Replacement Ear Pads Cushions for Parrot Zik 2.0 Zik 2 Zik2 & Zik 3 Zik3 Headphones

I purchased my ZIKs when my 2nd pair of made out of plastic Noise Canceling Headphones broke just before I was getting on a plane for Asia from the USA. Needless to say I was not going to spend the next 16 hours of air travel without something. I went to the airport "InMotion" shop and wound up buying some ZIKs. Yeah I know I paid a premium! But alas, I needed them RIGHT NOW!Fast forward a couple months and the ZIKs were losing their seams and busting open when the leather and cloth separated. I contacted Parrot, and they would only allow me to send them back and have a new pair sent, but that would take 6-8 weeks at that time! They would not even allow me to buy a pair, then send the old pair back for credit, as I was scheduled for 3 more transpacific and cross-country flights during the time they 'might' get me a new pair. I had missed the window to return them at the Atlanta Airport by 10 days! At this point, I was just super gluing the seams.I just made a trip to New Orleans and noticed the leather was flaking off in little black chunks, that was the last straw! I knew there had to be a solution outside of paying $300 for another pair. I do love the sound and build of the ZIKs, but enough was enough. There had to be a solution to my problem.I did a search on Amazon and found the Headphone Mate. BAM! Watched the video, I would pause it as I did my little repair job! I got it, and with a little patience and time, I got my ZIKs looking brand new again!This time around, I am going to treat the leather with the same leather conditioner I use on my car seats. Plus I will make sure that they stay stored in the hard case so they do not get squished, which I think is an issue, and causes the seam splits and the leather coming apart after it dries a little. This is a major design flaw in the ZIKs.

Ok. First things first... The new pads were shipped promptly and the packaging was very straightforward. No big shocks to be found, but I do wish that they had done a few things perhaps a bit differently.Number one, there is very little included (as in...absolutely none) in the way of installation instructions. Although they have an installation walkthrough video on YouTube (I'd post the link, but apparently it twists panties too much, so you'll just have to search yourself) and there is no indication of this being the case from the packaging. They should at least put in a little note pointing out location of that video, but it's easy enough to find after a quick Google search (FYI Amazon, you let the seller post a link on their product, but you can't include a similar link in a review?). I will say that it's an absolute MUST that you watch, rewatch, pause, rewind, look closely at, pay attention to, and generally study as much as you can the YouTube video showing the installation. It's pretty good, but there are a few times where there could have been some better camera work, such as better closeups during some of the more intricate parts like attaching the proximity sensors to the new pads. Otherwise, the video does a fine job at describing the process of replacing the original ear pads. Make no mistake however, this is a tedious install and requires both patience and steady hands. I'd also recommend having a few alligator clips to hold some of the material while you try to wiggle the reused sensors into place. If you take your time, pay attention, and follow the video, you'll still have a fully functional set of headphones after your install is complete.How do the new pads actually work and feel? Well, from what I can tell, they are easily as good as OEM and maybe a bit better. The memory foam is good, and the leather feels nice and soft. Just a casual look at them and it's almost impossible to separate them from the originals. Now for the bad... The new pads only include some 3M foam tape to attach them to the headphones and that is located far inside the pads themselves. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to "stick" as well as the originals, so now there is a slight gap around the pads and the headphones where there was none originally (Check my attached photos for how this looks). I attribute this to the fact that the originals were also lightly glued around the outsides of the pads, whereas these have none of that in the install. This doesn't affect the operation of the headphones in my opinion, but I suppose that it "could" affect sound leakage somewhat. The only other note that I can think of, is that the ear cup in the right side just seems ever so slightly smaller than the one on the left. I don't know if this because I managed to mess something up with the sensor wire, or if it is just the way it is. In any case, it's not the end of the world and since my name isn't Dumbo, my ears still fit just fine inside the cup.Functionally, the headphones operate exactly as they did before. They automatically pause and resume when taking the headphones on and off, the touch controls still work perfectly, and they still sound great. No difference in noise cancelling that I can tell of, and the "feel" seems just like they did when new. Best thing is that now they also look new! Before, the original pads were just falling apart. The cloth material that attached to the leather inside the ear cup had become completely separated and no amount of glue would resolve it. Now, everything looks just as it should.Final word is, if you own a pair of Zik 2.0's, you like them, and they're still functional but are showing signs of extreme distress in terms of the ear pads, then you'd be hard pressed to do better than these. They will restore your headphones to an almost like-new state for way less than the cost of buying completely new headphones. The only thing I'd improve would be to include in-packaging some better instructions, a clearly evident link to the instruction video, and perhaps some manner of improving the attachment to the headphones.

When my ZIK Parrot 2.0 headset developed issues with the earpads, I started looking into do-it-yourself repair. I am handy with working with electronics, being a Ham Radio hobbyist. I found Ron’s Electronic Sales and decided to look for a replacement for the earpads. I found the quality of the ear cushions is very good, but I decided DIY was not the best option for me. I took the seller (Ron's Electronic Sales) up on their offer to install these cushions for me after watching the video and reading reviews from others about how difficult they were to install. It is very easy to contact the seller before you purchase this product if you have any questions.The service from Ron and his team was excellent. Communications, product and repair all went off without even a hint of a hitch. I will use Ron’s again in the future if I need any repair work performed on my ZIKs.

Absolutely hard and complicated Installation but you have no better option.

I did finally get them on, but lost the controls on the headphone when they were installed. I have to give credit that there was a warning of the difficulty, but having replaced many phone screens, backs, and motherboards I can say this was more challenging the all of the above.

I ordered my Parrot 2.0 like 8yrs ago and totally loved them. Having 2 kids during that time my Parrots took a beating. Then I found headphonemate and Ron. First make sure you order the right piece for your headphones like Ron urges. I unfortunately didn't the 1st time around but Ron accepted them and refunded me for my 2nd pair. He send the links and instructions for the repair. In the case your not as handy as some he has a service at a reasonable cost to replace the headphones and send them back. Everything about Ron's service is A+. My Parrots cost $400 when I bought them but for $40 the look like new.

Nearly impossible for the "average Joe" to install. Highly complex and intricate procedure.