Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown

Written By: Caius Nocturne (and one other contributor)

Published: June 5, 2022

Comments: 0
Favorites: 0
Views: 1k

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown

Written By: Caius Nocturne (and one other contributor)

Published: June 5, 2022

Comments: 0
Favorites: 0
Views: 1k

Teardown

Introduction

The headband arch is a very common point of failure on the Sony h.ear on 3. When I was tearing down my headphones, I tore down the headband arch after removing the headband from the speakers, partly out of curiosity and partly to help me try to superglue them together (take heed, the superglue did not work).

I don't want to let all the learning and pictures go to waste, so this goes through how you would go about tearing down the headband arch.

Because this is superfluous to a lot of repairs and because it doesn't have a specific point, I did not put prerequisite guides here. You can do this with a headband arch already disconnected, or you need to extract one from a pair of Sony h.ear on 3s, which you can do here.

What you need

This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Sony h.ear on 3, use our service manual.

Step 1 Identify headband components

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Identify headband components: step 1, image 1 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Identify headband components: step 1, image 2 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Identify headband components: step 1, image 3 of 3

Because the headband arch is such a common point of failure, mine are already coming apart in many of these shots. That does not mean it's actually fully apart until this guide say it is.
The headband arch has two kinds of attachments at the end that mirror each other:
Pins that insert into the speaker housings with no cables.
Pins with a loose bracket each that screws into the speaker housings. These have the headband cable threaded through them.

Edit

Step 2 Unthread the pin brackets

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unthread the pin brackets: step 2, image 1 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unthread the pin brackets: step 2, image 2 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unthread the pin brackets: step 2, image 3 of 3

Turn the headband flat with the pins with the cable running through them on the bottom.
Gently thread the brackets through and out of one cable, then repeat on the other side.
When reassembling, you do not need to keep track of which one is on which side (they are identical), but you do need to make sure the flat side faces the headband arch.

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Step 3 Unhook the rubber rings on the rear pegs

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unhook the rubber rings on the rear pegs: step 3, image 1 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unhook the rubber rings on the rear pegs: step 3, image 2 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unhook the rubber rings on the rear pegs: step 3, image 3 of 3

Keeping the headband in the same position they were in for the last step, use the pointed end of a spudger to gently unhook the yellow rubber rings from each of the rear pegs (that had the brackets around them).
Gently thread the rubber rings out of the headband cable.
The rubber rings on the front pegs do not need to be removed because they don't hold anything in place. They just provide friction to the swivel mechanism.

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Step 4 Unhook the thin case segment of the headband arch

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unhook the thin case segment of the headband arch: step 4, image 1 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unhook the thin case segment of the headband arch: step 4, image 2 of 3

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unhook the thin case segment of the headband arch: step 4, image 3 of 3

Insert the pointed end of a spudger into one of the holes at the very end of one of the headband arches.
Gently push upwards towards the thin arch casing above. This should unlatch the hook.
Repeat for all 4 ends of the headband arch.

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Step 5 Unclip and slightly separate the thin arch segment

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unclip and slightly separate the thin arch segment: step 5, image 1 of 1

Gently lift or pry away at the thin parts of the headband arch to separate the thin case segments from the deep case segments.
This part of the arch breaking is an incredibly common point of failure on these headphones, this step may not be necessary (and why I don't have pics of the process to offer myself!)
Gently separate the two, but do not fully separate them as they are still connected by the cable (which is held in with retaining brackets).

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Step 6 Unscrew the cable retaining bracket from the deep arch segment

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unscrew the cable retaining bracket from the deep arch segment: step 6, image 1 of 2

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Unscrew the cable retaining bracket from the deep arch segment: step 6, image 2 of 2

Gently swivel the thin arch casing from the deep arch casing. This reveals two pairs of screws holding a cable retaining bracket in place at the base of the deep arch segment:
2x ??? JIS (probably #000) screws
2x ??? JIS (probably #000) screws
I did not keep track of how big the bits that I used to unscrew them were, sorry!
Unscrew the screws and remove the retaining bracket. Don't remove the cable yet.

Edit

Step 7 Remove the cable from the headband arch

Sony h.ear on 3 Headband Arch teardown, Remove the cable from the headband arch: step 7, image 1 of 1

It would probably be a good idea to mark where the cable is seated in the casing exactly so the cable is the right length when reassembling.
At this point you can pull the cable out from the deep casing of the headband arch. This also means you can finally separate the thin arch casing from the deep arch casing!