Thanks for nothing, Sony. (WH1000-XM5)
But if they sold you a pair that lasted for decades, you wouldn’t need to buy any more.
I’ve moved onto earbuds. Earfun Air for a staggering £22. The sound genuinely isn’t bad either, I’ve no idea how you can even make them for that. Slavery, probably. Still, £22 is £22.
The expensive ones are also made with slavery, they just charge you more for the branding.
At least they were probably expensive.
250€ 🫠
Similar vibe… whatever that shitty material that they put on the top padded band and foam ear coverings that starts to crack and flake off on my bald head making me look like I have a skin disorder. I’ve had headphones ranging in price from $30 to $300 and they all do it.
It’s called “protein leather” and it’s the worst shit ever
I’m a little biased as I work for Bose but we still use a metal yoke and hinge.Will admit the hinges on my QC ultra headphones have been pretty good.
The things that annoy me about them are:
Unable to switch off noise cancellation
The earphone cushions fell apart after 6 months
Custom button action can’t toggle an aware mode
On head play pause was buggy enough to turn the feature off
They semi regularly decide to reboot in the middle of calls and meetings
I’m assuming you are retail and not on the design / software side of things but if you have any power to pass the feedback up the chain plz do ❤️
Check Ali for replacement cushions!
Unfortunately be aware that there are 2 types of cheap replacements, some are identical to the real thing and some are really cheap foam that is nowhere as comfortable. I don’t know how to tell the difference without ordering…
I guess the quality has gone down because my Bose 700s don’t have any of those issues besides the ear pads degrading about every 2 years.
Yep, I came from QC 35 IIs and everything but the noise cancelling quality has felt the same or a downgrade 😔
Make them so you can use ANC wall powered even if the battery dies. Some of us don’t destroy our headphones and want them to last and not be disposable.
Stop making headphones so they only last 5-10 years.
I quite like that design, but it’s just a little too floppy. Would be nice to have a bit of resistance so it’s not clanging around when carried
Heyo. Does Bose offer 3dprinting files to fix it’s gear? Please convince them to, I have been looking for a brand that is willing to support buy it for life and right to repair.
I am using Sony xm4s and the build quality is terrible on the hinges so I am expecting to have to replace them and Bose is a good brand that I might be interested in if they have something comparable to the ones I’m using in the same ish price range.
I found a 3d printing file to fix my current headset but Im not sure if I can flip it and print the other side now or if that will work.
Anyways if they don’t I would absolutely love it if you could convince them to lol
I have been looking for a brand that is willing to support buy it for life and right to repair
I have headphones from Meze (Massdrop X Meze 99 Noir) and my understanding is that they don’t use glue in the constructrion of their headphones but everything is held on by screws so that it can be repaired if necessary. I however don’t know where you can get the actual spare parts for them - I’m assuming you need to contact Meze directly for that.
Edit:
If you’re looking for a specific part and can’t find it, just let our Customer Support team know. You can email us at support@mezeaudio.com, and we’ll be happy to help you.
Hey thanks for sharing I will go check out the link. (And thank you for the link too!)
My broken QuietComfort headphones with the plastic earcup hinges would like to have a word…
I love my Bose headphones but man, don’t ever dare dropping them on the floor by mistake, they will shatter on the first hit.
To be fair in the past when this happened you could bring the broken pair in store to get a replacement or upgrade at a good price, but I hear the policy was abused too much so it was retired many years ago.
My Bose headphones didn’t break, but they looked awful after two years of usage, like garbage. So I decided to buy a Sony… Sony broke after one year after they fell off the bed (cheap headphones would survive this without a scratch, but those were expensive)
Yeah, this is a huge problem. I found the best solution is to buy a 3.5mm audio cable with a microphone (these can be had for 10-20$) and attach them to a nice set of metal band headphones (closed or open depending on if you want sound isolation). I gave up on gaming, Sony headphones and the like a long time ago they are all trash no matter how much you pay for them, they break and become e-waste in the first year.
Planned obsolescence
My brother got me an audio technica ATH-M30 in 2011. This before they even had the 30x. I’ve easily put 12k hours in em, just needed to change the ear cups. I drop them all them time from desk height too.
Every few years I’ve thought about upgrading for better quality but they get the job done well enough that I never pull the trigger. It’s a consumers dream
The Audio-Technica ATH-M line are quite sturdy, I’ve never really seen them break. The same goes for the Beyerdynamic DT-770-880/990 lines. And both companies sell replacement parts at decent prices in my experience for those rare times when sometime could break.
I have the M50 and its also still working, no problems. Also test winner in audio tests.
I may get the ire of some for this but don’t buy Sony headphones. Sony has a lot of good products, but their headphones are overpriced garbage. It may be very subjective, but never once have I listened to Sony and thought I like the music out of them. In the cheap range they’re outclassed by Philips, in a bit pricier by Sennheiser and JBL. I’ve had my JBL Live 770 for over 2 years now, and I only need to get replacement pads, same with my 6 year old pair of Sennheiser 4.40HD. Also metal hinges.
Sony used to make some really awesome high end headphones (like the Qualia 010 MDR-1 or MDR-R10), while were definitely overpriced (IMO), they were definitely not garbage. They do still make at least one actual high end non-garbage headphone (MDR-Z1R) it is for sure overpriced. I don’t think it’s garbage.
Also, few sane people are buying them, so I doubt they’ll last.
I have templates for metal parts you can cut and bend with hand tools and a cheap dremel. I can send it to you if you want.
Would love to see a picture of the metal headphones
I gave my old WH1000XM2’s away to family because it was sitting in a drawer after I bought the xm4, both still work like a charm and the xm2 only has a slightly reduced battery even after being used for 6+ hours daily for years. I don’t know what the quality of the newer ones are, but the older ones are build to keep working. The noise-cancelling is the best one on the market for over ear headphones, the Bose ones put pressure on your ears which is really uncomfortable even after a few minutes (at least for me).
Ok I don’t want to start a fight…
But if someone wants to buy a new pair of headphones with mic for that one gaming night of the week. And dont care about the rgb and other gimmicks. What should they buy?
Ofc asking for a friend here.
How much do you care about the quality? Both what you hear and how well you’re heard? What’s a reasonable price to you? Wired or wireless?
A good pear of over the head headphones and a modmic.
Could a good apple of in ears work?
Mod mic is a stick on mic so you wouldn’t have anywhere to stick it.
If you wear glasses you could try sticking the magnet to those I guess?
Saying so I had one of the original mod mics and it was great while it lasted, but I found the cable was damaged pretty easily which ended up with it in the bin.
They do have a wireless version with its own dongle, decent bit of kit despite the micro USB charging lol.
I’m a big fan of a modmic on a pair of jvc ha-rx700.
Koss. Used the kph30i with inline mic as a teaching assistant when everything was remote. The porta pro has a version with a mic. I don’t think you can get anything that sounds anywhere close to as good for the price range.
Probably not the best, bit I do like these for that situation.
Bought them on a whim without much thought because I couldn’t get my really nice wireless headphones to work with older games. These work with anything because they are wired. Also the little bits like the soft strap make them comfy to wear.
Plain, basic, cheap.
Built to Fail: The story of 21st century consumer technology.
Especially if you look at the Samsung Fold/Flip-phones, god damn do they break. And they’re not cheap.
Built to Fail*
*after 3 years, when mandatory warranty expires in the EU.
Absolutely. Added to that, they seem to be actively ruining their headphones with software updates as well. My XM5’s randomly turned off every few hours and thanks to a Chinese hacker I was able to downgrade the software - guess what, the problem went away.
They’re either doing this deliberately so you buy the latest model or their development team is utterly incompetent.
They’re either doing this deliberately so you buy the latest model or their development team is utterly incompetent.
I’m gonna choose Door Number 1, Monty…
This shit right here is why I don’t let working stuff update anymore. I shouldn’t be sweating if the software update I’m downloading is going to make my life worse or not.
It’s a dangerous position to put people in: run vulnerable software or we will break your device. No one should have to choose between breaking their TV via update or staying on an insecure OS version and getting hacked.
In a functioning economy, the consumer goal of not getting hacked and having a functional device would be shared by the consumer AND the manufacturer.
Yeah, several years back I had a pair of the Sony earbuds that I bought refurbished off of eBay. A firmware update borked the battery in one of the buds and Sony was replacing them free of charge, but since mine weren’t bought new and weren’t from an actual store, they told me to screw off, so I did and haven’t been back. Before Sony ruined them they were really nice buds, but I’m not trusting them with my money anymore since they have proven a willingness to unilaterally decommission their devices.
Maybe they vibe coded the driver. :-D
I’m pretty sure I almost bought those years ago. Instead I bought the Seinheiser PXC 550. This was 2018. I’ve had to replace the ear padding once. Which was super easy. They just unclip, and the new ones clip right in.
I have a pair of PXC 550 as well from 2017 and they’re still going strong too though I don’t use them every day.
Ack! Sennheisers…
I still want to kill myself over getting rid of my Sennheiser HD 414’s. Vintage, from the early 80’s, sounded phenomenal. Dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Gave them to a younger cousin who lost them within a year. He thought they were cheap because of how they looked and left them in a pile of junk when he got kicked out of his apartment…
(from the departmnt of No Good Deed… Oyy!)
So now i’m using some vintage Denon AH-D210’s from the early 90’s ad they are fantastic.
Denon AH-D210
I had a pair of Denon AH-D2000 that were flat out amazing. They ended up getting fried in a power surge from a bad storm which also took out my receiver.
Just had the same problem with my LucidSound LS45 … the headband is metal, I saw the recommendation to get them in one of those “buy it for life” threads so I did …
Turns out that the end caps of the headband are plastic and prone to breaking … I was able to save them by buying a non working “parts only” set on eBay and replacing the parts
This thing has been with me for 8 years and counting … they’ve been along for 3 motherboards, 2 cars and 6 girlfriends LOL
I don’t know if heads have gotten bigger over the years, I have a mutant oversized melon for a head, maybe they just design the phones for small heads?
