Yep, same thing happened to me, the first pair's cable broke after 8 months, sent them in. On 2nd pair one side sounded muffled after 1 year because a filter fell out somehow, sent them in again. Sold the third pair to a guy in the Netherlands, his wire broke and they were only weeks old, but Shure Europe replaced them. So I will be staying away from Shures for a while and I agree the ER4's sound better.