These have a good sound, no complaints, for the price range they are easily the best in audio quality I have heard.I have to rate this one star because in my opinion Sony has definitely implemented too short of a planned obsolence lifecycle for this product.I only use them in two environments - sitting at my computer and because I am a hobbyist concert taper I will occasionally use them when recording a show just for a sanity check to make sure I am not getting cable static or other artifacts that would not show on my meters.I do not exercise or jog with them or anything like that. Use while sitting and just carrying around is not exactly a lot of wear and tear. My third pair in less than a year just died. Always the same thing - one of the connections inside the bud construction starts to get static and within hours they are shot. That is not coincidence.Although I love the sound, sorry I will not buy another Sony earbud product of any kind.