Utopia 360 VR Headset Ear pad Replacement

Replacing the ear pads on a Utopia 360 VR Headset by ReTrak with the included headphones such as the Pro Series or even possibly the Elite Series is very easy to do. However since it's a little different in how they go on I thought I'd quickly show you how to put them on and possibly save you some frustration.

The Utopia 360 Pro Series and possibly others require a 70mm ear pad. Measure yours to be sure of the size. You can get new ear pads from a hundred different places online. There's a huge range of prices for the same exact ear pad. Personally, I selected and purchased a pair of ear pads from Ebay at a cost of $2.38 including shipping. They came from China which honestly, delivery by the carriers is usually pretty quick, 7-10 days on average, so I don't have any issue ordering direct from China. These took longer for some reason, 30 days, but I wasn't in a hurry. At any rate they arrived and it's time to install them.

The new 70mm Ear pads

On many headphones the ear pad has a lip of material on the back that fits over an edge an into a groove on the ear piece. How you get it into that grove varies from headphone to headphone. Many you have to work the lip into the grove. It can be done, but it's a real pain in the butt to do and you might be tempted to install your new ear pads on the Utopia 360 Headphones in a similar manner. But you don't need to, there's a much easier method.

If you look on the earpiece you'll see a slot as shown below. You may even find a similar slot on other headphones so look for that slot first before trying to shove the lip of the ear pad into the ear piece groove. If it has one, you're golden. That slot, be it for during assembly at the manufacture or knowing that eventually the ear pads will need replacing, is to put the ear pads on. Didn't know that bit of info? Now you do.

The slot on the ear piece is used to install ear pads.

Simply put, you slip the back lip of material on the ear pad into the slot on the ear piece like so...

Once you insert the lip into the slot the idea is you line up the ear pad with the ear piece and turn it on. It goes on in the same fashion a bicycle tire or car tire goes on, riding over the lip of the rim on the wheel. However there's an easier method even to turning the ear pad on.You don;t just insert then turn.

First take note of which direction the the slot points. That's the direction you'll be turning the ear pad.

Now that you know which direction to turn the pad onto the ear piece. Line it up with the earpiece, put your palm on the ear pad squishing it into the earpiece. Not hard but flattening it. Now turn it the direction of the slot being careful not to catch the material on the point of the slot. If it does catch and you force it, you may punch a hole in your new ear pads. If it catches simply turn it back a bit then start turning it on again. As the ear pad is turned onto the ear piece it will get tighter, just like a tire on a rim, but after just one full turn the ear pad will be on the ear piece.

For those of you that aren't following my explanation or prefer to actually see it being done, I made a quick video showing how to install the ear pads. As stated, it's very easy and they go on quick once you know how. Just watch that you don't catch the material on the point of the slot when turning them on as I said. Otherwise, it's easy peasy.

Here's the video showing how it's done:

It's very simple, quick and easy as you can see in the video if you watched it. If you don't or didn't know up til now what the slot is for... and don't use it putting the ear pad on, it can be frustrating to say the least.

Below the new ear pads installed on my Utopia 360 Pro Series VR Headset. The ear pads are a perfect fit, they look good, feel good and make it like new again. I'm happy with them.

That's all for this blog post. Hope that helped you install your new ear pads, if not on this brand on possibly another brand if they provided the slot to do so and now that you know what that slot is actually for.


Take care, see you in the next post.

Cheers...