How to get the Bang & Olufsen A8 Headphones plug to fit the iPhone jack

Question

Ok, this is for those who have the B&O A8 headphones and who want to be able to use them with the iPhone without having to use some kind of adapter. This might work for other headphones as well but follow the following advice AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
Also, the A8 headphones are EXPENSIVE so do this AT YOUR OWN RISK! All I know is after I've done this I'm VERY HAPPY.
To make the plug fit you have to first understand how the plug is constructed. The plug is made of three parts, the central metal shaft, the plastic sleeve surrounding the metal shaft, and the rubber grip covering the plastic sleeve. If you look at the plug under a magnifying glass concentrating on the base of the shaft, you can clearly see the two layers surrounding the shaft, the inner layer is the plastic sleeve and the outer layer is the rubber grip.
Now to make the plug fit, you need to CUT THE RUBBER grip just far enough back so that only the plastic inner sleeve goes into the headphone jack recess. One way to do it is to wrap a piece of narrow masking tape around the rubber grip about 1/8" back from the leading edge - this serves to guide your cutting blade. After that you either do what I did, use a dremel tool to thin down the jacket and then use an x-acto knife to cut around the sleeve using the masking tape as guide, or just cut around the grip right away and take your time.
When you cut the grip, do so carefully so you stop at the plastic sleeve. The x-acto knife isn't really sharp enough that you can cut through the plastic that easily. But remember you need the plastic sleeve intact to stop the plug from going into the jack too deep.
Anyway, once the rubber grip is cut back, the plug fits perfectly and it actually doesn't look bad at all!!

Answer 1

Better yet, DONT CUT THE RUBBER GRIP. Mine just moved back with a little slow effort, it slides back over the cord. I am very careful when I remove it from the iPhone not to let it get too far up and it hangs on to the shaft. When it is removed from the iPhone the grip just slides back down if I want it back to how it was.
Maybe I was just lucky that it wasn't glued on or something. I just didn't want to mess with my warranty in case I ever need it. Gotta love that $65 dollar replacement program. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.