Sony WH1000-XM3 Renewed by Replacement Ear Pads from DEKONI AUDIO
Well spent $60 or is it just a waste of money?
Some time ago, I started to have a dilemma about whether to get new headphones or try to replace the earbuds. Unfortunately, I was not completely satisfied with the offer.
eBay is full of spare parts, but none have the characteristics. I didn’t even see a description of what materials they were until I finally came across a company called DEKONI, which had earpieces for my headphones.
Well, I’m not going to lie to you, with a price of $60, I hesitated for many days about whether to buy such expensive earphones. It would be an excellent stepping stone for the budget for new headphones. In the end, however, I didn’t give up and bought the earphones.
From many people’s point of view, it will be a waste of money, as that $60 can be a budget headphone for their whole family. So was this purchase worth it, or did I fall for it badly?
Packaging
The earmuffs will come to you in a nice sturdy box. You can see the model designation of the earphones at the manufacturer. In my case, these are suede earphones. Although I would have preferred leather ones, they were out of stock.
When you open the box, which is equipped with magnets and looks very high quality, you will be thanked for buying the earphones from Dekoni Audio. In the box is a pair of the chosen earpieces, a tool to punch out the original earpieces, a brief instruction, and a card with another thank you. Overall, everything gives an excellent impression.
Replacing the earpieces
Since I wasn’t sure if the suede earpieces would fit me in the first place, I carefully removed the original earpieces to avoid damaging them in any way and could eventually put them back. To my surprise, it took more force to pry them off than I expected.
After peeling them off, I cleaned the area where the original earcups were located. There was some hair and grease. Sorry for the disgusting details, but now you will understand more easily why I took out a napkin soaked in rubbing alcohol and cleaned them. After cleaning and wiping dry, I “fit” the new earmuffs.
I’m going to seem comical here, but in the first few moments, I thought the fitting was going to fail because no matter how I placed the new earpieces, they still wouldn’t stay in after I pressed them on, so I put the glasses on and found that there were pre-made holes.
They needed to overlap, and then you could snap everything together, so I struggled with it, and after a few minutes, I had one side folded. Yes, after a few minutes, I was afraid to use a lot of force not to break or break the plastic plate that needed to be snapped in.
After successfully folding one side, I eagerly proceeded to fold the other side. Fortunately, I managed to fold it in about a third of the time. You know how it is when you have practice, haha…
After I finally put everything together and the headphones looked like they were whole, I and the earbuds didn’t fall off even after pulling them on. I put them on my head and tried them on.
First impressions
After putting them on my head, I felt two things firstly, warmth and secondly, a lot more resistance. To be honest, I don’t even remember if the foam was that firm, even with the original earpieces. I found some favourite music and put it on the headphones.
Although on paper and in the chart that the manufacturer had on the website, these earphones looked worse than the original, subjectively, they look much better, would there be any evidence of the four years I used the previous ones?
After turning on the ANC, however, I was disappointed. The sound sounded weird until I remembered that I might want to use the optimizer since the earpieces are different and a world wonder. After using the optimizer, I suddenly got great results I was used before. In terms of music presentation, I feel like I currently have even better headphones than I had before.
Conclusion
The headphones are my daily driver, so in the coming days, I will do extensive testing -> I will use them as before. Still, with the understanding that I will observe the differences in the listening experience, the new earcups offer me now.
In any case, I have to say that the first impression is very good, and I don’t regret the investment of another $60 in headphones that cost me $349 when I bought them. Only time will tell more. Let me know in the comments what you would be interested in. Alternatively, would you consider extending the life of your headphones?
Thank you for reading this article! If you enjoyed it, please leave me 👏🏻 and follow me for more content like this! 😊👍
