allquixotic
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2012
- Posts
- 3
- Likes
- 3
Hi all,
Not sure if this is on-topic for this forum, but this is the only place I could find online that says anything about my headphones (there was a poll thread up about which cushions people prefer for them). Was hoping someone here would know.
I've never done any maintenance on headphones before; the HD 25-1 II's are my first professional headphones and thus the only ones expensive enough to be worth repairing. The original pleather ear cushions are really oily from years of use on my oily ears, to the point that they're starting to look white and are peeling off.
Also I managed to somehow split the outer casing on the square headphone jack on the original cable, so I figure it's only a matter of time until it totally breaks.
To remedy the situation, I went to Sennheiser's website seeking a replacement cable and ear cushions. The cable said I had to call a number to order it (they have an entire ordering website and you can't even order the cable online? oooookay...) so I did. The sales guy said that the article number I quoted from the website doesn't exist; way to go keeping your website up to date, Sennheiser.
He said that they are "in the process" of changing their ordering system or something. Whatever. I told him the model of headphones I have, exactly I said "H D Twenty Five Dash One, Two". He looked up the appropriate part numbers for the steel cable and "leatherette" pads.
I got the package from them today. I figured out how to get the old cable detached, and then compared the new and old: they are completely identical and weigh the same. So the cable is the right part.
I compared the ear cushions, and... what the heck? They're completely different! The old ear cushions have this ring of soft material that gets wider at the very end, so that it can fit *over* the plastic casing of the cans. The new ear cushions are exactly the same diameter -- the cushiony padding itself is exactly the same -- but the back part that attaches to the cans is completely different. Instead of getting wider than the diameter of the cans, the rubbery material at the back of the new cushions actually gets a LOT smaller -- it only leaves a hole that's about half the diameter of the total diameter of the cushion. The thin pad material that sits in the middle of the cushions sits inside of the rubber ring on the back of the new ones.
I looked on my order slip and it says they are item number "075527", for "HD/HMD25". Frankly, unless this is the intended part for the HD 25-1 II, I think the sales guy made a mistake, and I'm pretty annoyed at it -- a guy in that position absolutely has to know every part name and all the tricky minutiae, such as the fact that a "25-1 II" is not the same as a "25".
Anyway, since the diameter is the same, do you think it is possible for me to get the new ear cushions on these headphones? Should I try to glue them to the rims of the cans themselves with gorilla glue? Or should I try to send them back (ughhhhhh)?
Also, I have absolutely no idea how to install the new cable. I kind of paid attention to how I removed the old one, but it's a lot easier to take apart than it is to put together. I do remember that I had to unscrew two screws and take off some plastic pieces attached to the old cable; I saved the plastic pieces to put on the new cable. But I want to do it right. The headphones came out of the factory with the cable hanging down from the left earphone, the one with the screws. The "HD 25-1 II" lettering is on the other side, and that side does not have any screws.
Thanks in advance for any help! I think it would be a huge win for the community if we started writing up a wiki page about how to replace the parts in specific headsets/headphones that are so expensive that replacement parts are a fraction of the cost (in my case I paid about $50 to get parts to make the equipment basically good as new, whereas a new headset would cost at least 4 times as much). I've done extremely intricate repair procedures in laptops and smartphones, but I generally get lost if I don't have an instruction manual. Sennheiser has nothing of the sort.
Not sure if this is on-topic for this forum, but this is the only place I could find online that says anything about my headphones (there was a poll thread up about which cushions people prefer for them). Was hoping someone here would know.
I've never done any maintenance on headphones before; the HD 25-1 II's are my first professional headphones and thus the only ones expensive enough to be worth repairing. The original pleather ear cushions are really oily from years of use on my oily ears, to the point that they're starting to look white and are peeling off.
To remedy the situation, I went to Sennheiser's website seeking a replacement cable and ear cushions. The cable said I had to call a number to order it (they have an entire ordering website and you can't even order the cable online? oooookay...) so I did. The sales guy said that the article number I quoted from the website doesn't exist; way to go keeping your website up to date, Sennheiser.
I got the package from them today. I figured out how to get the old cable detached, and then compared the new and old: they are completely identical and weigh the same. So the cable is the right part.
I compared the ear cushions, and... what the heck? They're completely different! The old ear cushions have this ring of soft material that gets wider at the very end, so that it can fit *over* the plastic casing of the cans. The new ear cushions are exactly the same diameter -- the cushiony padding itself is exactly the same -- but the back part that attaches to the cans is completely different. Instead of getting wider than the diameter of the cans, the rubbery material at the back of the new cushions actually gets a LOT smaller -- it only leaves a hole that's about half the diameter of the total diameter of the cushion. The thin pad material that sits in the middle of the cushions sits inside of the rubber ring on the back of the new ones.
I looked on my order slip and it says they are item number "075527", for "HD/HMD25". Frankly, unless this is the intended part for the HD 25-1 II, I think the sales guy made a mistake, and I'm pretty annoyed at it -- a guy in that position absolutely has to know every part name and all the tricky minutiae, such as the fact that a "25-1 II" is not the same as a "25".
Anyway, since the diameter is the same, do you think it is possible for me to get the new ear cushions on these headphones? Should I try to glue them to the rims of the cans themselves with gorilla glue? Or should I try to send them back (ughhhhhh)?
Also, I have absolutely no idea how to install the new cable. I kind of paid attention to how I removed the old one, but it's a lot easier to take apart than it is to put together. I do remember that I had to unscrew two screws and take off some plastic pieces attached to the old cable; I saved the plastic pieces to put on the new cable. But I want to do it right. The headphones came out of the factory with the cable hanging down from the left earphone, the one with the screws. The "HD 25-1 II" lettering is on the other side, and that side does not have any screws.
Thanks in advance for any help! I think it would be a huge win for the community if we started writing up a wiki page about how to replace the parts in specific headsets/headphones that are so expensive that replacement parts are a fraction of the cost (in my case I paid about $50 to get parts to make the equipment basically good as new, whereas a new headset would cost at least 4 times as much). I've done extremely intricate repair procedures in laptops and smartphones, but I generally get lost if I don't have an instruction manual. Sennheiser has nothing of the sort.
