Per the request of my friend JasonN I’m going to review a headphone mod that has been around for quite a while now: the Kramer mod. Because I’ve found it to be impossible to find one definitive source for clear steps and a written tutorial from the mod author themselves, I’ve resorted to a forum post that gives a brief explanation – Head-Fi.org.

Let’s get started

The materials list is short and sweet and the steps are as well. Don’t worry, your margin of error is pretty slim.

Materials:

1. Foam – soft foam similar to what you find on headphone covers or a microphone cover. For this I used a piece of foam cut from the cover on your standard Xbox 360 headset.
2. Scissors – Your everyday household pair will do. You’ll only be using these to cut the foam, which is soft.
3. JVC Marshmallow In-Ear Headphones – You can pick these up for about $19.99 but they’ve been around a while so I’m sure you can find them cheaper now. Don’t worry. They’re available in more colors than just pink. That just happens to be the sample I’m using for this post.
4. Tweezers – You’ll be using these to get the rubber sheaths off of the earphone tubes.
5. A Needle – You’ll need a needle to get the paper screen off the top of each earphone tube. You could probably use tweezers for this instead if you don’t have access to a needle.

Instructions:

1. Slide off the memory foam covers around the tube of each earphone so that the rubber sheath around the earphone tube is exposed.
2. Grab your tweezers and pull the rubber sheath upwards so that it comes off. You might have to give these a small tug because they are initially stuck on. Be careful not to rip the sheaths.
3. Once you’ve got the rubber sheaths pulled off, you should see a thin paper disc over the top of each earphone’s tube. These paper discs have a small hole in the center of them. Grab your needle and put it in the center of the disc so that you can pry these discs off. Don’t worry if you damage these. You will not be using them again.
4. Take the foam you’ve acquired and cut a small cube for each earphone. The purpose of this foam is to act as a damper inside of the tube in each earphone. The depth of the foam cube inside of each earphone tube will affect the sound, so you may have to mess with this part to get it to your liking. Depending on your preference (whether you prefer your highs more crisp or your lows deeper), you might have to cut a couple different sizes to get it right. Fortunately for me, the first try was the perfect balance for my ears.
5. Once you’ve got your cubes cut and ready to go, insert them into each earphone tube. I wasn’t exactly sure how deep down they should be pushed but I don’t think it makes a great deal of difference. I pressed them in so that they are slightly exposed past the edge of each earphone tube. Don’t worry about using glue to secure these pieces of foam in or adhering them in any other way. They should remain where they need to be.
6. Once you’ve got (1) piece of foam pushed down into each earphone tube, take the rubber sheaths we removed on step 2 and slide them back down over the earphone tube. Make sure they’re snug in place.
7. Take the memory foam earphone tube covers that we removed on step 1 and slide them back down over the earphones tubes as they were before. Now it’s time to try them out.

Before you give them a try, make sure to roll the memory foam earpieces in between your fingers. This loosens the foam up a little and makes it more flexible to seat nicely within your ear canal. If the sound is not what you are looking for, then repeat the steps and try playing with the size of each foam piece you put into the earphone tube.

The end result should be a day and night difference between the default paper screens that come with the headphones, and the foam cubes we replace them with. This mod made me love these headphones 100x more and this mod was actually my entire reason for even purchasing these headphones.

Update: I forgot to mention that this mod has been used for various headphone models and not just the Marshmallows. If you find a set of in-ear headphones that have a similar setup, you can perform this mod.