[AndyD2k]

I'm trying to figure out why the earbuds I buy keep crapping out within a year. At first I thought it was just the Sony's fontopia line that were at fault (I've been through like 4 in 2 years) - one of the sides would just start to crackle and eventually die. Now the same thing just happened to my Shure e2cs. Shure was great about sending replacements but now I'm starting to think it's something I'm doing that these buds keep crapping out on me.

I definitely don't mistreat them. The only thing I can think of is that I tend to wrap the cable around the player when I'm not listening to it. Plus, I tend to keep the volume to a minimal so its not that I'm blowing them out.

What do you guys think?

 

[Mercuttio]

I think it's totally possible that you could get breakage in the wire (or a separation where they are connected to the driver) due to work hardening of the metal.

Annealing metal (high heat) softens a metal and aligns the molecules. Bending it a lot will destroy this alignment, and make the metal more rigid with time. Hence, it is "work hardened" and breaks.

Possible, yes, but probably unlikely... so I'm not sure.

 

[sgrossklass]

As long as you keep the bending radius halfway large I wouldn't worry too much. Now for your failures, what's your player? Apparently some may exhibit a noticeable DC offset now and then... should be easy to figure out whether there's DC on the output via a mini to mini cable and multimeter.

 

[AndyD2k]

It's essentially the same as using Shure's case to store the earbuds as well?

I could just have bad luck

 

[creyc]

heh, well wrapping the cable around an iPod nano is probably a bit different than wrapping it around say an Archos beast.

Many manufacturers UE, Ultrasone, etc ship their high end products with the cables in large loops, and then recommend that as the proper storage method.

Unless you're getting a lot of DC bias, you're definitely not blowing them out or you'd be deaf after a few pairs of that. heh. Most likely its a physical connection issue, i.e. wiggle the connecting wire at the bud and see if the sound comes back. Also check the plug end.

 

[Mercuttio]

Because of the shaper edges on the newer iPods (the nano in particular) I would say tightly wrapping cords around them would be a risk to the wire inside. A sharp corner is going to work harden with repeated wrapping a lot more than something rounder.