I've had both expensive earbuds and expensive headphones crap out on me. But even if headphones won that category, it still means using shitty earbuds/headphones when I'm killing time listening to music at school waiting for class to start. When my last earbuds went out, I asked my dad if I could use the credit card he pays off for cheap headphones without paying him back. So I bought $15 headphones. How bad could they be? Oh my god they were bad. When I first used them, my heart sank. But my dad decided to be fucking awesome and out of the blue just ordered me some new Bose earbuds without me having to ask him, and I didn't have to pay him back. I am very glad to have them.