Most reviews are written early, before anything has had time to break. We went through 3,870 owner verdicts on 26 popular over-ear and gaming headphones and counted the owners who say their own pair broke. Across all of them, 2.8% report a failure. The Sony ULT Wear is highest: 19.6% of 97 owners report a failure, 17 of those 19 at the hinge. Owners who say when theirs failed put it 12 months in on the median.
| # | Headphone | Reported failures | Share | Most common |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sony ULT Wear Over-Ear Headphones | 19.6% 19/97 | Hinges, sliders and frame | |
| 2 | Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X Over-Ear Headphones | 11.6% 5/43 | Headband | |
| 3 | Sony WH-1000XM5 Over-Ear Headphones | 5.9% 10/169 | Hinges, sliders and frame | |
| 4 | Razer BlackShark V2 Pro (2020 and 2023 editions) Gaming Headsets | 5.0% 9/179 | Hinges, sliders and frame | |
| 5 | HyperX Cloud Alpha Gaming Headsets | 4.3% 2/46 | One side or a driver | |
| 6 | Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro Over-Ear Headphones | 4.1% 8/195 | Cable or jack | |
| 7 | Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X Over-Ear Headphones | 3.7% 7/188 | Headband | |
| 8 | Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless Over-Ear Headphones | 3.6% 12/333 | Power, buttons or mic | |
| 9 | HiFiMan Sundara Over-Ear Headphones | 3.0% 8/271 | Headband | |
| 10 | HiFiMan Edition XS Over-Ear Headphones | 2.6% 3/116 | One side or a driver | |
| 11 | AKG K712 Pro Over-Ear Headphones | 2.5% 2/80 | Headband | |
| 12 | Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed Gaming Headsets | 2.5% 1/40 | One side or a driver | |
| 13 | HyperX Cloud III Gaming Headsets | 2.2% 3/138 | Hinges, sliders and frame | |
| 14 | Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 Gaming Headsets | 2.1% 2/94 | Power, buttons or mic | |
| 15 | Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Over-Ear Headphones | 1.9% 3/162 | Hinges, sliders and frame | |
| 16 | Grado SR80x Over-Ear Headphones | 1.9% 1/54 | Cable or jack | |
| 17 | SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gaming Headsets | 1.7% 3/179 | Power, buttons or mic | |
| 18 | Sony WH-1000XM6 Over-Ear Headphones | 1.5% 5/333 | Hinges, sliders and frame | |
| 19 | SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Gaming Headsets | 1.0% 2/206 | Power, buttons or mic | |
| 20 | HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless Gaming Headsets | 1.0% 2/194 | Hinges, sliders and frame | |
| 21 | HiFiMan HE400se Over-Ear Headphones | 0.9% 1/115 | Cable or jack | |
| 22 | Sennheiser HD 600 Over-Ear Headphones | 0.0% 0/169 | None reported | |
| 23 | Sennheiser HD 660S2 Over-Ear Headphones | 0.0% 0/165 | None reported | |
| 24 | Sennheiser HD 650 Over-Ear Headphones | 0.0% 0/140 | None reported | |
| 25 | Sennheiser HD 620S Over-Ear Headphones | 0.0% 0/93 | None reported | |
| 26 | SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 Gaming Headsets | 0.0% 0/71 | None reported |
With 40 to a few hundred owners per model, a difference of a point or two between models is not meaningful; the gap at the top is. Too new to judge, so not ranked: Apple AirPods Max 2 (on sale since April 2026); Beats 360 (on sale since September 2026); Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) (launched in 2025); Sony INZONE H9 II (launched in late 2025); Razer BlackShark V3 Pro (launched in 2025).
Where the 108 reported failures happened (17 owners did not say which part). Hinges, sliders and frames lead, though 17 of those 37 are from the Sony ULT Wear. Of the 62 owners who said when theirs failed, the median was 12 months: 32% within six months and 92% within two years.
Among models with at least 80 owners in our sample, no owner reported a failure for the Sennheiser HD 600 (169 owners), the Sennheiser HD 660S2 (165 owners), the Sennheiser HD 650 (140 owners) and the Sennheiser HD 620S (93 owners). All of them are wired Sennheiser headphones, and two, the HD 600 and HD 650, have been on sale for more than 20 years.
In this study the Sony ULT Wear had the highest share of owners reporting their own pair failing: 19.6% of 97 owners (19), 17 of them at the hinge. Next were the Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X (11.6% of 43) and the Sony WH-1000XM5 (5.9% of 169). Source: OwnersReview, 2026 (November).
In this study, hinges, sliders and the frame: 34% of the 108 failures owners reported, though 17 of those 37 are from the Sony ULT Wear alone. Headbands come next. Ear pads peeling or splitting early (6 cases) is reported far less often than structural breaks.
Among the 62 owners in this study who said when their pair failed, the median was 12 months. 32% failed within six months and 92% within two years.
Among models with at least 80 owners in our sample, no owner reported a failure for the Sennheiser HD 600 (169 owners), Sennheiser HD 660S2 (165 owners), Sennheiser HD 650 (140 owners) and Sennheiser HD 620S (93 owners). That is the share who reported one, not proof that none ever break.
We took the first-hand owner verdicts on Reddit and owner forums shown on our product pages for 26 over-ear and gaming headphones with at least 40 owners each (3,870 owners, one comment per owner). Every comment using words like broke, cracked, peeled, died or warranty was read in full, we kept only owners reporting their own pair of that exact model failing, and a second reader checked every failure counted. Threads started to report a fault were left out of both sides of the count. Accidents, wear after five or more years of use, and software, pairing or battery-drain problems do not count.