So my trusty Shure canalphones SE530s bit the dust — for a fantastically great audio experience, they sure skimp on the physical manifestation, with shoddy plastics and poor solder. I have replaced them with a pair of Westone UM2 ‘phones. I think they’re likely slightly worse, from an audio fidelity standpoint, but they are clearly better constructed. The leads are tightly braided, there are strong collars at the base of the earpieces and at the 1/8” plug at the end. They just feel less fragile, which is crucial, as the primary applicaiton here is as an adjunct to my portable listening devices, which often get jammed into pants pockets or dumped unceremoniously into the backpack.

An entirely unexpected bonus is that they can take the Shure soft-foam tips (the ones like nice high-end noise blocking earplugs), which yields fantastic audio isolation. I recommend these headphones unreservedly, especially if like me you are deeply suspicious of active noise cancellation and want to be able to listen to your music in noisy environments.