I have gone through five pairs of earphones in the last year. FIVE. All of them have had the connection between the cord and the jack go bad. I've naively tried to deal with the problem by purchasing increasingly expensive earphones, but that obviously isn't working. I am LIVID. I'm not abusing the earphones, what possibly could I be doing wrong?

Apart from actual physical abuse of the connecting bits, I can't imagine anything that would cause that kind of failure five times, especially since it sounds like you're getting different makes. Are mice nibbling on them?

are they all failing in the same way at the same point? Is your placement of your device in your pocket at a strange angle, that is causing too much stress/strain on the connector area? Are you positive it's the headphones that are failing? Could it be the device? Try the headphones in other devices.

I keep my iPhone in my front jeans pocket, with the headphone port pointed up. It's hard to believe that I'm putting too much strain connector. But then again, why the hell does this keep happening? Is there something I'm not thinking of? It's definitely the headphones, I've tried them in different devices.

That sounds bananas, and my only suggestion is to get headphones at Radio Shack and buy the warranty. When they stop working, you get a new pair.

CJ goes through earbud headphones like crazy. I've bought cheap ones and nicer ones and price doesn't seem to make a difference. Will have to look into Radio Shack. Though, I don't know if we have one around us anymore as the one I knew of has closed.

I'm partial to Panasonic earbuds as they seem to hold up are comfortable and come in a variety of colors. Haven't had any break yet.

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Don't have an opinion about audio quality. I'm sort of tone deaf so I rarely notice the difference between different brands.

My problem is that I can't get any headphones to plug into my phone. I can't see that there's anything in the socket, but I still can't push the plug all the way in.

I keep my iPhone in my front jeans pocket, with the headphone port pointed up. It's hard to believe that I'm putting too much strain connector. But then again, why the hell does this keep happening? Is there something I'm not thinking of? It's definitely the headphones, I've tried them in different devices.

Tight jeans, small pocket, are you sitting with the phone in your pocket and headphones plugged in? That could totally tweak them. I'd suggest taking the phone out of your pocket when sitting.

If you are already doing that, I dunno.

or the hotness of the Scola is melting something ....

Do you even use anything to clean the cable? Is it an internal short or does the cable show physical wear at the point of failure?