The Gizmo Report: Sennheiser's HD-280 headphones
After studying the problem, I realized that if I could just straighten out the curvature of the top of the headband, I could get the fit I wanted. I measured the size of the stiffener I needed: 23mm wide, 80mm long, preferably not more than 1.5mm thick. Initially I figured I'd use a scrap piece of titanium for this purpose, but then I remembered some carbon-fiber scraps I had left over from panels I'd made for an earlier project, and one had a nice section remaining of just the right size. CFRP (carbon-fiber reinforced plastic) is much easier to work than titanium. I cut the piece I needed with a hacksaw, then smoothed and rounded the edges with a belt sander.The stiffener installed on the headband of the HD 280 Pro headphonesPeter N. GlaskowskyThe next day at the office, I removed the padded cover from the headband, attached the stiffener to the headband with several loops of strapping tape, and put the cover back on-- that was difficult because it was already a fairly snug fit. But it was made of vinyl, so it stretched enough. The last thing was to add little rubber bumpers to the top outer surface of each earpiece to adjust the earpiece angle and balance the forces applied above and below my ears. (I'm not providing a picture of these bumpers because they're pretty ugly right now. :-)And now... they fit perfectly, look almost unchanged, and sound great.So if the shape of your head is within their adjustment range, or if you have some carbon fiber sitting around to make this kind of adjustment (I'm pretty sure titanium will also work), I can heartily recomment Sennheiser's HD 280 Pro headphones.
