Refurbishing my Sennheiser Presence

Back in 2018 when I was consulting, I bought a Sennheiser Presence earpiece. It's become one of my favourite peripherals - courtesy the noise cancelling in the microphone, I can take calls in a car, on a busy street, or on a train platform without any of the background noise making it into the call.

My Presence has, however, had a rough life. It got lost in a kids' backpack for months, closed in a car door, and generally worn and torn. Seven years later, in 2025, it has a number of faults:

• The ring holding the silicone earbuds in place is half broken off, leading to the earbuds regularly falling off.
• The over-ear arm is worn.
• The earpiece has a crack and is slightly lifted, from being closed in the car door.

Sennheiser still makes and sells the Presence, so a simple replacement was an option. However, they're expensive, and the battery in mine is still good, so I thought I'd try renovating instead.

My plan was fairly straightforward:

1. Give it a good clean!

2. Use a rotary tool to clean up the broken remnants of the missing half of the earbud retaining ring.

3. Make a new retaining ring with plastic filament and a hot air gun; fit it with superglue.

4. Replace the mesh over the metal speaker covering.

5. Replace the arm and earbud.

Steps 1 and 2 were easy enough; here's the finished result:

Step 3 was a bit fiddlier. I used a cheap hot air gun to soften the filament, and bent it around the earpiece to fit. It then required a bit _more_ heating and bending to make a slightly excessive curve, such that it would fit on snugly when glued.

In the course of fitting the ring segment I noticed that there was a small crack in the base of the earpiece, presumably from when it got closed in a car door. I took the opportunity to fix it with some glue and a clamp.

Step 4 was tricky. It turns out, none of my earbud meshes fitted! In the end I made a mesh by cutting out a circle of Primapore dressing, and that did the trick!

Step 5 was easy, using replacement parts from Sennheiser. The final result looks and feels as good as new, and in particular, the earbud doesn't keep falling off :)

I anticipate a good few years more use from the unit, at a fraction the cost of replacing it. I'm still hoping that Sennheiser will offer a newer model with USB-C charging ... but even if they don't it's worth keeping a micro-USB adaptor around. The Presence really is that good.

---

--

Published on May 10 2025.