Hello everyone! First post here and all...

I bought a lot of good headphones over the years, however the wire kept breaking or the head would stop working for no apparent reason. I was really cheap and I soldered a few back together into different headphones and whatnot, but that went out of buisness when I ran out of solder. So please, tell me whats a good enough sounding earbud with exceptionally strong wires. Thank you!

Moderation: Moved to Audio Hardware.

The Shure e2's are on sale at musiciansfriend.com for $50. They seem fairly durable to me (as far as buds/canal phones go)

I own these, and like them. Not such a fan of the green, but what can you do. They have held up for me well, travelling with me now for about 6 months.

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/produ...?transid=500634

I've had Etymotic er6i's for a year and a half. I wear them every day for hours and they've held up great. I've probablty gone through a dozen of the replacable foam tips in that time.

But you and I shouldn't get our hopes up - as you say, the Shure's are $50; the Etymotics are over a hundred and we're giving advice to a guy who had to stop repairing his old stuff because he couldn't afford to buy a little solder.

Probably out of price range, but I've really been enjoying the Bose IE earbuds ($99). They take some break-in, but work very well indeed.

I can't use in-canals - the shape of my ears makes that too painful, and I know others with the same problem, which rules out the Etys and such for me, too bad. The Bose are the only earbuds I have ever used with solid bass and a smooth treble instead of the usual midrange blare. Super comfortable.

With big 'phones there are many choices, and I use Grados, Bose and Sennheisers there. But for earbuds the Bose are my hands-down faves.

Plnelson, your comment made me laugh. I'll look for the mentioned earbuds everyone mentioned on ebay or something I guess, and hope that they dont break easily.

As I said, mine have gotten extremely heavy use for a year-and-a-half and (knocks on wood) they're still going strong.