Right? Its just a piece of foam. I begged them that its broken anyway and i want to replace it myself, i just want the foam, nothing else. But no, no replacement parts for IEM are sold.
Sony XBA-N3AP and XBA-N1AP — Impressions thread
RikudouGoku
Member of the Trade: RikuBuds
Its sad that this seems to be how they are nowadays...not sure if they were better years ago.
The most similar foam you can buy right now is this.
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=593408096701&skuId=4613490410289
It isnt as dense as the original one though, you could buy those before even on Aliexpress but they are gone now...
Update: I was able to get the housing open fairly easily and i took an mmcx connector from a spare set of fake ie300s I had. I thought doing a test run of soldering on the fake ie300s would prepare me for the real deal with the xban3s. Turns out I was wrong and the off brand mmcx connector was more difficult to solder onto and the wires of the xban3 were a lot more fragile. In the end, I couldn't make it work and get the housing back on but in the hands of a more skilled individual it is certainly doable. Maybe a better option would be to use a pair of shures as the donor for even better future proofing.
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Agree with you, the foam inside the nozzle is the part that I worry the most about on Sony's IEMs, it is a joke that Sony did not design it to be replaceable, even if sending it back to Sony.
RikudouGoku
Member of the Trade: RikuBuds
It IS easily replaceable, all you need is a pair of tweezers and thats it. Thats what makes it worse for them to not help in any way.
I know it can be replaced, but the official statement from Sony IS NOT, it is a sign that Sony designed it to not be replaced, even with the Sony Customer Service Center
With how revenue-focused Sony seems to be now, it's understandable (but not acceptable) how they force the consumer to just suck it up when something breaks and have to buy a new unit. 
MudEnjoyer
100+ Head-Fier
Main reason I use tips with wax guard with Sonys and don't mess with the foam unless strictly necessary.
Honestly the foam part is such a mess! When mine break I guess I'll just remove it and autoeq it I guess.
To get an idea. This is limited from 1.5 to 8kHz and results in 4 filters.
The problem is that they don't break from one day to the next the decline is in real time so it gets progressively worse but you get used to it.
so you are saying the filters degrate to a point where one can hear a difference in accoustics? How is it audible (treble,bass characteristics)??Main reason I use tips with wax guard with Sonys and don't mess with the foam unless strictly necessary.
Honestly the foam part is such a mess! When mine break I guess I'll just remove it and autoeq it I guess.
To get an idea. This is limited from 1.5 to 8kHz and results in 4 filters.
The problem is that they don't break from one day to the next the decline is in real time so it gets progressively worse but you get used to it.
I guess once the material of the filters show degration that one can hear it- a lot of years have to go by and even if sony would stock replacement filters, they would degrade too in the meantime! so the only solution is to manufacture some filters in 5-10-20 years from now.
I think I knew why I m extra careful with the mmcx connection on these (or any other iem for that matter). especially when using non stock cables on N3 there is a milimeter gap on the edge thats not present with the stock cables.
I always felt this puts unnecessary stress on the connection..
I m just glad I was whise enough to stock up with two brand new spare n3s
I think Sony as company certainly CAN produce very maintainable (audio) gear, case in point is their pro Headphone lineup.
RikudouGoku
Member of the Trade: RikuBuds
The sony filters are VERY dense and such if they degrade a lot (like 50% gone) then they are certainly different, problem would be that since this change is slow and gradual, you shouldnt really notice it unless you have another new unit to A/B with.
As for the effect, damping in the nozzle mainly affects upper-mids/treble with some secondary effect with the bass shelf depending on how dense it is.
In my book its not a problem if it goes unnoticed
As long as the N3 keeps its fantastic supersmooth treble (with zero sibilance) its all good for me
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RikudouGoku
Member of the Trade: RikuBuds
As you can see on the M9, the difference is pretty big and it is definitely nowhere near as smooth as it should be. This is very noticeable, If you AB with something else that did not change.In my book its not a problem if it goes unnoticed
As long as the N3 keeps its fantastic supersmooth treble (with zero sibilance) its all good for me
Ok but i dont think we are anywhere near this level caused by degration. I m still on my first unit and dont notice any unpleasant change in treble region. And again, only solution would be new batch of filters fresh from the factory.As you can see on the M9, the difference is pretty big and it is definitely nowhere near as smooth as it should be. This is very noticeable, If you AB with something else that did not change.
And the redline in the graph of the m9 is refering to absent filter? I guess it will takes some more decades until you reach the same level with a degraded filter..
RikudouGoku
Member of the Trade: RikuBuds
If you lose about half of the foam due to degradation, thats about 3db change compared to about 6db from being filterless. That is noticeable.
Lets worry about this when we get there
in 10-15 yrs maybe? honestly i m not shure you will ever get to a point where a degraded filter equals even half of the effect of a completely removed one..
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