After quite a few years of continuous use sweating into these cans, the ear pads basically disintegrated. This is perfectly expected for such intensive use I think.
I did consider cheaper alternatives, but found some bad reviews.
Indeed these are basically half the cost of the headphones new, but now my beloved MDR7506 feel as good as new! They are still my favourite cans over models that are twice the price that I've tried.
Takes a little bit of fiddling to get them on, but they are well made and can take the 'abuse'.
Overall, very happy.