Your Sony headphones broke. It's not the end of the world, but close. Especially if you paid 400 euros for them a year and a half ago and now the left earcup only makes a buzzing sound. Or the hinge snapped. Or the pads look like a dog used them as chew toys.
Welcome to the club. Many have been here before you.
Why Sony won't repair your headphones
Sony makes good headphones. That must be admitted. The WH-1000XM5's noise cancelling is among the best on the market and their app works quite nicely.
But Sony is also a huge corporation for which your individual headphones are a rounding error in a quarterly report. When they break, Sony won't fix them. Sony suggests you buy new ones. Maybe you'll get a discount code. Thanks and goodbye.
We can't repair Sony's headphones. We don't have their spare parts, circuit boards, or the desire to disassemble someone else's products. It would be like Jasse trying to tune Henri's Alfa Romeo—technically possible, but the result would be sad for all parties.
What options do you have
Option 1: Buy new Sonys. Pay another 350–400 euros. Hope they last longer this time. When they break, start over. This is Sony's business model and it works excellently for them.
Option 2: Buy cheap 30-euro headphones from the supermarket. The sound quality is like someone playing music in the next room inside a plastic bucket. But you won't mind throwing them away.
Option 3: Buy Valco's VMK25 or VMK25.2. Half the price of Sony. Sound tuned by Jasse. And when they break—because all electronics break eventually—we'll fix them. In Kajaani. By real people with real tools.
Why Valco
Let's be honest. We don't claim to be Sony. Sony is a multinational giant that makes everything from game consoles to insurance. We're a 14-person company, and our great leader drives an Alfa Romeo that breaks down more often than our customers' headphones.
But with headphones, we don't need to be Sony.
- Price: VMK25.2 costs about half the price of Sony's WH-1000XM5. That's money you can spend on beer. Or child support payments. Or 0.0000001% of the Death Star.
- Sound quality: Jasse "Jazmanaut" Kesti tunes every model. A man whose ears are insured. The frequency response is flat, and the bass isn't artificially boosted to hide shortcomings.
- Repairability: The ear pads are replaced with a twist. The side panels are magnetic. The internals can be serviced. When something breaks, you send the device to us and get it back repaired. Not to the trash, not off to buy new ones.
- Battery: VMK25.2 has 55 hours of listening with ANC on. Fifty-five. You charge once a week, maybe less often. Sony's XM5 promises 30 hours.
- Multipoint: Two devices connected. Phone and laptop. Works.
Who should choose Sony
If noise cancelling is the one and most important feature for you, the Sony WH-1000XM5 is a hair ahead. A very small difference, but it's there. If you fly a lot and want to maximize quiet at any cost, Sony is a good choice.
If you need the LDAC codec (for example with certain Android players), we offer aptX but not LDAC.
And if the brand means a lot to you—if you want that Sony logo on your ear—then it's settled. We don't compete with logos. We compete on what you hear in your ears and what happens when something breaks.
Summary
| | Sony WH-1000XM5 | Valco VMK25.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ~€400 | ~half as much |
| ANC | Excellent | Very good |
| Sound quality | Good | Tuned by Jasse |
| Battery (ANC) | ~30 h | 55 h |
| Repairability | Not repaired | In-house service in Kajaani |
| When it breaks | Buy new ones | Repaired |
If your Sonys broke and you're wondering what next, try headphones designed to last—and to be repaired when they don't. VMK25.2 is our newest model; VMK25 is its predecessor, which you can still get for even less.
And if you end up buying, thank you. The money advances the Death Star, Henri's Ferrari fund, and Jasse's ear insurance. By the way, do you know who Sony's CEO is? Nobody does. Ours is Henri. And he reads these messages.
