Sony MDR-7506 Headphone Pads

This post was published more than a few years ago (on 2011-06-30) and may contain inaccurate technical information, outmoded thoughts, or cringe takes. Proceed at your own risk.

The Sony MDR-7506 headphones seem to be a default staple of the TV production world since the mid-90s, and so when I got a pair for myself, those were the ones to get. They sound great, have reasonably neutral frequency response, and seem to last forever, no matter how much you beat them up. (Mine are at least a dozen years old, with no sign of giving up.)

The one piece of them that does seem to break down after a few years, though, is the earpads. The foam part does pretty okay, but it’s covered in this weird, very thin vinyl-impregnated fabric that seems designed to simulate thin leather. The problem is, after a year or so of heavy use, the vinyl starts to split and flake off, leaving a lovely black dandruff in your hair.

I’ve replaced the earpads with the OEM Sony ones twice now, and while it’s really nice to get back to the original look and feel, the replacement pads are no less prone to breaksdown than the originals were, so this time I decided to try something different.

I found these Beyerdynamic velour pads that they promote as being, in addition to working for a couple of Beyerdynamic models, also a fit for the Sony MDR-7506 and the MDR-V6 (the 7506’s older, slightly chintzier brother).

Replacing Beyerdynamic pads on Sony MDR-7506

Some text here was lost when I migrated to a new blog host.

[…]“spudger” (used for opening small electronics) does a great job at stretching the rim around to fit without any danger of tearing it up like a knife might do.

Beyerdynamic vs. Sony padsThe Beyerdynamic pads are a little larger around than the Sony ones, but they fit very comfortably, and hopefully, will last a lot longer without any “black dandruff” problems. If you’ve swapped these out and have been living with them for a while, I’d love to hear about their long-term performance in the comments.