Thanks for nothing, Sony. (WH1000-XM5)
Planned obsolescence
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
217 points (97.4% liked)
Mildly Infuriating
45037 readers
583 users here now
Home to all things "Mildly Infuriating" Not infuriating, not enraging. Mildly Infuriating. All posts should reflect that. Please post actually infuriating posts to !actually_infuriating@lemmy.world
I want my day mildly ruined, not completely ruined. Please remember to refrain from reposting old content. If you post a post from reddit it is good practice to include a link and credit the OP. I'm not about stealing content!
It's just good to get something in this website for casual viewing whilst refreshing original content is added overtime.
Rules:
1. Be Respectful
Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.
Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.
...
2. No Illegal Content
Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.
That means: -No promoting violence/threats against any individuals
-No CSA content or Revenge Porn
-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)
...
3. No Spam
Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.
-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.
-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.
-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers
-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.
...
4. No Porn/Explicit
Content
-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.
-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.
...
5. No Enciting Harassment,
Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts
-Do not Brigade other Communities
-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.
-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.
-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.
...
6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.
...
7. Content should match the theme of this community.
-Content should be Mildly infuriating. If your post better fits !Actually_Infuriating put it there.
-The Community !actuallyinfuriating has been born so that's where you should post the big stuff.
...
8. Reposting of Reddit content is permitted, try to credit the OC.
-Please consider crediting the OC when reposting content. A name of the user or a link to the original post is sufficient.
...
...
Also check out:
Partnered Communities:
Reach out to LillianVS for inclusion on the sidebar.
All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I'm a little biased as I work for Bose but we still use a metal yoke and hinge.
Heyo. Does Bose offer 3dprinting files to fix it's gear? Please convince them to, I have been looking for a brand that is willing to support buy it for life and right to repair.
I am using Sony xm4s and the build quality is terrible on the hinges so I am expecting to have to replace them and Bose is a good brand that I might be interested in if they have something comparable to the ones I'm using in the same ish price range.
I found a 3d printing file to fix my current headset but Im not sure if I can flip it and print the other side now or if that will work.
Anyways if they don't I would absolutely love it if you could convince them to lol
I quite like that design, but it's just a little too floppy. Would be nice to have a bit of resistance so it's not clanging around when carried
My broken QuietComfort headphones with the plastic earcup hinges would like to have a word…
I love my Bose headphones but man, don’t ever dare dropping them on the floor by mistake, they will shatter on the first hit.
To be fair in the past when this happened you could bring the broken pair in store to get a replacement or upgrade at a good price, but I hear the policy was abused too much so it was retired many years ago.
Yeah, this is a huge problem. I found the best solution is to buy a 3.5mm audio cable with a microphone (these can be had for 10-20$) and attach them to a nice set of metal band headphones (closed or open depending on if you want sound isolation). I gave up on gaming, Sony headphones and the like a long time ago they are all trash no matter how much you pay for them, they break and become e-waste in the first year.
Built to Fail: The story of 21st century consumer technology.
Absolutely. Added to that, they seem to be actively ruining their headphones with software updates as well. My XM5's randomly turned off every few hours and thanks to a Chinese hacker I was able to downgrade the software - guess what, the problem went away.
They're either doing this deliberately so you buy the latest model or their development team is utterly incompetent.
They're either doing this deliberately so you buy the latest model or their development team is utterly incompetent.
I'm gonna choose Door Number 1, Monty..
This is the second time these broke on my WH1000-XM5's. At least they're easily replacable by just removing a few screws and dropping in a new one.
Compared to that, this bad boy is over 30 years old and never broke once - thanks to a headband which is made out of metal. Despite that, it's even more comfortable than Sony's modern one:
Those are over 30 years old???
Yeah dude if they’re 30 years old I feel like 2 “easy” replacements is … good.
The good ones are 30 years old. The one they needed to fix is the sony one, which was not specified how old but "modern" implies not very.
Yeah well what if I can’t read?
Yeah WH1000XMs are a very popular bang for buck wireless set. 5 is the latest.
That said, I have 2s that still go strong besides the battery. 4s going strong for a few years. Partner has had 5s for a while, no issues. All plastic hinges.
Not sure what OP is doing. Seems like a difficult part of the headset to break.
5 isn't the latest, the 6 is out
Not sure what OP is doing.
Nothing special, I just wear them every day and I have a regular-sized head. I also have XM2's which still work, they have a more sturdy hinge design. Sony cost-optimized their latest models too much, the headband is much thinner than on the XM2's as well, which puts more pressure on my head and makes them slightly more uncomfortable. I can only suspect they did that so they have to mold less plastic and save a few cents on each model...
I have a pair of AKG 240 of the same age if not a bit older that have seen plenty of other headphones come and go. Not the best headphones in any other categories but damn the most reliable and durable of studio cans ever built.
The older headphones there don't look like you can rotate the pads, yeah? I mean, it's that rotating hinge which failed here.
I guess one could say "well, I don't want headphones with rotating pads", but it's that rotation that lets the XM5 headphones fit into a fairly-flat carrying case.
I will say, though, that the XM5s probably weren't going to last over 30 years, if for no other reason than because they use an internal battery...
On their older models, they had a different design and you could fold the earcups inwards. It was a really useful feature, they easily fit into a small bag. The newer ones can't do that anymore and come with an extremely large carrying case. Sony has really lost the plot, but they still have excellent noise cancelling (the main reason for me buying them).
But that's gonna be my last model now.
Ok I don't want to start a fight..
But if someone wants to buy a new pair of headphones with mic for that one gaming night of the week. And dont care about the rgb and other gimmicks. What should they buy?
Ofc asking for a friend here.
A good pear of over the head headphones and a modmic.
Could a good apple of in ears work?
I'm a big fan of a modmic on a pair of jvc ha-rx700.
How much do you care about the quality? Both what you hear and how well you're heard? What's a reasonable price to you? Wired or wireless?
I not a fan of the headphones that completely block everything that you can't even hear yourself speak. Don't care about wired or wireless that much. As long as it lasts.
And works on my Linux fedora PC.
Ofc when I say I mean my friend.
Probably not the best, bit I do like these for that situation.
Bought them on a whim without much thought because I couldn't get my really nice wireless headphones to work with older games. These work with anything because they are wired. Also the little bits like the soft strap make them comfy to wear.
Plain, basic, cheap.
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 $40 for EACH side. The pleather just has a certain degradation time and once it hits, it all falls apart at the same time. Replacing all the pleather parts on my unit would have cost just as much as a new headset.
I hate having something designed to be somewhat repairable but practically speaking it isn't due to pricing.
Wicked cushions had some good replacement parts for xm4s. I bought a couple replacements from them. They had really good customer service when I had a bad clip on one or the earpads too.
I paid 30$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
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.
The urethane pleather on my headband started cracking on my xm4’s. A replacement headband was half the price of a new unit.
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.
My XM4s are still holding up after 3 years and are definitely beefier than this.
XM2 going on 6 years and multiple hours every day. Ear pads replaced like twice.
I've had to replace under warranty my xm4s and would never recommend them after my second pair that I cant get replaced now broke in the same way. The hinges are complete crap and I get feedback if it's too cold on noise cancelling which might have given me hearing loss my right ear.
They sound great but for 500 fucking dollars I don't recommend them if you want to keep using them daily and have them forever
Xm4s were the peak since then its always some sort of compromise
That just looks like a terrible design. The background joint looks as if all the pressure of the ear cup is pressing outward on that exact spot where the foreground joint broke since it's at that weird angle with no other support.
Steel stick. Set with krazy glue first, so it's aligned then get the steel stick and mix up a marble-sized ball and mold it around the break. Leave to harden for 24 hours. Shit's amazing.
I'd never heard JB Weld called steel stick, so I had to click!
PC-7 is another brand that's identical to JB.
Sony are the worst with form over function bullshit on headphones.
Just had the same problem with my LucidSound LS45 ... the headband is metal, I saw the recommendation to get them in one of those "buy it for life" threads so I did ....
Turns out that the end caps of the headband are plastic and prone to breaking ... I was able to save them by buying a non working "parts only" set on eBay and replacing the parts
This thing has been with me for 8 years and counting ... they've been along for 3 motherboards, 2 cars and 6 girlfriends LOL
Same happened on my hph-mt5 yamahas, i took a piece of wire and my soldering iron and basically melted rebar into it, and that fix is still going 3 years on
I'm pretty sure I almost bought those years ago. Instead I bought the Seinheiser PXC 550. This was 2018. I've had to replace the ear padding once. Which was super easy. They just unclip, and the new ones clip right in.
Ack! Sennheisers..
I still want to kill myself over getting rid of my Sennheiser HD 414's. Vintage, from the early 80's, sounded phenomenal. Dumbest thing I've ever done. Gave them to a younger cousin who lost them within a year. He thought they were cheap because of how they looked and left them in a pile of junk when he got kicked out of his apartment...
(from the departmnt of No Good Deed.... Oyy!)
So now i'm using some vintage Denon AH-D210's from the early 90's ad they are fantastic.
I have a pair of PXC 550 as well from 2017 and they're still going strong too though I don't use them every day.
I have a set of Soundcore Q20i that I use anything rough (travel and such) and they’ve held up like champs.