Well I went to use my headphones the other day and when I picked them up I noticed that one of the plastic headband sidepieces broke where it attaches with two screws at the top of the headband. When it slid down the band I noticed that the plastic was crumbled around the brass inserts. I also noticed that the covers on both sides were cracked about halfway down.

No, I don't have a fat head , and I take care of my stuff (and nobody else messed with them), so I don't know why they're falling apart, considering that the HD280Pro was designed for studio/pro use. Defective plastic, perhaps? I'm a little disappointed.

They're only 8 months old, and still under warranty, so I sent them in today.

...and I had *just* gotten around to messing with my OPA637BPs...

Has anyone else had anything like this happen? I haven't been able to find anything on any other boards...

Sadly I have read many similar reports on ArsTechnica, etc

I've had my pair of HD280Pro's for well over a year now and haven't had any problems. When they're not on my head, they're sitting on my computer, so I can't say I've subjected them to very rigorous use.

Still, I'm a little paranoid now.

Thats unfortunate. I've had the same experience with Philips SBC HP840's. Picture. They cost £40 pound here in the U.K. After 6 months of non-abusive use the right hand side arm snapped away from the headband while I was putting them on.

I'm not too worried about it. They may have just had a bad run on those pieces. I know where I work (injection molded plastic furniture and stuff) at regular intervals we have to set aside a few chairs for testing to catch stuff like that before it leaves the factory.

Well, they've had them for a week and haven't so much as looked at them yet.

If this keeps up much longer I'm going to just buy something else from someone else...

My (two-year-old) HD-280 Pro's also have developed some cracks on either side of the headband. I don't think it's a sign of a bad batch so much as it is a design flaw - the center portion of the headband doesn't flex easily enough, so the supposedly rigid plastic to either side is subjected to a lot of stress whenever you put the headphones on or take them off. The only ways around it are to adjust the headband so the earpieces are pulled most of the way out and the headband doesn't flex a lot or, when putting the headphones on, to bend the headband in the center portion instead of the more natural motion of pulling the earpieces apart.

Yes, I noticed that too. I had the small cracks for some time, and since they never grew, I never thought too much of it, other than not push too hard against them. Too bad they're not fiberglass-reinforced.

I talked with a service rep this afternoon, who said that they are under warranty and the customer charge message was just a glitch in their system.... whew!

The representative also said that they were really backed up, and that it would be at least another week before they get around to them.

Oh well... knowing there's a wait sure beats the virtual panic of I have when not knowing what's going on.

I got a box back late last week, much earlier than expected. They sent me a new set of headphones, which I definitely didn't expect.

Thanks, Sennheiser!

I would have posted earler, but got caught up in other things (e.g. blew out a brake line in the driveway )

Fastest way to fix 'em.


Ow. That sucks.