Give your ears a break.
Any office can be full of hazards, and working on a film set is no different. As sound mixers, we spend many hours tuned into everything around us and wearing headphones, so we’ll try anything to minimize stress.
Enter YAXI Earpads, a Japanese manufacturer of custom replacement earpads for a wide variety of popular consumer and professional headphones. Made in Japan, YAXI’s new “Comfort” style earpads offer a unique blend of comfort and design.
Included with the earpads are replacement cup driver covers, a mesh carrying bag for your headphones, and some literature.
Installing replacement earpads is always a challenge, as they are meant to hug very tightly around an earcup, not to be replaced or removed often. Yaxi’s earads are no exception, and it will take some time to slowly guide the entire cuff around the HD25’s cup edge.
We tested the YAXI Comfort eapads with our daily drivers, Sennheiser’s HD25 headphones. Here’s what we’ve found:
Feel it out
So how much more of an upgrade is the YAXI Comfort earpad, compared to the HD25’s stock faux-leather or velour pads?
Stock leatherette pad on the left, YAXI Comfort on the right
What made the HD25 a huge hit with the sound mixing community was its careful balance of isolation and comfort. The earcups are also light, while the stock “leatherette” earpad material is soft enough while moisture and tear resistant.
Sennheiser’s leatherette and velour, next to YAXI Comfort (attached to earcup)
Sennheiser also includes optional velvet/velour earpads for more cushioned comfort option, which is great for home use. Work while wearing them outdoors, however, and by the end of the day, you’ll end up wearing sweaty sponges on your ears.
YAXI’s Comfort earpads are a middle ground between the two, combining pressure relief, cushioning and durability. The outer cup is made with durable, genuine protein leather, while the inner cup is made with Alcantara – a Japanese-born, Italian-marketed synthetic material also known as “ultra suede” in the automotive world.
Alcantara is a very soft material, yet moisture and heat resistant, and highly breathable. It still feels warm enough for colder weather, but does not become a soppy mess after a sweaty, hot day outdoors.
YAXI Comfort earpards are significantly larger than stock, but they deflate a bit in size once pressed on your ears. While its larger size and softer materials may magnify lower frequencies a bit, it’s barely enough to enjoy listening to music, and it won’t muddy up your mix at work.
The inner cushioning also provides more isolation, blocking out more self-noise from blowing wind or headphone cable handling. Even during frantic moments running around on location, the earpads still kept our HD25’s hugging onto our ears.
Verdict
YAXI Comfort Earpads are available for around $38~45 USD for the pair, depending on where you look. It’s on the high side of aftermarket replacement parts, however its benefits are definitely worth the premium price tag. There are cheaper, similarly alternative options out there, however YAXI is the first we’ve seen with such quality materials and build.
Long story short, we could wear our HD25’s on location for hours on end with less fatigue, even while wearing glasses. Very comfortable, functional, and durable, YAXI’s Comfort earpads are a welcome upgrade for daily HD25 listeners.
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Want us to test and review more products in the future? Drop us a line anytime at hello@bamfsound.com