[navy699]

I have had my Zune 80 with premium earbuds for a few weeks now and this had been bothering me as well. Aside from this problem, the headphones have pretty good sound, so I was looking for a way to not have to buy new headphones.

I figured out a partial solution. It does not completely eliminate the problem, but does result in a noticeable improvement.

All you need is a small rubber band, some scissors, and a pushpin (like from a bulletin board). The rubber band should have a square cross-section of about two millimeters on each side.

Depending on the actual thickness of your cross section, cut a strip from the rubber band about 6 mm in length. Check its length by wrapping around one of the individual earphone cords (after the y-split). It needs to be long enough to go all the way around, with the ends touching with a slight overlap. It may take a few tries to fund the right length.

Then, using the pushpin, carefully push this strip into the hollow area of the earphone where the cord enters. Imagine that the rubber band strip is supposed to be a donut, with the cord running through the center, and the earphone casing being an outer shell. With the pushpin, make this donut by packing the rubber band strip between the earphone casing and the cord. It should fit snugly. Be careful not to poke into the cord.

When you are done, the cord should be held snugly in the center of the earphone housing by the rubber band donut. See my avatar for a picture of what it should look like.

I was able to get two of these "donuts" into each earbud. While it does not eliminate all rubbing noise, it does reduce it by about 80%. By restraining the cord as jackluo923 already mentioned, you can further cut down on the noise. I tuck the y-split on my cord into the buttons on my shirt; that seems to work.

One potential problem that I see with stuffing rubber band segments into the earphones is that it eliminates some of the strain relief on the cord provided by the plastic earbud housing. After this mod, it would be easier to bend the cord at sharp angles and break the internal wires. Of course, if the headphones are noisy, who cares how long they last.

I hope this is helpful to someone else.