Headphone wires that will not break.

[Mavrisa]

I generally run through headphones fairly quickly (6 months to a year is normal) mostly because I fall asleep with them on fairly often. I just recently broke another pair and at first I was considering repairing them with more durable wiring which I could replace more easily, but I no longer have access to a soldering iron, so that option is out I think.
I recall seeing a pair of earbuds that had a wire mesh over the internal wiring, and as a result, it could only bend so far as long as too much force isn't applied. I was wondering if anyone knows of any like this. It was probably 3 or 4 years ago, for $60ish and at Walmart that I saw them. I haven't seen them since.
Alternatively, can anyone suggest headphones that are surprisingly durable?
Thanks.

[uncivlengr]

Earbuds break. If they don't break, you'll lose them. If yours last a whole year, that's pretty damned good in my books, because between fitness activities and generally neglecting to take take of them, mine usually last a few months tops.

I bought a pair of $25 "Rocketfish" earbuds a few months ago that have an around-the ear thing so they can't fall out, and three sizes of rubbers to suit your particular ear size. They have a braided sheathing around the wires, and that seems to keep them together (though it takes some time getting used to the rough wires when you're used to the smooth plain ones - they tend to scratch on your shirt collar).

[kernelpanic]

I've got a pair of fake Sony (Or ZONY as the box states) in-ear earphones for 120 pesos, about 10 US dollars, and surprisingly, they are just as good quality as ones in the USD $70-80 price range (very good bass), and the wires are very resistant (I've used them a lot, and treated them like you would treat a pair of $10 fake earphones). But that's not the best part. They are unable to tangle. Keep them in your pocket/bag all day, and they spring back to life! Of course, getting them where you live might be impossible unless you contact the factory in China that makes them.

[Endless Mike]

Yours last up to a year? I've never had a pair from any brand last more than 6 months of regular (which is to say, daily, including a couple miles of walking), and that was probably a fluke. I bought a pair of Koss earbuds, which have a lifetime, no-questions-asked warranty (in the US, at any rate) and just get a replacement whenever they die on me (I have a couple pairs of backups that I use while waiting).

['; DROP DATABASE;--]

I switched to a Bluetooth set for this exact reason. Arguably the improvement is negligible (Bluetooth is so damned unreliable that it cuts out as bad as a broken headphone cable at times), but you don't have to replace it every few months just because of the cable. They'd always break at the very end for me, where the plug is stressed, because it seems like only cheap sets actually have a 90° plug to lead out of a pocket nicely. Even those wouldn't last very long.

There are some that have a plug on the headset itself, and the cable is an ordinary patch cable, so you can just replace that. If you buy such, check to see if it's actually possible to buy replacement cables that will fit the damn things. Mine had the jack recessed into a hole, much too small for any but the original cable to fit into, and trying to enlarge it would have made them ugly as sin.

You can get Bluetooth transmitters that plug into a headphone jack, but watch out - many of them aren't a solid piece, but rather have a short cord with a plug on the end - and you can guess how well that works. -.-

[J the Ninja]

FWIW, my Denon AHC-751s are coming up on 2 years old now, and are still going strong. Been in and out of a backpack/pocket every school day since I got them. The buds themselves are on a short cable with a VERY sturdy connector (big aluminum thing, with a thick rubber strain boot) then a regular old cable that connects them down to the jack. I think I can get longer out of them by replacing that cable, but it has hung on too, although there isn't much gold left on the connector anymore. Also, I'm glad Denon thought to include a little rubber nub to show which one is the left bud, because the silk screening on them is pretty much completely worn off by now.

Basically, Denon shit rocks. Their AVRs are awesome too.

[archeleus]

The Razer Carcharias has really excellent wires. It probably has an internet mesh that allows you to bend it like cloth. The headset is just awesome, worth the money.

[Kromix]

The Razer Carcharias has really excellent wires. It probably has an internet mesh that allows you to bend it like cloth. The headset is just awesome, worth the money.

by internet mesh, do you mean an inner mesh? such as the one in a coaxial cable? if it does it is possible that it is a ground mesh and used also for shielding. it its plastic then it is for strength.

[turret]

I have the same problem with headphones, I often end up sleeping with them on; but worse, when watching movies, I tend to chew on them and they rarely last me longer than 2-3 months.

[hintss]

at lowes, they sell a 25 ft. coil of some hard plastic tubing/hose for a few dollars. might someone try sleeving the cords in it, then hot gluing the ends?

[Rinsaikeru]

If you want your headphones to last you need to take good care of them:
1. Never pull the plug out by the cord, always do it from the plug itself.
2. Same with buds, pull from bud not cord when you remove from your ears.
3. Keep them in a case instead of wrapped around your mp3 dohickey.
4. Don't let the cord kink anywhere (even be careful about how you put it in the case).
5. Reinforce the cord with something--wrap with string, heat shrink tubing or otherwise.


I recently had a friend replace the plug on my UE headphones because I had accidentally kinked the cord and the sound went out on the L ear. When he soldered it I had him add heat shrink tube to hold it onto the new plug and now I'm more careful about keeping it from kinking.

[flying sheep]

i once had these: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR-Q55SL-Cl ... B00008VIX0

pros: they sound very good, they have great, short, wires, and they come with a stury extension cord (very useful: if you put your mp3 in your breast pocket, the short cord is handy, if you put it in your jeans pocket, the extended one is.)

cons: they don’t fit every ear (i think they fly off rather easily from big ears), and they have bad noise cancelling, so everyone around you will hear what you hear. they make decent passive speakers, though.

[hintss]

unfortunately, I have I pair of yamaha headphones with a 6ft. long cord. I rarely listen to stuff with them, so they don't leave the room. anyway, when they're not in use, I keep them next to my desk with the cord in a jumble. I generally set the actual headphones on a spindle of CDs which happens to be next to my desk. Generally, I set them down carefully enough that the cord won't be tangled when I pick them up. also, the static in the right ear problem seemed to correct itself.

[Bhelliom]

Been there, done this.

Go to RadioShack or whatever store and buy a headphone jack that has solder points and a screw on casing. Then acquire some light gauge speaker wire used for normal stereo speakers. it is usually clear with silver and gold stranded wire. Pop the covers off of your headphones or earbuds and carefully replace the crappy wire of your favorite headphones with your new wire and plug set. You will need to use solder.

Yes, the wires are a little thicker and more cumbersome. That is the point. No ultra-thin headphone cable will ever be durable, there simply isn't enough wire to resist breaking when constantly flexed. Also those light duty wires are being made as cheaply as possible to maximize profits.

There is a reason that professional grade headphones and cables are thick and heavy.

[RAKtheUndead]

This would be why I never spend more than €2 on a pair of earphones, and leave my set of cans for home use. In my experience, earphones are going to have terrible sound quality no matter what brand you get, so why spend any more than you need to? I'd be pretty disappointed if I were to spend €50 or so on a pair of headphones that weren't heavy-duty cans, just to find it breaking after a few months.

[Rinsaikeru]

I dunno, my Ultimate Ears earbuds have good sound quality--and I've repaired them easily already (with a screw on casing like Bhelliom describes actually).

I use headphones far more often outside my house than I do in, and if you get cheap earbuds they'll have bad noise cancelling. As a result of this, you'll jack them up way to high to hear them (say on the subway where I listen to them most often)--which can cause permanent hearing problems.

Like anything else--if you take care of them they'll last much longer. It's not even very difficult to take care of them, be gentle, don't kink the cord, make it sturdier if you can.

[psykx]

Firstly you can get great sound quality on ear phones, but they are not cheap, etymotic have frequency response graphs for all there ear phones, and while I don't have a pair I do have a pair of their ear plugs and they are frankly amazing value for money and have a great frequency response.

I have a set of audio-technica ATH-M30 and they have beefy cables and a proper chunky metal case to the plug they are about £53 in the uk, sound quality is excellent with real detail over the whole range and they go down to 30hz or something.

[Sero]

A side note, actually might be deserving of it's own topic, but this seemed close:

Does anyone have any recommendations for nigh on indestructible headphones? Think like, that would stand up to the abuse small children would heap on them. So, minimal moving/adjustable parts, no volume controls or anything, ideally a cord that is relatively unlikely to get irreparably tangled, and ideally fairly short, too (less chance of being tripped on and breaking the jack off inside the computer. Anyone got any ideas on how to fix that, too? Assuming you can't manage to get the broken jack out?). Price is a moderate issue, sound quality is not. They just need to produce sound. It doesn't have to be good sound.

I have a few ideas on how to reduce the abuse they're subjected to, but nevertheless, kids are still hard on headphones.

[Bhelliom]

Go look at the headphones that bookstores and music stores have for sampling music. Those are designed to withstand the general public.

[Endless Mike]

They also always look to have pretty heavy-duty cables added to them.

[Sero]

I hadn't thought about that. Thanks, that'd be a good thing to check. Mind you, legions of small children are in a whole 'nother category from 'the general public', but it's still my best bet.

[CHR1110]

For earbuds, I like these: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDREX38iP-BLK-Earbud-Control/dp/B002M78JA2 . I've only had to replace once in the past two years, so I'd say that's a good run, considering they pretty much live either in my ears or in my pocket. Before I had these, I had a similar pair, only without the Remote/Mic, and and they're still in good working order to this day.

And for other applications, such as when I'm recording, or just want really really good sound quality, I use these: http://www.amazon.com/Bose-QuietComfort-Acoustic-Noise-Cancelling/dp/B00021Y9OA . Yup, you bet I paid dearly for 'em. And they were worth every single penny. They've been met with more than their fair share of abuse, including being dropped, tossed in the back of my Amp, and many other incidents. They still have no extremely visible scratches or dents, nor has the sound quality been affected. Best audio-related purchase I've ever made, by far.

[spartan.ii.117]

i personally use sure E3Cs which is the commercial version of their mid level stage monitors, they go rather far inside your ears, but have a very durable cable and a lifetime warranty.

[cjmcjmcjmcjm]

I seem to have a problem with my TRS jacks getting f'd in the A, but I'm not sure if it is the socket or the plug that won't work. Specifically, something shorts out such that the center channel is canceled

[JoeyJo0]

I have a pair of €80 headphones.

The cable(running from one side of the headphone to the plug) is wound like a telephone cable so that it's very hard to tangle it.

[GenericAnimeBoy]

I seem to have a problem with my TRS jacks getting f'd in the A, but I'm not sure if it is the socket or the plug that won't work. Specifically, something shorts out such that the center channel is canceled

Cheap TRS jacks, especially the micro ones used for headphone connections on MP3 players and PCs, are notorious for contact failure. This is largely due to the fact that the same metal contacts that make the electrical connection are responsible for the mechanical connection, and they don't tolerate lateral forces on the connector shell very well. Also, if a connector isn't properly seated all the way into the jack (due to, let's say, bad design decisions ) it places enough strain on the contacts that they eventually will not provide enough tension to hold the plug in place. The result is that the ring (the middle contact) shorts to the sleeve contact and you intermittently lose the right channel.

[cjmcjmcjmcjm]

Stupid forums ate my post.

[modularblues]

Not sure how easily these Zipbuds break, but thought the idea is nifty.

[Bomb_Dance]

For durable headphones, I recommend two.

The first one is SONY MDR-7506, one of the reference headphones for studio.
Famous for its performance and solid quality, can use for more than 10 years in studio.

Another one is Beyerdynamic DT 100, another reference headphones for studio.
Can even keep perfect after an adult sit on it.

[hector361]

You can reinforce the wiring around the jack and any worn wire areas, just make sure the two wires are not touching each other.

http://how-to-fix-earbuds.blogspot.com/2012/01/headphone-fix-wire-splicing.html

[userxp]

This would be why I never spend more than €2 on a pair of earphones, and leave my set of cans for home use. In my experience, earphones are going to have terrible sound quality no matter what brand you get, so why spend any more than you need to? I'd be pretty disappointed if I were to spend €50 or so on a pair of headphones that weren't heavy-duty cans, just to find it breaking after a few months.

I used to buy cheap earphones like this all the time. Then I bought a nice Sennheiser ones (for probably about 20€-35€) and I've been using them continuously since then. This was probably 3-4 years ago .

[TranquilFury]

I've never had regularly used headphones last longer than 6 months without needing a splice.

[koogco]

You can definitely get earbuds with great quality, they just have to be the in-ear variety.

I have a pair of Sennheiser CX 400-II Precision http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/private_headphones_mp3_classic-line_502743
After about 10 months of daily use (including many incidents of "fall asleep") The wire broke next to the jack, i fixed it with some soldering and heat shrink. They have been fine since. The bass is a bit light but otherwise the sound quality is great!

I also own a pair of Sennheiser HD 201 http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/wired-headphones-hd201-stereo?Open&path=private_headphones_hifi_wired-headphones
Not quite as good as those earbuds, but amazing for their price! And while the cable is by no means thick, they seem quite durable. After a few years of accidentally stepping in the (rather long) cable and dropping them or similar now and then, they still function as new. My cousin has the same experience with that pair.

[Meem1029]

I can tell you that the HD201s are pretty awesome. They have great sound quality (for me, where this $30 was the most I've spent on headphones). As far as durability I haven't had any problems despite them being stepped on several times and crushed by my chair at least weekly.