Simple iPhone Earphone Mod

My Eargells were colorful: those available today are clear

When it comes to headphones I'm more of an over-the-ear, enclosed-back kind of guy. In my mind there's still no substitute for big drivers and a sealed enclosure to get decent sound quality. That said, those kind of headphones are bulky to carry and conspicuous when you wear them so sometimes you need more pocketable earphones.

Perhaps I have freaky ears but I cannot find in-ear headphones small enough to fit in my ear canals and the standard headset that comes with the iPhone falls out of my ears with little provocation. I have to hold my head absolutely still and, because they fit so loosely, the sound quality, which is marginal at the best of times, is weak and tinny. Certainly I could not run wearing them or even walk around in them.

I contemplated the hack that I've seen to make custom silicon earpieces but that seemed like a lot of effort for the crappy stock headset. Then I came across Jabra eargells. They seem to be intended for ear-bud style headsets but with a little persuasion they'll fit on the standard Apple earphones. They don't stay in place very convincingly though so I added a couple of drops of plastic-specific super glue to them to keep them from moving. I can now run wearing these headphones and the sound quality is much improved as the little sound there is is directed into your ear instead of spilling out. The sound quality does not approximate a decent pair of enclosed headphones but that was never the point. At least I can now use the OEM headphones when I'm out and about which were previously useless to me. I can stuff them in a pocket and if I loose or break them I won't be upset.

Cost: less then $10.
Time invested: 10 minutes.