades of sandpaper, starting with something rough and then using a finer grade once I was happy with the general shape:
The final result of the new ear pads, ready to be covered in leather. I'm not 100% happy with the way these have turned out, they're not exactly alike, but something that is very difficult to show in the photo is that I have been able to customise them to my head shape a little, mostly in terms of their depth. If I was doing this again I would have used a squishier grade of closed cell foam, what I have chosen is a bit firm but I've selected it because at this stage I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to make the leather, pads and bracket come together so I've chosen a sturdier foam as insurance. One important aspect that I've taken into account is the finished thickness of the new pads so that the drivers sit at the correct difference from my head as per the original ear pads.
So that's all the messy work done, will update soon (hopefully) with further progress.
