Thanks a lot for this thread; I am considering a recable, myself, as the plug has recently frayed, and the bit that splits the cable is bending enough to do the same. I go to the gym at times, but I'm positive that the main culprit are the times that I've rolled up and pocketed the phones where I was prohibited to wear them. Stiff cords never last even with gentle care, but I really wasn't that hard on the pair.
I'll probably use some crappy sony headphone's cord that I have with an L-jack....the wire's more flexible, which imo is a must with earbud-type phones (I mean hey, it's being tucked in shirts and shoved in pockets, right?).
When I get around to it, I'll post pics, as well :-)
UPDATE: I half-failed the project due to a soldering accident; while I was moving to put some of material on the contacts, my hand slipped, and some of it got into a tine hole that seems to house some *very* fragile wiring that simply burned out instantaneously from the heat. Not a lot got in, but a little was enough to mangle them (just think of it this way; the left channel's internal wiring is parallel, the right one now being a big jumbled mess). needless to say I'm kind of pissed for the stupidity. I originally thought that I burned out the contact/speaker, but that wasn't the case after the inspection. Oh well; I'll be looking for broken PK3's in the trade section, and continue w/the project when I get the missing part in
Meanwhile, the left side works perfectly, and I can still use it as a hidden speaker @ work :-)
Ahh well...at least I learned something new.