It is common knowledge in the world of noise cancelling headphones that Bose Quiet Comfort 35 is a big favorite since its big contender, Sony MDR 1000x, has an infamous hinge assembly issue.
If you had to choose between..
1. Good but heavily equalized sound+Excellent NC + Good construction + a little bit cheaper
2. Excellent sound+Excellent NC + Questionable hinge construction + little bit more expensive
Most people would choose 1. which is clearly reasonable since the price tag ain't no joke. However, being a DIYer and a person who spends a lot of research, I chose option 2. without regrets. I was prepared to open it up the first week of use to do something about the weak part.
I bought it from a reputable retailer and had them match the price of a parallel importer on 38% percent off. Boom! Cheaper than BOSE QC35. MDR 1000X looked better than QC 35. After less than 8 hours of use it was working well, sounded well, and felt comfy until a plastic whack rattled my ears. It fell off of my head when i removed my hoodie and the MDR 1000x decided to come with. It fell on the concrete and the right earcup snapped from its attachment to the hinge. I saw where the hinge is screwed to the cup. The screw pillar snapped from the wall it is attached to so the hinge is no longer screwed to the actual cups. I was sad since i just broke my own record of how fast I destroy my stuff but without the gut wrenching feeling since i was kind of expecting it to break based on my research.
So, i spent the day without my brand spanking new broken headphones. Later in the night, i started investigating what had happened and how bad was the break. I discovered that i had lost a metal with a U shape that holds the swivel rod in place. So i went to my workshop, grabbed my stuff and went on to build it back again.
1. Dremel
2. 2mm thick aluminum sheet
3. Super Glue
4. Gorila Resin Epoxy
5. Grinding bit
6. Small screwdriver
These materials are actually ready before I bought the headphones since I was going to open it anyway to do some reinforcing.
So I created the U shape metal clip by opening the other hinge assembly for left using an aluminum sheet. Done.
Now, I decided to permanently join the part of the hinge since I would experience the same problem if the pillars are the one joined. They are a bit small in diameter so not enough material to hold anyway. Sony engineers, what are you thinking. So I did not remove the screws, I just glued the two sides with super glue. Waited for an hour until the super glue was set. Super glue is brittle so I reinforced the join by adding a thick join around the edge using an epoxy resin. I didn't have to clamp the join since the super glue is holding the thing together already. Waited 2 hours before I moved it and it was already solid. Didn't move the hinge yet though.
Now, I need to reinforce the one that easily breaks based on the previous buyers of the product. It is on the other side of the hinge where the band is attached. The screw pillars is intact but the next thing part of the band is the one that breaks off from the hinge. I added a thick resin epoxy on the corner where it snaps off to make it virtually a thicker plastic, eliminating the weak part of a corner. This will make the pressure more distributed to the whole band assembly rather than the thin plastic corner.
All reinforcing are done under the hood so nothing is apparent that I just repaired my 8-hour old headphone. I just snapped back the plastic that covers these hinges. The only evidence that my headphone fell on the concrete are some light scratches on the one side of the headband. Paint is the same color as the plastic so the scratch is not obvious.
TL
R
If you have a part of your headphone that easily breaks, use a suitable epoxy to reinforce that part. I would recommend PC-7. It is the strongest but non-clear epoxy. I used a clear epoxy because that is the one I have but ill be back to opening the headphones again to put additional epoxy and for the other side using PC-7.
Right now, I am very happy with my fix and also not regretting of not having the best sounding NC headphone just because it easily breaks.
Thank you for reading.
If you had to choose between..
1. Good but heavily equalized sound+Excellent NC + Good construction + a little bit cheaper
2. Excellent sound+Excellent NC + Questionable hinge construction + little bit more expensive
Most people would choose 1. which is clearly reasonable since the price tag ain't no joke. However, being a DIYer and a person who spends a lot of research, I chose option 2. without regrets. I was prepared to open it up the first week of use to do something about the weak part.
I bought it from a reputable retailer and had them match the price of a parallel importer on 38% percent off. Boom! Cheaper than BOSE QC35. MDR 1000X looked better than QC 35. After less than 8 hours of use it was working well, sounded well, and felt comfy until a plastic whack rattled my ears. It fell off of my head when i removed my hoodie and the MDR 1000x decided to come with. It fell on the concrete and the right earcup snapped from its attachment to the hinge. I saw where the hinge is screwed to the cup. The screw pillar snapped from the wall it is attached to so the hinge is no longer screwed to the actual cups. I was sad since i just broke my own record of how fast I destroy my stuff but without the gut wrenching feeling since i was kind of expecting it to break based on my research.
So, i spent the day without my brand spanking new broken headphones. Later in the night, i started investigating what had happened and how bad was the break. I discovered that i had lost a metal with a U shape that holds the swivel rod in place. So i went to my workshop, grabbed my stuff and went on to build it back again.
1. Dremel
2. 2mm thick aluminum sheet
3. Super Glue
4. Gorila Resin Epoxy
5. Grinding bit
6. Small screwdriver
These materials are actually ready before I bought the headphones since I was going to open it anyway to do some reinforcing.
So I created the U shape metal clip by opening the other hinge assembly for left using an aluminum sheet. Done.
Now, I decided to permanently join the part of the hinge since I would experience the same problem if the pillars are the one joined. They are a bit small in diameter so not enough material to hold anyway. Sony engineers, what are you thinking. So I did not remove the screws, I just glued the two sides with super glue. Waited for an hour until the super glue was set. Super glue is brittle so I reinforced the join by adding a thick join around the edge using an epoxy resin. I didn't have to clamp the join since the super glue is holding the thing together already. Waited 2 hours before I moved it and it was already solid. Didn't move the hinge yet though.
Now, I need to reinforce the one that easily breaks based on the previous buyers of the product. It is on the other side of the hinge where the band is attached. The screw pillars is intact but the next thing part of the band is the one that breaks off from the hinge. I added a thick resin epoxy on the corner where it snaps off to make it virtually a thicker plastic, eliminating the weak part of a corner. This will make the pressure more distributed to the whole band assembly rather than the thin plastic corner.
All reinforcing are done under the hood so nothing is apparent that I just repaired my 8-hour old headphone. I just snapped back the plastic that covers these hinges. The only evidence that my headphone fell on the concrete are some light scratches on the one side of the headband. Paint is the same color as the plastic so the scratch is not obvious.
TL
R If you have a part of your headphone that easily breaks, use a suitable epoxy to reinforce that part. I would recommend PC-7. It is the strongest but non-clear epoxy. I used a clear epoxy because that is the one I have but ill be back to opening the headphones again to put additional epoxy and for the other side using PC-7.
Right now, I am very happy with my fix and also not regretting of not having the best sounding NC headphone just because it easily breaks.
Thank you for reading.