[LockeWiggin42]

I've owned three brands of IEMs: Etymotic, Shure, and now Klipsch. And with each brand, each one has used TERRIBLE cables.
 
Etymotic's cables (I owned these five years ago, so forgive me if I'm out of date) were thin and fragile. The sound they made rubbing against my shirt was louder than the music I heard. I sometimes felt that one good yank would snap them. (And then there was the issue with having to replace the filters every few weeks. Ugh.)
 
Shure's cables grew brittle after about six months. I could literally set my clock to it. But I loved the sound, so I tried to make the best of Shure's generous warranty as I could. I went through three models of Shures, having replaced each one via warranty at least two times before "upgrading."
 
Finally, my most recent acquisition, a pair of Klipsch Custom-3s, died after only two months TO THE DAY, thanks to the kinks caused by the nylon sheathing. Left channel is completely out, and I have a feeling the right channel would have died after another week or two if I hadn't stopped using them today. Ironically, the rubber cables underneath the sheath seems like it would be perfectly durable and would stay flexible, unlike Shure's brittle cables.
 
None of the $30-$40 headphones I've used have had these kinds of numbskull problems. But the sound and isolation have never been great.
 
Can anyone recommend $150-200 headphones that both sound great AND are durable? I listen mostly to classical, and to music like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPgW4FMt6ak), as well as to movies and TED Talks. EDIT: I'd also like it to have good isolation. Like, *really* good isolation.

 

[slntdth93]

Well, the early Shure's were known for cracking cables and the Klipsch C3 did have the kinking cable problem well known too.
 
A suggestion from reading the forum imo are the Fischer audio DBA-02 or the Panasonic HJE900 (which also have replaceable cables)

 

[j57park]

Ya I've heard of cracking cables for the Shure but I have never had that problem fortunately.
 
And I live in Toronto and winters here can get absolutely unforgiving and most times I don't wear the cable under the clothes and just put it over as I usually wear my ipod after I wore all my clothing and although cables and the foam tips do get really hard walking outside for couple minutes, my SCL3 and SE115 cable never failed on me. And I never use those carrying case that comes in the package.
 
A lot of people here seem to agree that Sennheiser IE series have excellent cable; after all they are kevlar enforced. My experience with the IE8 seem to agree with them. Classical music is a bit debatable however. Earphonesolutions.com say that IE8 is great for listening to classical music whereas some users here say that bass is too heavy for accurate classical portrayal. I listened to Beethoven 9th symphony, Mahler's Quartet for Piano and Strings in A minor, Vivaldi's Four Season recently and in my honest opinion, the bass is not overpowering. And I come from Shure SE115 which had virtually no bass. I am loving the sound; and I think soundstage is really important for classical music and IE8 has fantastic soundstage, as people will agree.
 
I have to say isolation on the IE8 is not nearly as good as Shure, but with the UE silicone tips I am using, I have no complaint. 
 
I can't comment on another popular IEM here which is the sm3 because I have never tried it but hopefully someone can add a bit more insight on those.