Protip: Sony MDR-XD300 replacement ear pads

Disgusting, old peeling ear pad from an MDR-XD300

I enjoy listening to music as much as the next poor student does, and like the other poor students, I'm not particularly fond of replacing (slightly) costly gear just because some replaceable part is breaking and at it's end of life. When ear pads begin to deteriorate and break down, it's time to find replacements. Hours of searching for replacement ear pads for my MDR-XD300s turned out to be worthless, seems like Sony EoL'd it while I wasn't looking, replacement pads for the MDR-XD series seems to be nonexistent.

Third party replacement pads for the MDR-RD925 installed
on the MDR-XD300

So I did the next best thing: measure the ear pads and get the closest pair, which happens to be the pads for Sony's wireless headphones (MDR-RF925 and MDR-RF9). One ebay purchase and a few weeks later, I have new ear pads for one of my most favorite headphones, installing was easy, since it was made for a different model, though I had to stretch the pleather a tiny, tiny bit to make it fit. It does feel slightly different than the original Sony ones, but hey, I'm not gonna complain too much since it actually fit something it wasn't advertised for.

I hope this helps anyone looking for repacement ear pads for MDR-XD300s out, that you can use the replacement pads from the MDR-RD925 for this*

*results may vary depending from headphone to headphone, regardless of model and make, this applies for ear pads as well

Update: The feel for it is more hard than the stock set. and the link is dead.