Mine are 3.5 years old. I use them daily during all working hours and sometimes weekends.
The only thing that went thus far were the leather cups (twice) that are fortunately easily replaced. OEM are $$$, while after market alternatives I found to be just as good and are only $.
My battery is still strong. Probably around 10-12 hours of use.
Are these "leather cups" you're talking about these "ear cushions" (https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/headphone_acc...)? If yes, then that's only 30-40$, which does not seem unreasonable for a product you use so intensively? I replaced mine after about 2 years. I remember the sound insulation being a _lot_ better afterwards.
I have the same experience on the battery: my pair is almost 3 years old and I can go about 2 days of work (~12 hours) before I have to charge them.
> The only thing that went thus far were the leather cups (twice) that are fortunately easily replaced. OEM are $$$, while after market alternatives I found to be just as good and are only $.
The analysis in the page discussed in this thread doesn't match what you're saying: knockoff cups are inferior and degrade noise cancellation.
No, that’s not what the analysis said. It said that the one pair of aftermarket cushions were of inferior quality. No findings were made of all aftermarket cushions.
I don't have anything to sell, if you want to roll the dice on aftermarket earcups, knock yourself out :)
But you paid 300-400$ for headphones, to me it's worth paying the OEM premium just to make sure they keep delivering the quality and experience I was looking for initially when I paid the high price. Otherwise, you might as well buy the lowest priced noise canceling headphones: you'll get a commensurate experience but you won't break the bank.
An ear cup is an ear cup, hardly military precision required in manufacturing. I got a pair of aftermarket cushions for my QC35s and I found them to be more comfortable, if there's any difference to noise cancelling I certainly haven't experienced it. Why pay 3 times more for something that does the same job, doesn't matter if I paid $1000 for them.
You're right - there's no reason to pay 3 times more for something that does the right job.
The problem is aftermarket cushions may not do as good of a job at passive noise reduction.
Follow the link and check if you have the right number of clips on your aftermarket cushion. Obviously this isn't the full picture but is certainly a large piece of it.
The question isn’t whether the aftermarket cushions perform at the same level as OEM, it’s whether they have sufficient performance for ‘outoftheabyss’s needs. If they’re good enough, why pay more?
> it's worth paying the OEM premium just to make sure they keep delivering the quality and experience I was looking for initially
And I am the guy who spent 4 times a few hundred on AKG studio headphones but replaced the ear cups with some much, much cheaper but better feeling ones.
> My battery is still strong. Probably around 10-12 hours of use.
Mum bought new last year because pads were worn, I got her old set - uses a single AAA battery and lasts across the globe and back (~30 hours). Unfortunately she didn't like the new rechargable set, and neither do I..
I got a pair from AliExpress. I didn't notice a significant change in noise cancelling performance (active or passive). But I'm not a picky listener anyway. YMMV.
The only thing that went thus far were the leather cups (twice) that are fortunately easily replaced. OEM are $$$, while after market alternatives I found to be just as good and are only $.
My battery is still strong. Probably around 10-12 hours of use.