Jabra REVO Wireless headphones ear cushion replacement
2025-Jan-29, Wednesday 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeA strange thing happens, when you accidentally find yourself in possession of a piece of tech that is so well designed and built that it gathers a dedicated following.
Let's talk about the Jabra REVO Wireless headphones, from 2013, and long since discontinued. Reviews would describe them as bass-heavy (derogatory), and expensive for the features, but to me they were damn near perfect.
First, and foremost, they had a removable audio cable. I was so tired of brand new headphones breaking after a couple of months, just where the cable joined the phones. With these I could just replace the cable if it broke. But really helpfully, if the cable got caught, it would unplug before anything broke. This small feature has saved so much copper from waste. The cable was actually removable because these came with optional bluetooth connectivity. People who know me are probably tired of my ranting about how the fastest way to consign a device to waste is bluetooth. The versions move too quickly, devices quickly become incompatible. But these still had a good old fashioned 3.5mm audio cable, which would keep working even after that point.
Next, is the design. These were the most comfortable headphones I've ever worn. On-ear, but well cushioned. And the earphones are actually at a slight angle, that just sits better against the skull. Together with the squishy rubber band, my ears would get sweaty before they got uncomfortable. The outside of the earphones had touch-sensitive buttons, for adjusting volume, skipping tracks, answering calls, the usual. I found them incredibly intuitive to use without having to pull out your device. (The only downside being that wet long hair was conductive enough to trigger the buttons.)
And finally, is the build quality. There is a lot of metal in these frames. And they were built to last. The headphones fold up, to take up less space when not in use. My first pair started to bend at one of these hinges. I applied a half roll of duck tape to reinforce and they kept going. Years later the other hinge started to twist, and eventually broke, making them unwearable. (I still haven't learned to not wear headphones in bed.) Though they still play wired audio perfectly.
Let me introduce you to my second pair. Hinges still intact, but ear cushions disintegrating. Here we return to the dedicated user base of these headphones, which is not limited to just me, because there are still third-parties selling replacement ear cushions on ebay, 12 years later. I've never actually replaced the ear cushions before, but it turned out to be really easy.
1
Here is an old pair of REVO headphones, with original ear cushions, in varying states of disintegration.
The originals have a nice orange mesh inside, with which side they are written clearly on them.
2
The ear cushions are a unit, with four clips holding them onto the earphone.
To remove, simply lever the cushion up from the earphone. The bottom clip is the largest, so I found it easiest to lever that up, by pushing against the centre of the speaker, and pulling the cushion frame away.
3
The ear cushion assembly is made up of fabric, around a ring of sponge, and glued onto a plastic ring with the attachment clips.
The glue peels off like gooey old hot-glue, and the plastic frame can be removed cleanly.
4
The replacement cushions are much less fancy. And they don't come with the attachment frames. But they do have a rim that fits over the attachment frames.
Once the frames are removed from the old cushions, you just slide them into the new cushions. (You could probably glue them down, but I didn't and they seem to catch fine.)
Then you just line the new cushion back up with the earphones, the largest clip is the bottom one, marked with an arrow. And press until all four clips catch securely. Done.
Before we snap the new cushions in place, there is another problem to look at. On bluetooth there is no audio in the left ear. ifixit says this is a known fault with the slightly newer Jabra MOVE headphones, but seeing as I have it here perhaps it is common across models. So let's take it apart.
5
Once you've removed the ear cushions there are 5 screws. Using a T3 Torx screwdriver, remove the screws from the Left earphone. Then the speaker grill comes up. (There are other screws inside, if you're digging deeper, that require a 1.5 Phillips head screwdriver.)
The ifixit page says that the last pin in the headphone socket can get stuck, which prevents the left-ear bluetooth audio from engaging. It looks like the same socket here. I poked at all the pins with a multimetre. Didn't detect any problems, so I tested again, and the problem had magically gone away. I mean, I'll take the wins where I can get them.
After reassembling I am delighted to have the bluetooth on my headphones working fully again, even if I have no idea how it was fixed.
(But isn't the bluetooth version really old? Yes, it is. They don't work with my five year old computer. But they do still work with my phone, and my mp3 player. Which is good, because the newer bluetooth earplugs don't. I need to keep these tightly coupled devices working together for as long as possible.)
I now also have fuzzy ear cushions that won't shed little pieces of black fabric all over my face. A great success.
Let's talk about the Jabra REVO Wireless headphones, from 2013, and long since discontinued. Reviews would describe them as bass-heavy (derogatory), and expensive for the features, but to me they were damn near perfect.
First, and foremost, they had a removable audio cable. I was so tired of brand new headphones breaking after a couple of months, just where the cable joined the phones. With these I could just replace the cable if it broke. But really helpfully, if the cable got caught, it would unplug before anything broke. This small feature has saved so much copper from waste. The cable was actually removable because these came with optional bluetooth connectivity. People who know me are probably tired of my ranting about how the fastest way to consign a device to waste is bluetooth. The versions move too quickly, devices quickly become incompatible. But these still had a good old fashioned 3.5mm audio cable, which would keep working even after that point.
Next, is the design. These were the most comfortable headphones I've ever worn. On-ear, but well cushioned. And the earphones are actually at a slight angle, that just sits better against the skull. Together with the squishy rubber band, my ears would get sweaty before they got uncomfortable. The outside of the earphones had touch-sensitive buttons, for adjusting volume, skipping tracks, answering calls, the usual. I found them incredibly intuitive to use without having to pull out your device. (The only downside being that wet long hair was conductive enough to trigger the buttons.)
And finally, is the build quality. There is a lot of metal in these frames. And they were built to last. The headphones fold up, to take up less space when not in use. My first pair started to bend at one of these hinges. I applied a half roll of duck tape to reinforce and they kept going. Years later the other hinge started to twist, and eventually broke, making them unwearable. (I still haven't learned to not wear headphones in bed.) Though they still play wired audio perfectly.
Let me introduce you to my second pair. Hinges still intact, but ear cushions disintegrating. Here we return to the dedicated user base of these headphones, which is not limited to just me, because there are still third-parties selling replacement ear cushions on ebay, 12 years later. I've never actually replaced the ear cushions before, but it turned out to be really easy.
1
Here is an old pair of REVO headphones, with original ear cushions, in varying states of disintegration.
The originals have a nice orange mesh inside, with which side they are written clearly on them.
2
The ear cushions are a unit, with four clips holding them onto the earphone.
To remove, simply lever the cushion up from the earphone. The bottom clip is the largest, so I found it easiest to lever that up, by pushing against the centre of the speaker, and pulling the cushion frame away.
3
The ear cushion assembly is made up of fabric, around a ring of sponge, and glued onto a plastic ring with the attachment clips.
The glue peels off like gooey old hot-glue, and the plastic frame can be removed cleanly.
4
The replacement cushions are much less fancy. And they don't come with the attachment frames. But they do have a rim that fits over the attachment frames.
Once the frames are removed from the old cushions, you just slide them into the new cushions. (You could probably glue them down, but I didn't and they seem to catch fine.)
Then you just line the new cushion back up with the earphones, the largest clip is the bottom one, marked with an arrow. And press until all four clips catch securely. Done.
Before we snap the new cushions in place, there is another problem to look at. On bluetooth there is no audio in the left ear. ifixit says this is a known fault with the slightly newer Jabra MOVE headphones, but seeing as I have it here perhaps it is common across models. So let's take it apart.
5
Once you've removed the ear cushions there are 5 screws. Using a T3 Torx screwdriver, remove the screws from the Left earphone. Then the speaker grill comes up. (There are other screws inside, if you're digging deeper, that require a 1.5 Phillips head screwdriver.)
The ifixit page says that the last pin in the headphone socket can get stuck, which prevents the left-ear bluetooth audio from engaging. It looks like the same socket here. I poked at all the pins with a multimetre. Didn't detect any problems, so I tested again, and the problem had magically gone away. I mean, I'll take the wins where I can get them.
After reassembling I am delighted to have the bluetooth on my headphones working fully again, even if I have no idea how it was fixed.
(But isn't the bluetooth version really old? Yes, it is. They don't work with my five year old computer. But they do still work with my phone, and my mp3 player. Which is good, because the newer bluetooth earplugs don't. I need to keep these tightly coupled devices working together for as long as possible.)
I now also have fuzzy ear cushions that won't shed little pieces of black fabric all over my face. A great success.
Jabra REVO headphones with replacement ear cushions
Photo by chebe
