The Theory of Inverse Headphone Durability

[Hero in a half shell]

I have £25 Sony earphones I bought in Tesco, no fancy brand or type attached to them, and they've done me 2 or 3 years now, the only hassle I have had with them was when I stood on one of the buds and split the screw off casing, so it wouldnt stay screwed on, but I filled it with bluetack and it has worked perfectly ever since.

 

[AstylahAthrys]

I had a cheap pair of headphones that were under $10 and they lasted me a year. Likewise, I spent $30 on a pair once that lasted me a couple months. This theory is completely legit.

 

[purf]

Brand makes a difference.

Skullcandy break almost instantly with crappy sound quality, while Sennheiser products have brilliant sound and build quality.

Uh, no. Particular case, probably, but still:

Spoiler: break almost instantly, you say?

well, this - Sennheiser - broke almost instantly. And it didn't surprise me exactly, because: the way the headpiece is connected to the earpiece means that pretty much 1.5mm² have to stand all the stress that is put onto this joint. One of the products that I file under #fail.


however, I again have a Sennheiser, previously featured here, and while the cable is a bit flimsy, it's comfortable and the sound is very nice.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Brand makes a difference.

Skullcandy break almost instantly with crappy sound quality, while Sennheiser products have brilliant sound and build quality.

Uh, no. Particular case, probably, but still:

Spoiler: break almost instantly, you say?

well, this broke almost instantly. And it didn't surprise me exactly, because the way the headpiece is connected to the earpiece means that pretty much 1.5mm² have to stand all the stress that is put onto this joint. One of the products that I file under #fail.

I meant as a rule of thumb -_-

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

Buy good brands and good models, they shouldn't break often. For example, Shure SE215s are great and I've had my current pair for a year with no problems, they cost about $100 and deliver sound quality comparable to reference-audio.

 

[LetalisK]

In my experience they get slightly less durable and more wanky up to a certain price range, then after that they start increasing in quality again.
Some brands differ from the norm though...

It's the auditory uncanny valley. XD

 

[Vault101]

I bought an $80 pair of sennheiser earbuds and they have lasted almost the longest...I think it may be the brand

 

[Nerexor]

For me it's more the theory of earbud longevity. If I buy earbuds, they work for a long time (unless its skullcandy, those buggers never last for me for some reason. Hell, I had one pair that didn't work right out of the box). But every time I've had the big over the ear headphones, they break after a few months of use, no matter which brand.

 

[Deadyawn]

On a related note, is it just me or does it seem like most earphones have built in redundancy but for only one earpiece. I've had about five different earphones over the past year because I had to keep replacing them because one of the ears stopped working. And it was always only one. Is this some sort of consipiracy? Or am I just insane?

 

[BartyMae]

I've been using the same 120$ pair of noise-canceling Sennheisers for the past...three, four years? Still work perfectly. My first pair of decent quality headphones, and am quite pleased with them. My only real complaint is that they're heavy...especially considering that they came with the thick, coil-y phone sort of wire. On the other hand, that makes it so the wire never gets bent/ruined...so...I guess I prefer it, haha.

 

[surg3n]

I've been quite lucky, first off I find a pair of Bose earbud things for £25, still using them, awesome quality, comfortable, great noise reduction etc. Best 25 bucks I ever spent. I use these things every single day, and I've gone through dozens of pairs before I got them, typically it would be a full on break, or a broken wire, and I'm shopping again, but as I said I been lucky.

And secondly, my Sennheiser headphones are still going strong and sound awesome. I think they cost £40, and I'd choose them over any skullcandy/dre/gaga/douche&co headphones on the market. Those 50cent headphones are aparantly pretty good, but I wouldn't pay the asking price for those. I like my headphones to encapsulate my whole ear, there's nothing worse than tight headphones that dig into the ear cartilage, go big or go home, that's my motto .

Really, I think it's better to find a good manufacturer, something that will be good, and will last, rather than going for the equivalent budget option. I'd rather have pre-owned than cheap. Apart from the ones I have now, I completely agree - seems the more I spent on earphones the shorter their lifespan... especially the wires breaking... cheap earphones crack open like acorns, and expensive ones end up with broken wires. Of course, sometimes it's my fault - I have killed a few pairs by them falling out of my ear, and into my coffee.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

You guys all spend way more on earphones than I do. I bought an £8 set that have lasted me for about a year now and still going strong. The pair I had before that was also about a tenner and lasted the previous year or so.

I would never pay £80-£100+ that some people here seem to have done. That just sounds insane to me.

 

[redisforever]

I got a pair of ear buds with a cheap $80 MP3 player, which, incidentally, is the best MP3 player I've ever had, and they were super-comfy, and durable, despite looking like they'd break if you looked too hard at them.

The player was the Transcend MP860. I've had 3 of them. One broke (my fault), and I lost the other two.

 

[dangoball]

Just get Koss with lifetime warranty and you're golden.

I don't really care for headphones much, my brother is a longtime Koss customer and he rarely complains.

 

[elvor0]

Yeah, headphones are pretty shoddy the more you pay, thus I just keep with cheap ones, they tend to last longer and if they break it's only £2 for a new pair. Although, the ones that came with my iphone have lasted me two years and have yet to start freying, so I think I might actually *shudder* have to endorse apple earbuds, although they are £26 new ¬¬

 

[Qitz]

Brand makes a difference.

Skullcandy break almost instantly with crappy sound quality, while Sennheiser products have brilliant sound and build quality.

This. Add JVC to the list with Sennheiser. I have a pair of JVC HA-RX700 on my head right now and they've lasted a lot longer than the shit Skullcandies I had previously.

Same goes with any ear-buds you get with devices, Apple ones especially, the bundled ones are shit 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time. Or ear buds in general, I prefer over the ear headphones because the sound quality is A LOT better because you're not getting your sound through some tinny little buds.

 

[Rule Britannia]

I use Razer moray gaming earbuds to listen to music, it would suck to play video games using these :/. Sorry if this sounds like an ad for razer :/.

 

[Imper1um]

I don't think that's right, because I cheaped out on $15 headphones and was changing them out every 3-7 months due to the cord breaking. Last year about January, I broke down and decided to shell out the extra $125 for some nice Wireless Logitech Headphones. I'm going to have to get them warranty replaced within a month (they keep cutting out), but they had a good 14 month run with no issues.

 

[templar1138a]

Way I see it, cost doesn't determine durability. I've stuck to cheap headphones (<$20) and they've lasted anywhere between two weeks and 6 months. Better to spend around fifteen bucks every few months than forty.

I would buy cheaper, but I have a hard time finding ear buds with behind-the-ear clips at that price.