The headset got a dead cat & new ear pads.

Dead cat:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E4ZMTEG

Ear pads:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MLBSX41

Ear pads don't last long.  The originals came in 2017.  It may not be a decline in quality but the other stuff lasting a lot longer than it used to.  Headphones in the 1980's died quickly from bad cables or got replaced by constantly improving designs.  Headphones nowadays aren't getting replaced by better designs & are usually fixable.

The dead cat barely fit around the 10mm electret microphone.  It's definitely not removable.

There was a test showing the dead cat making no difference in plosives, but the unidirectional microphone definitely has a professional studio sound.

The best solution for a bootlegging microphone has converged on the smallest electrets possible instead of the giant unidirectional ones, since it has to be clandestine, there isn't enough room to expose holes on the back, & they're not going to be close enough to get any proximity effect.  

The next step for the last of the Zoom H2 microphones is a new enclosure for the DSLR with room for dead cats & holes in the back.