Shockingly good replacement (Corsair Cooling Gel Replacement Ear Pads)
So my experience replacing the ear pads for my Corsair headset wasn't painless, but I'm so relieved that the replacements did work, and that they continue to work very well. I bought the ear pads with the cooling gel, and I think it was a good choice. The pads are thick and pretty springy, haven't noticed any degradation in their structural integrity since I started using them. The surface of the pads cools down quite quickly after taking off the headset. For comparison, the original stock ear pads have almost no resistance to being squished. The headset sits somewhat loose and gives my ears plenty of space, though I do notice discomfort after long periods of keeping it on, as I always have with any headset I've used. As for the replacement process, that is where my criticisms come from, though I do still recommend buying these, especially if your stock ear pads have become borderline unusable like mine had...
I almost gave up on trying to replace the pads because it seemed like a futile effort. The video from Central Sound I watched made it look quite easy, but I really struggled for a while. Using a slotted screwdriver did actually do the trick for releasing the plastic rings from the...whatever you call the parts of the headphones that actually produce sound, though it did feel like I was about to break the rings/headset a couple times. For whatever it's worth, I don't think such a problem was avoidable, so that's not really a knock against the product. These headphones weren't designed with easy repair in mind, of course. The bigger issue was getting the protein leather to stretch around the circumference of the plastic ring. It required several attempts to catch the leather in the grooves and then try to keep that pattern going as I wrapped around the rings. What wound up finally working was using that screwdriver to jam the leather into the grooves more directly, once it had become stretched out enough from my prior attempts. I was reluctant to use such a method because I feared I would tear the leather, though it proved to be surprisingly durable. Once I had the ear pads fully on and secure, I was elated it had actually worked, and that the replacements felt so suitable.
I wrote that out not to discourage people from buying these pads, but to warn that the replacement process is not easy. I'm very happy with my purchase and I think it's great that such a solution to the problem of degraded/loosened ear pads exists. I would have had to buy a new headset or do some really shoddy DIY work (I am not good at DIY) to avoid that expenditure. Instead, I get to keep using this solid pair of headphones with no real downsides!
