I don't think this is normal fare for /r/headphones, but i thought it might be fun.

these have been my work headphone for the last 12 years. i've used them ~6 hours a day 5 days a week. i'm neither a headphone enthusiast nor an audiophile, but i like good sound and have several nice headphones and speaker setups.

photo 1, 2

• the cord is beat to shit. i try not to roll over it with my office chair, but i guess i've failed. it still works, and the 20' cord is in my closet somewhere.

• there's heckin' dirt in the honeycomb part in the exterior of the ear covers, but it was so much more gross before i cleaned it. it usually doesn't look so bad.

• the earpads are the 3rd or 4th i've had to buy. the OE ones fit terribly at first, and then work great for a while and then the drivers get too close to your ears and the sound gets weird but they're so comfy. i bought some knockoff pleather ones that i had to modify to use and they sucked, and the current ones are from ebay and actually a year old but they're easily my faves. still new feeling, comfy, and hold in the bass. purchase history says they were 10$. i'll post up what they are if someone asks, but i ain't a shill.

• the shoe lace around the headband is new, but it replaced a grotty one that lasted the whole 12 years. q701 head band puts dents in your head without it. terrible design.

• the white shock cord for the self-adjusting mechanism is new. it was sold as tent pole shock. it's much bigger than what the 'phones came with, but it fit the chassis and i hope it retains its adjustability longer. the original cord sagged out after a couple years; i should have replaced it ~7 years ago. the clear plastic travel limiters (seen in photo 2) broke since they carried the load, and the 'phones sat too low on my head and affected the presentation. hope the replacement will be more durable.

photo 3

• you can see the ear cover is pretty cracked up. this one is much worse than the non-cable side, but they're both cracked. it's possible i did it at some point, but it might have been from the shock cables not carrying the load. i don't know.

there's a zillion reviews on akg X7xx, i don't need to talk about them. i still like these cans. for my head they sound and feel great now that they're all fixed up, and it's amazing how much the sound deteriorated from the wear parts of the chassis breaking down.