Really, the subject line says it all.  They break on me every few months and I'm amazed that nobody makes a sturdier wire to jack connector.

It's not as if I'm overly forceful or violent with headphones but after a few months the general wear and tug of being in my pockets means that the connection goes dodgy and I have to switch to a new set.  I now have half a dozen pairs from £20 Sonys to B&O A8s.  5 are sitting in a drawer broken and when my current set go in another few months, I'll take the time to spend an afternoon with some wirecutters, 6 new jacks and a soldering iron.

Doesn't any company sell 'indestructable' ones?  Similar to the hardbook laptops that are designed for the army and building sites?

While you have got the soldering iron out why not make your own short (6cm?) male > female jack lead. You could use some sturdy wire so things might just last longer, then at least it is the small extension that gets trashed and not the headphone plug...

Step1:

...... short (6cm?) male > female jack lead....

Not so short IMHO.

You meant mm i think??

Calvin:

They break on me every few months and I'm amazed that nobody makes a sturdier wire to jack connector.

It's not as if I'm overly forceful or violent with headphones but after a few months the general wear and tug of being in my pockets means that the connection goes dodgy and I have to switch to a new set.  I now have half a dozen pairs from £20 Sonys to B&O A8s. 

Bloody el mate, you must listen through head/earphones a helluva lot then..?

I'll wager u'll be stone deaf by the time ur 50

Gotta say, those A8's have got the worst headphone jacks i've ever come across. I got through 3 in a month whereby they simply came unstuck/unwelded.

I'm using BEATS Solo HDs now and they are truly fantastic.

I'm sure B&O was have a crude joke on its fans with those A8s.   Horrible sounding bass less things! Surely £25 would have been a better price. Yuk, they were nasty!

A8s are the only headphones that don't hurt my ears, I wore them non-stop on a 20 hour flight watching movies and didn't have sore ears at all. Apple ones hurt after about ten minutes.

I've never had one break though..... I have 3 A8s and an earset for my iphone

I bought my first set of A8s in December and I'm quite fond of them. I came from a set of Denon C360s which have some of the best and smoothest bass I've ever heard, but bass isn't everything to me. That said, the Denons have a mid and upper range lack - time for a switch.

Jonathan, I'm with you, they are the most comfortable things on the planet. I used mine to and from Germany. The only thing I don't like about the A8s is the amount of external noise they let in! When I wear headphones I want to be completely seperate from everything around me. I also don't want to bother the other people around me with my loud listening (I really wish everyone else could be so courteous!).

|Current Jack Status: Intact|

Agreed. A8s= comfort.

No problem with my jacks after 5 years of ownership.... but i barely use them now as I am not a fan of headphones overall.

Shock horror... I now use Bose noise cancelling headphones- but pretty much exclusively on aeroplane flights. They do the job.... but around the house I just subject my family to loud music whenever the mood strikes...

Jonathan:

A8s are the only headphones that don't hurt my ears, I wore them non-stop on a 20 hour flight watching movies and didn't have sore ears at all. Apple ones hurt after about ten minutes.

I've never had one break though..... I have 3 A8s and an earset for my iphone

Couldn't agree more!

They are splendid. Bought mine in 2004 maybe, been in use on and off, works perfectly. Pull them out of the jack by holding the jack-head, not the wire.

Well I walk to and from work as well as most other places (I live in central London) so I use my iPod 2x per day, sometimes 4x (if I'm going somewhere in the evening).  As for my ears I should be ok, 90% of what I listen to is Radio4 (talk radio) or podcasts on history and the like.   I only really put on music if I'm still 10 minutes from my destination when a podcast runs out.  Frankly I'm more likely to go deaf due to the ongoing roadworks around St Pauls I walk past each day.

Step1, that idea is fantastic.  Great idea I didn't even think about, I'll see how it goes although I'll probably leave my larger headphones with a standard jack.

If you remake/build the plugs use some heatshrink over the plug/cable exit  -  different coloured heatshrink is now available etc

tony

There is a fix on the internet somewhere for the lack of bass - It involves covering the little slits on the side with a dob of resin IIRC....