Heres a quick one.
Ive had my Shure E2cs (I think thats what they are) for a good 18 months at least. Probably nearly to 24-30 months I guess. I cant fault them having come from the Sony in-ear phones with the really thin cables...

...anyway. Lately the part of the cable that would loop over your ear has started to crack. To start with it was just one ear, and I put it down to my tendency to run the cables over with my wheely chair in my room. But now the other ones done the same thing.

Im wondering if this is some kind of material fault, where the rubber cabling with age starts to harden and crack? Anyone else noticed the same thing?

You can have mine if you want, theyre sh*t

This happend to me after about 3 years.  I think its a weak spot in the wiring.  I lost the left channel.

Im going to get some shute SE210s next I think.

Sam, if you want to send me your Shure E2cs (minus ear wax) your more than welcome to, Ill of course cover the postage.

Ive yet to lose audio quality from the cracking, as its just the outer cover. I taped one side up, but rather than walk around with uber dodgy looking phones Ive decided to just use them till the sound goes now. Was tempted to look into etymotics next time :shrug:

Theres a good range either way, its just what is the  best value for money at the time.

Mine are brand new, used them about twice. They just all out all the time, total sh*t.

Postage from here would be about 5 pounds. You can have them for free or you can make a donation to my bank account, up to you

PM me your addy.

Ultimate Ears and Westone UM2 are very nice.

Quite expensive on the UM2 side though.

Also, Sennheiser have very recently release a new range. The IE6, IE7 and IE8. Not sure on the pricing yet, but Sennheiser is generally very good quality imo.

Its the type of material the [cheaper] Shures use I think, Im pretty sure if you let them know they will fix it. Etymotics provide that kind of service at least.