Alright so I hope I can properly explain my issues and try to come off as understandable, as I’m mildly frustrated in my feeling almost scammed outta my money and constant hassle to get replacements…

I bought in 2021 a pair of Austrian Audio HI-X55 headphones. They sound great. I love the sound on them specifically because I can easily tune my mixer that I use…but the build, is bad.

My current setup is a Shure SM7B mic plugged into a cloud lifter that connects via a Yamaha MG12XU plugged into my computer and connected via USB for all audio function. I plan to add a turntable here soon for listening and input into my computer for samples. Of course, I would love to upgrade this board as well to allow for a smaller unit or TOSLINK capability, or better sound/options, but that’s a question for another day.

I mainly play games with friends, a lot of WoW, Star citizen, FFXIV and a lot of apex & CoD, so hearing footsteps is pretty important.

Because of this, closed back, LARGE ear cups to stuff my ears into and good sound are pretty a must for my end goal, which so far, I’ve been very satisfied with.

As I mentioned, the sound is great, but the build is absolute shit. As of right now, the headphones are cracked on the band where they connect to the actual speaker housing. But that’s not the worst as I have insurance…it’s the ear cups.

I feel like they used a cheap leather and even cheaper glue to stitch it all together. The ear cups/pads are barely 6 months old, possibly even less & the leather is peeling off of itself, it’s opening at the seams where it was “stitched” or pressed together, and the entire pads themselves are coming unglued from the plastic mounting ring…which apparently is proprietary so I can’t get a cheaper replacement (Austrian Audio sells replacement pads for $70usd…)

This has been going on since about 4-6 months after I initially bought them, causing me to request new pads from support within the first year of ownership.

In the past, their support team seemed eager to help and resolve the issue, however I feel this is purely a design flaw at this point and it’s almost impossible to get ahold of anyone as I’ve been waiting for awhile for an email back. Are there any options I have to possibly fix this myself (prolly don’t have access to the glue or something)

If not, is there any recommendations, based on my usage and requests, that could be given to buy new ones?

New cans must be:

• 1/4 connector
• closed back
• large ear cups/pads to fit my ear inside
• fit a large melon sized head
• preferably NOT leather pads or headband…
• worn for anywhere from 8-16 hours a day (work & play)

Please leave any recommendations here. Price point is VERY open as I am more inclined to spend money on something I won’t have to upgrade in less than a year or two.