Quote Originally Posted by Buffalobiian
My $40 earbuds don't work anymore. It's got a couple of design faults in it which I noticed straight away. For some reason, the manufacturers thought it was a good idea to make the cord out of rubber instead of plastic. The rubbing transmits the sounds all the way up into your music. Even though it's got sound canceling silicon plugs, you still get another form of sound interference.

Rubber also means it gets yanked around alot when something brushes past, as opposed to plastic. That, combined with a poor design at the tail/pin junction meant the internal wiring is now busted after 2 months of use.

I'm just hoping there's some sort of warranty, though I doubt it. Bitch.

(FYI, these were Griffin tunebuds, and Griffin offers a 1 year limited warranty, which I'm not sure my local retailer will acknowledge. )
I went back today and got a refund after I couldn't find a satisfactory replacement (they didn't have that model in stock). There were quite a few people at the refund/customer service desk too. QC slacked off during Xmas stockup? Who knows.

So I walked off to the Hi Fi shop with my refunded $40 and got a different pair (with reinforcements at the end of the cable) for $80

I never thought I'd be willing to pay that much for earbuds. I guess once you get used to in-ear phones, you can't go back. 2 years warranty is nice though. At least I know I'll be guaranteed a fair amount of usage out of these.

For some reason, rubbery cords seems to be a feature of in-ear type earphones. Does it insulate sound better or something? There's still the rubbing sound transfer, but it's not as bad as the previous pair. Having to wear them deep(er) in doesn't help neither, since the tight fit guarantees the rubbing will be transferred to noise in your music.

Oh well, guess it's a necessary drawback for clear yet portable sound.