[MorrisL]

Pads are expensive. They are often too narrow, not deep enough, not comfortable enough...

I'm looking at some HM5 pads and thinking to myself, these should be trivially easy to make. What's a piece of foam and a nice pair of socks made of soft fabric?

Anybody making their own pads? If you do, can we see some pics?

 

[conflict0102]

Nice job

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'm looking at some HM5 pads and thinking to myself, these should be trivially easy to make. 

 

The foam needs to be symmetrical on both sides, and an angled shape just complicates that. The socks rolled over the foam at least negates the problem of hand sewing the fabric, but depending on the headphone, it might interfere with the mounting or just look less neat. $35 and a couple of days waiting isn't such a bad deal to other people when you take those into consideration.

 

In most cases as much as materials cost is cheap, the tools needed sometimes aren't, and that's what puts people off the idea of DIY-ing. A lot of people nowadays also tend to live in smaller downtown flats than suburban 3BR+2Bath+2car garage homes, and that's even more true with people who are on headphones than speakers (since space and noise are even more of a problem), so some despite their income are either paying a lot more for that flat to live near where they work or simply just don't have much space.

 

For those who do have the space and money for the tools, well, that's why they get asked to do the same for other people. And then there's that guy who drowned in all the Grados he was working on and he probably didn't even have an actual system for tracking who owns which pair that piled up in his garage.

 

[MorrisL]

Sure. It's cheap enough for most of us. It's a nice skill to learn though. Recently bought the Pioneer SE A1000 and, even though I prefer its sound to my HD 600, I find the pads too shallow to be used comfortably. Turns out nobody makes pads that large. A pair of socks and some foam was all I needed. 
 
The mounting was what seemed hard at first, but turns out it's very easy too if you now how to go about it.
 
Too many people either give up or live with constant discomfort when their pads don't work well for them.  

 

[rikk009]

I am about to make a few pads myself. Reason being the more headphones you start collecting the more pads you have to replace, total cost run into a couple of hundred dollars easily. Sure in the beginning it will be a steep learning curve but after a few mistakes you can master the art. I have acquired memory foam and some sheepskin leather. Will cut according to dimensions and take them to a cobbler to sew them. Can learn sewing while watching and try at home. 

 

[MorrisL]

  I am about to make a few pads myself. Reason being the more headphones you start collecting the more pads you have to replace, total cost run into a couple of hundred dollars easily. Sure in the beginning it will be a steep learning curve but after a few mistakes you can master the art. I have acquired memory foam and some sheepskin leather. Will cut according to dimensions and take them to a cobbler to sew them. Can learn sewing while watching and try at home. 

Isn't regular foam better than memory foam? I never understood the reason why memory foam is used in headphone pads.

 

[rikk009]

  Isn't regular foam better than memory foam? I never understood the reason why memory foam is used in headphone pads.

There is no better or worse. It depends upon the cans really and I would stick with the kind of foam they used on stock. Like on RS220 they used normal foam with medium hardness with velour cloth, so I will make them the same. Memory foam is a lot comfortable though.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Sure. It's cheap enough for most of us. It's a nice skill to learn though. Recently bought the Pioneer SE A1000 and, even though I prefer its sound to my HD 600, I find the pads too shallow to be used comfortably. Turns out nobody makes pads that large. A pair of socks and some foam was all I needed. 
 
The mounting was what seemed hard at first, but turns out it's very easy too if you now how to go about it.
 
Too many people either give up or live with constant discomfort when their pads don't work well for them.  

 

And like I said in some cases it's the cost of tools that can properly do the job that's the problem. Cutting foam isn't always so easy.

 

At best nowadays one can fabricate for example an earpad adapter like the Headphile C-Pad if someone has access to a 3D printer. And apart from being cheaper than the $200 cost of the Headphile product, a 3D printed version would actually look better on any stock Grado up to the SR225 (which makes the C-Pads more expensive than these also) since it's made of black plastic that would only look mismatched on very, very, very close inspection. The pads themselves though again aren't always totally easy. 

 

Besides, you're good at it, why not profit from it and sell earpads?