My set of Sony MDR-EX71SL had stopped working in one ear. The insulation on those seem poor to me. It has a rubbery texture that over time just wore out. I did use them everyday for a few months, but I figured they should have lasted longer. I use my ear buds with my iPod Nano as well as my iPod Shuffle. I went back to using the standard Apple ear buds for a little while, but they really sounded poor and realized that I was one of the iPod users that turn the volume up really loud when the outside noise gets louder. After reading more about some of the hearing loss lawsuits against Apple I decided I should try to save my ears and invest in another pair of ear buds that would cancel out some of the noise. I purchased a few pairs of the Sony ear buds and they broke too easily so I was open to trying something new. I figured there was quite a few I could choose from, but since I have the tendency to break them since I’m not too careful I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a pair of Shure or Etymotics. I searched the Internet and found the BassBuds from Chwang Yi. The price of $29 seemed reasonable to and if I didn’t like them they offered a money back guarantee within one year. It was worth the risk and even if I didn’t like them it was a small price to pay if I didn’t like them.