Re-engineering headphones

4 points by joeshevland 12 years ago | 8 comments

I'm not sure whether this is a valid topic, or if it resonates with millions of others. In listening to a few online talks, I realize again my headphones have lost hearing in the right ear.

It's generally kicking the cord I think when I get up for a coffee. That's my working theory anyway. Sometimes seems to break.

But my question is, would it be worth a kickstarter to re-engineer headphones? Every pair I've bought seem to self-destruct within 1-6 months, and that strikes me as a bit fragile.

Are there more durable headsets out there? Is it an engineering flaw? I'll chip in my over 5 seconds of engineering experience with: "The wire needs to be more robust in the face of aggressive, beer-driven behaviour".

Typing this with my left hand holding an important bend in the wire of my headphones, listening to the Portal 2 finale song. Yes, I just beat it. Yes, I'm behind the times :)

anigbrowl 12 years ago |

You get what you pay for. Good quality headphones come with strain relief, replaceable cables etc. I don't break headphones at all, but if you're rough on yours then invest in a more robust pair.

Also, why you have the cord running down by your feet where you can kick it? Buy a $5 extension cable at Radioshack and plug your headphones into that, you silly person..

arh68 12 years ago |

How many pairs have you bought? which ones?

I've never broken a pair. Most of mine seem to have some natural protection, through either detachable cables, wrapping above the ear, shirt clips, or recables. You are kicking the cord? The cord shouldn't be on the floor. Why not put it on a table?

If a headphone has a detachable cable that screws in, that'd be the best by far. That and metal-on-metal framing. If that's not available cheaply, then a Kickstarter might be interesting.

OafTobark 12 years ago |

I agree with Anigbrowl. You get what you pay for. If you buy cheap headsets or use ones that come default with your devices, you should in all seriousness expect a pretty low life span even if it exceeds that expectation.

Pay $100-ish and get a quality pair. I've had the same one for about 5, maybe 6 years, still works flawlessly.

As for your second question, always worth trying Kickstarter if you think its worth competing.

gadders 12 years ago |

I bought some headphones with replaceable parts via this guys: http://www.acousticforge.com/ which started as a KickStarter project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legendary/earbuds-time-t...

chewxy 12 years ago |

In my case it's the rolling chair which causes the cord to eventually break. Doesn't matter if it's 100 dollar headphones or 12 dollar ones.

What I've since done is use an extension and reroute my audio cables behind my desk and aligned them the the monitor. I then plug my headphones into the extension instead. The cord is messy on the table though

dethstar 12 years ago |

There are headphones out there that sell you the wires, so you replace the wire instead of replacing the whole cans. I have a pair of sony mdr-v6 and have had them for about 2 years, they still work perfectly fine.

joeshevland 12 years ago | |

The other problem I've had is around the joints or the volume control, very fine wires that seem to snap easily.

I wasn't sure if its just a matter of them being made with an expiry date or if there's better ones out there, but I'll check those out, cheers.

kwhitefoot 12 years ago |

You haven't told us which headphones you are talking about. My Sennheiser HD-414s are over 25 years old and still going strong.