Sennheiser HD 280 Professional Headphones

I'm a career radio broadcaster and have been in the business for 34 years. I purchase and use my own 'phones on the air, so I take very good care of them. These 280s have been in use for about ten months for four or five hours a day, five days a week.

One the whole, they are fine headphones that are very well-suited for critical production and classical music monitoring. 280s can produce some very robust sound. Low level audio fidelity is extremely good. The plastic pieces that enclose the headband slider could be stronger. One side broke on my 'phones after eight months of use. Sennheiser does not offer a repair part for this component, so I fixed mine with black electrical tape. When I get some time I'll do a permanent repair with an epoxy adhesive.

The HD 280 Pros will isolate sound very well, so I never get feedback while working close to a mic. If you need to hear any sound apart from what's coming through your board, these are not the headphones for you. If you like a coiled cord headset like I do, the cord on the 280s handles very well and is just the right length. Professional, screw-on plug adapter. The ear pads fit tight enough to give you severe headphone hair if you have longer hair. I keep mine short, anyway.

I like they way the 280s will fold up for storage and keep mine in a small rip-stop bag when not in use.

UPDATE:

It's not even a month later. Last week the HD 280 Pro headphone cord failed and the right channel is now intermittant, if not unusable. A wire has broken somewhere in the vicinity of the headphone plug strain relief.

I have used Sennheiser headphones for many years, going back to a pair of early 414s (now discontinued) in the early '70s. In fact, I've owned several sets of 414s over the years and have used many more Sennheiser models that belonged to radio stations. One thing all Sennheiser models have in common is the same feeble strain relief design on the headhone plugs. In fact, Sennheiser hasn't changed this limp design significantly in 35 years! The cords have broken on every pair of Sennheisers I have owned at this very same place! It drives radio station engineers nuts as well, because they hate stuff that breaks with normal use! Sure, abuse of the phone (yanking the plugs out by the cord) will certainly expedite this failure, but the cords will always fail at this point eventually, even with the best of care.

Sennheisers have wonderful sound and fit comfortably, but the structural engineering is poor, kind of like VWs.

Since prices have dropped so low on these things (below $70 now), I bought another pair of HD 280 Pros and will send the old ones in on warranty. I'm a sucker and I like the way they sound. I have this love/hate thing with Sennheiser.

Nice sounding 'phones Sennheiser, probably will last longer than the warranty period for home use but there is no way these are "professional quality" gear.

So here is my suggestion for the Sennheiser design department: Inside the two plastic headband assemblies there are plastic tabs that make contact with the steel headband strap. They wear out in no time (...duh). Replace those things with stainless steel cylindrical tubing. Maybe you could save on fasteners by running your assembly screws through them. The 280s are supposed to be professional headphones. So, stop worrying the everyone is going to complain that a decently-made cord is too heavy. Look at the ABYC rated wires made by Ancor for the marine industry. This wire features an abnormally high strand count to make the wire strong and flexible. Each tiny wire in the strands is individually tinned. Use larger gauge wire and make your cords last a lifetime. US milspec headphones have been doing that since WWII. You can do it, too.