Can I use Sony flagship WH-1000XM5 wireless noise canceling headphones for up to three hours before you need to rest, but some people find that after just 20 minutes, the headband creates a painful pressure point. If that’s been your experience and you’re now wondering if you’ll need to sell your $400 cans at a loss so you can buy a different model, I have a potential solution that could cost you less than two Starbucks Frappuccinos.
This clever trick was discovered by my neighbor Garner. Garner is the type of person who firmly believes that there is a solution to every problem, which is why he decided to Google it when his own XM5 gear started bothering him. He quickly found a Reddit thread that gave him exactly the solution I was looking for.
Reddit user CantPrintMe, suffering from the same pain, created a 3D design for a set of small adapters that fit the XM5’s tubular headband sliders. The adapters have rectangular slots sized to accommodate a Replacement headband for SteelSeries Arctis 7 headphones: a $9 purchase on Amazon.
Once installed, you can modify the length of the Arctis headband to your liking, but the trick is to make it smaller than the XM5’s headband size. That way, the Arctis headband works the same way it would on an Arctis headset: distributing the weight of the headphones over the width of the new fabric, rather than the narrower ridge of the factory memory foam.
Garner found that he could even store the XM5 in its travel case without needing to remove the adapters; a slight turn in its orientation allowed the case to close perfectly.
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I can’t print published his 3D model on makerworld under the username TinkerF with a creative commons licensemeaning it’s free to download as long as you don’t use the files to print and sell the pieces.
If you don’t own a printer, don’t despair. There are several online services that will 3D print a file and ship the finished pieces. Garner used one called xometry and I spent about $18 CAD (about $13) in total. That was in November 2024, so he can’t offer much comment on how well the printed parts will hold up over time, but so far he’s delighted with the result.
Have you found an easy and affordable solution to your own problems with your headphones or earphones that you would like to share? Email me at scohen (at) digitaltrends.com.
