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Plastic hinges on modern headphones
(discuss.tchncs.de)
Thanks for nothing, Sony. (WH1000-XM5)
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this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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Sony parts prices are insane. The urethane pleather on my headband started cracking on my xm4's. A replacement headband was half the price of a new unit. So I ended up getting a silicone cover that will hopefully keep the pieces from flaking off into my hair. I also needed new earpads. Oem pads were around $40 for EACH side. The pleather just has a certain degradation time and once it hits, it all falls apart at the same time. Replacing all the pleather parts on my unit would have cost just as much as a new headset.
I hate having something designed to be somewhat repairable but practically speaking it isn't due to pricing.
I have found that the backing cloth under the pleather is durable as hell. Take some masking tape and do a wrap around your fingers - sticky side out like you're gonna de-lint a shirt - and use it to pull off the peeling pleather. Took me all of 20 minutes to get my ancient Denons free of the peeling pleather..
I already bought 3rd party replacement pads, but I'll keep that trick in mind for the future.
Wicked cushions had some good replacement parts for xm4s. I bought a couple replacements from them. They had really good customer service when I had a bad clip on one or the earpads too.
I paid 30$CAD 2 years ago for mine. The Sony OEM ones are very comfortable but they compress quickly imo. My ears are a little angled so they are always pinching when the OEM pads compressed too much. The wicked cushions ones I got are a bit taller to start off with and haven't had a single problem with them compressing so far. Only bought the second set of pads because I wanted a different colour.
I will buy more from them when I get a new headset. Stupid hinges on xm4s
https://www.walmart.com/ip/SOULWIT-Replacement-Headband-Pad-Kit-for-Sony-WH-1000XM4-WH1000XM4-Headphones-Easy-DIY-Installation-Silver/16417371960
This is third-party, but it's $19.
It's also just the pad, but I assume that that's what's failed, if you're talking about pleather.
Yeah it's a pain to install however. One of our dogs had a chomp on the wife's set, took me quite sometime to disasemble the headphones just to install it.
Honestly if you can get something to wrap over / stitch over the top go that route. The XM4 are fiddily as fuck to tear down just to replace the headband.
Oh those are a clip on version. FML might have to get that to replace the black band on the grey set of headphones.
The install instructions for the clip on band has you cut the original pleather and foam off the band and peel away any adhesive. The irreversability of that made me nervous for no rational reason. So I opted for a cover similar to these ones from wicked cushions.
https://wickedcushions.com/products/sony-wh1000xm3-xm4-headband-cover
There also seems to be plenty of similar options on aliexpress.
It just zips on which is a suoer easy and quick install. I liked that I could just quickly try this before committing to a biggger repair. My only complaint is that the zipper pull dangles and that could be annoying. I used a dab of liquid electrical tape on where the pull meets the slider to prevent any rattling. An unexpected pro/con is that the silicone grips my hair more. That can be a slightly uncomfortable annoyance at times, but it does help the headphones stay in place better when laying down.