Sony XB950B1 Headphone Swivel Connector

thingiverse

This is a replacement Headphone Swivel connector for Sony MDR-XB950B1 headphones that I created, engineered, and am currently enjoying. Headphone prices are skyrocketing, and when you have three sets of the XB950B1 which fail after nine months, it can be costly to replace them for your family members. I wanted to engineer a replacement part and repair the damaged Headsets. I was unable to find this exact piece for my headset, although there is a 3D model on Thingiverse for the XB950BT, but it's different and doesn't work with my headsets. So I chose to draw my headset connector in SolidWorks and print my own spare part. This was a challenge to design as there are very few 90-degree surfaces. Just about every feature contains draft angles, arcs, and complex surfaces. As a result I designed this primarily using surface editing with lofts, sweeps, trims, and knit commands. Using a pencil and paper, I sketched the semi-circle shape of the connector, scanned it to .PDF, and then imported that into a sketch in SolidWorks. All other dimensions were acquired via Mitutoyo digital caliper. First print was 99% correct and am using now, but made three small adjustments to improve fit with mating parts, and currently printing them out for another pair to test. So this is a Revision 2 design. I recommend printing it in the orientation shown in the thumbnail on Thingiverse - with the headphone housing side down on the build plate. In this position the head band connector will be unsupported, and require support underneath. I recommend fine resolution to capture some of the fine details, so I printed mine with 0.1mm layer height and 0.4mm nozzle. Using PETG print time on my Prusa i3 MK3 was two hours fifty minutes. Enjoy!