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Patch Yourself Up A New Pair of 4$ DumpsterPhones

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While I’ve owned many, many pairs of headphones over the years, these are my favorite. While perusing the local Goodwill outlet (the ones where you rummage through dumpster bins), I stumbled upon an old pair of Nixon studio headphones that had literally melted. I took it upon myself to patch them up.

[![20130603_164824](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164824-300x225.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164824.jpg)[![20130603_164816](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164816-300x225.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164816.jpg)

First, I sanded down to the metal on the headphones themselves, removing all of the old bits of melted ear pad. I then used my dremel to re-bore the air-holes.

[![20130603_164810](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164810-300x225.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164810.jpg)[![20130603_164715](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164715-300x225.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164715.jpg)

The only place I could find a nice set of fully round 85mm headphone pads was a Chinese distributor on eBay. Three weeks and 2$ later, a pair of 90mm+ pads show up and I decide that it’s time to get creative.

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I cut the centers out of the original pads, then cut them down the center. If you’re doing this at home: avoid the temptation to cut a mobius strip. You might need that material.

[![20130603_164609](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164609-300x225.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_164609.jpg)[![20130603_165022](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165022-225x300.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165022.jpg)

Once I had these foam fittings cut, I fastened the new ear pads over the foam fittings, and voila!

[![20130603_165010](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165010-300x225.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165010.jpg)[![20130603_165300](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165300-225x300.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165300.jpg)[![20130603_165310](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165310-225x300.jpg)](http://www.hunterdavis.com/content/images/2013/06/20130603_165310.jpg)

These are just about the best sounding headphones I’ve ever owned, handily beating out the multi-hundred dollar plastic phones I see on the bus daily. Total cost was about 4$.