That said, these are the best Shure headphones I've owned yet.

BTW, I did purchase an audio Technica IM02 for $200 from AMS with a 2 year warranty, and it sounds as good as Shure se530 if not better.2 weeks later, I received the earphones back from Shure broken as they were.

For a little company from Niles, Illinois, these guys are showing the rest of the world what it is to be a top-tier, customer-obsessed company and they have my loyalty for life!Go Shure

I should also mention these Shure's are very efficient with power - ie the volume setting required (for the same loudness in my ears) is much lower, maybe 3/10 versus 7/10 for the Ety's/Bose's.

Shure makes these readily available, which tells me that it's a know issue, but a revenue stream for the planned obsolescence of a poor quality cables

Shure's reputation for quality gave me confidence that they wouldn't fall apart after a few months and the fact that the cable and each driver was replaceable was a plus

and I recently replaced the cartridge on my turntable with a great Shure product