These headphones are GREAT, the hubby has a pair and I snag them from time to time. Great to know they stand behind their product and before someone starts moaning about a the price, some things are worth it to some people. If you don't want to pay $90 for headphones then don't.

@LuvJones: That's a point that gets overlooked a lot here. Sometimes it's worth paying extra to get a good quality product, particularly when it's something you use a lot (as the OP does) or intend to have for a long time.

It's always nice to see a company standing behind their product. I can't justify spending $90 for headphones right now, but if that changes, I'll definitely be giving V-Moda a look.

The replacement process for these is painless, too bad I have went through 3 pairs of them before realizing you could get them replaced (the fourth). Even yet, I don't know if I can get a replacement of the replacement if they break again.
This whole process would be even more painless if the apple store I purchased them from would do this return themselves.

While he may have had his problem resolved, I was not so lucky. My headphones were actually shocking my ears and I was basically told, too bad, they are out of warranty. This was even the second pair that I had after they replaced the first pair (for the same problem), which was within the year warranty. A pair of $100 headphones should last longer than a year. What a waste of money.

They probably were so efficient in dealing with his problem is because they've had a lot of experience with warranty repair. I sent my pair in three times during the one-year warranty, and about two months after the warranty ran out, that pair was no longer functional. I was going to ask them to honor the warranty since I'd only had that pair in my possession about three months, but then I decided, why do I want another defective pair of headphones? There's a design flaw with the audio jack, I think, leading to frayed wires. They'd reinforced the audio jack on the final replacement pair I received, though that one failed pretty quickly, too.

Other than the reliability issues, they are fantastic earbuds. If the redesign cuts the failure rate, they might be worth the money, but I don't intend to try again. I currently have the Maximo iP-HS2, which I don't like quite as much (don't fit in my ear as snugly as they should), but they haven't broke yet.

Similarly, I had almost the same experience a few years ago, albeit with AKG - a very well respected headphone maker amongst audiophiles. I had purchased a set of 401s for around two benjamins from headroom, and about two years later the cord started coming out of the right earpiece. I called to see how much a repair would be, and they refused everything except sending me a replacement pair. 401s were no longer made, so they sent a better set of cans instead. All they asked in return was for me to ship my pair back. Maybe there's some sort of disease amongst headphone manufacturers? Servicitis?

I've stopped buying wired headphones because they all wear out like this after only a month or two. Doesn't matter how much I spend on them. Unfortunately I've been finding wireless doesn't have much advantage - instead of cutting out because of a loose wire, they cut out because of a ridiculously weak transmitter (I have yet to find one that could even manage one metre). Oi.

I would NEVER buy from vmoda again. After two pairs of their earphones... each one went in for warranty replacement. Then the replacements had to be replaced. First time around with my duo they went in 3 times in one year for replacements. When that warranty expired, I bought a replacement pair from amazon on the cheap. The second pair broke a few months in and were replaced. The replacements broke last week, and supposedly my new ones are now in the mail leaving their offices. Maybe I will see them next week sometime.

I do have to say their customer service has gotten speedier and they are making an effort at it now (a year ago? Not so much.) Just google their name and see all the customer nightmares and broken products.

You really can't beat the sound and comfort of these... just too bad they never thought about designing a product that you can use for more than several weeks of easy wearing. Glad to see they are making improvements with their customer service though - granted you will have difficulty finding a number to call on their site.

I bought a pair YEARS ago, and I loved them to their death. the rubber wore and frayed and eventually they only produced static, so I checked my options. The warranty hadn't expired and I decided to exercise it, and they gave me a new pair within a week.

11 months down the road the same thing happened and the company, V-Moda offered to replace THAT pair too. I took them up on their generous offer and essentially got 3 years of use out of a pair of headphones that I bought years ago and got free 2 replacements for. V-Moda definitely goes above and beyond to support an already stellar product.

The only reason I didn't get a new pair when this pair broke, despite still being in warranty, is that I wanted the Mic and controls on Apple In-Ear model, which has been great, and also i have to admit I felt like at this point I would be taking advantage of the company that had been so good to me. I still consider their product to be among the best available, but i decided my needs had changed enough to warrant shopping elsewhere...

@LuvJones:

I have a $150 pair of sennheisers that blow my old $20 pair of headphones out of the water. I bought them after borrowing my roommates sennheisers for a while, getting used to them, and then realizing my horrible mine were.

WRJ

Great sound. Great customer service. Unfortunately, poor product. I went thru 3 pair of these in as many months. The cord frayed constantly. I'm not hard on my stuff, but dayum.

Upon the replacement of the 3rd set they were promptly ebayed, which is sad because they sounded great.

If you're in the same boast as I check out the Nuforce ne-7m / not affilated with nuforce in any way. they just make a great product./

I bought my first pair of V-Moda vibe duo headphones a little over a year ago and, through normal use, I have gone through 4 pairs. Yes, their replacement process is relatively painless, but when the headphones fail an average of every 3 months, I don't feel like I bought headphones, so much as rented a pair with an expiration date. Not to mention the fact that I spent $100 on a pair of headphones that I don't get to use in the week or so they're being replaced -- meaning, I've gone at least 4 weeks without being able to use them. I spoke to customer service about their short-lived headphones and I they actually told me that it's a common problem and they'd gladly replace them forever!

V-Moda gets a big fat FAIL.

I have a pair that I bought from Costco a couple of years ago. The bass driver went out on the right side, but they still sound pretty good. I recently bought a pair of Shure 110s as I understood that they were very good headphones for the price (~$80 for which I paid $50). The Shures are garbage. No bass response whatsoever and the rest of the sound was tinny. I promptly returned them and am on the market for a better pair. I might go V-Moda again, but does anybody have advice on a nice pair of $100 earbuds with excellent bass response? I'm a DJ, and listen to electronic music 90% of the time, so bass is important to gauge kick drums and basslines. Of course, I don't use these for mixing...for that I have Denon's. :)

@LuvJones:
It's not that I don't want to pay $90 for headphones, it's just that I can't afford to at the moment. I'll definitely keep these in mind though, because nothing makes life a bit more tolerable like top-notch sound quality.

I had pretty much the same problem as the poster, except that I bought mine directly from their website.

The jack came apart on my headphones after 8 months, but they still worked. A few months later, one of the ear buds stopped working and there was static in the other one.

Just last June, I was in L.A. and I brought the ear buds to their corporate office. They said there was nothing they could do, because they were now out of warranty (even though they failed in-warranty).

I persisted and they offered me a 50% off coupon. Great, so I can spend another $50 for a pair of ear buds that will probably fail again.

After this story, I've emailed their support people again. Maybe I'll get a better response, maybe not.

@syr2012: You don't really get "top notch" sound quality from a $90 pair of headphones. Now if you go with $300+ Grado or Sennheiser headphones, it's a completely different story.

Heck, I love Grados so much, that I'd compare their cheapest cans alongside other folks' most expensive.

I had these... Worst product ever designed! They look cool, but failed on me after two months of daily use. No way! Never again!

ACK! Websites that randomly start playing music the moment they load! And with no obvious way to shut it off!

ABP www.v-moda.com/* to the rescue!

V-Moda use to hide their phone on their website and the only way to contact them was using their web form. Their headphones are of very low quality, and while they were one of the first to offer decent sounding headphones for the iPhone way, way back in the day, there are now much better options in the $100 price range.

static is the worst thing ever for headphones, I got mini electrocuted in the ears once and the pain was terrible :(

@Mike Myers: I used to have a pair of these. After each time I had them replaced, we would start a counter and place bets on how long it would b until I had to get them replaced again. I think the shortest interval was 3 weeks and the longest was a little over a month.

They sounded great, but great sound doesn't count for anything if they aren't working.

@Datacloud: try westone or ultimate ears superfi 5 extended bass

I must admit, V-Moda does very well when it comes to upholding their warranties, but I've gone through 3 sets of Vibe Duos for my iPhone.

@Taliskan: What are you all doing to your headphones? I keep mine in the pouch and use mine at least every week, at most daily for an hour or more. The worst problem I had was the piece of metal over the headphone jack came loose, and that was easily fixed with super glue. People are talking about their headphones breaking constantly, and either I got lucky with my headphones and they've worked well for nearly a year straight, or everyone else isn't taking care of their headphones.

@supercereal: don't forget a nice amp... ;)

@SadiquaQuincy: for many of them, yes. Figure this: whole I don't know about V-Moda, AKG, Senn, Shure, and Westone, at the least, have major professional and/or medical presences. Headphones are surely a profitable business, but they have reputations to maintain. Bad PR with some headphones here and there could become lost sales of microphones and such.

'course, my AKGs I should be able to just order parts for. I'll take a soldering iron to it before sending it back!

While some IEMs may be quite durable, after two replacements of Shure E3c (discontinued now), I think the itty bitty things are just not meant for the wear of being beaten up while stored.

Would NEVER buy VMODA again. Two sets fell apart in less than 14 days each. all the bling is not held together well. Thankfully purchased at Apple....no questions asked return. Got a pair of Ultimate Ears 4Vi. Awesome build quality. Just warrateed them and they are replacing them with the 5Vis. Great Service....better product IMO.

i purchased a pair of v-moda vibe duo's back in april 2008 through an apple store. after reading this article (mine need repair too), i noticed something on the apple store receipt: "warranty effective through august, 2009"

so what i'm going to try is bringing in the headphones and receipt to an apple store and see if they replace it on the spot. no waiting! wish me luck!

@HopeNerq: Its not going to happen. Save your trip.

@donjumpsuit: After writing this, my headphones broke for a 5th time. Its over V-moda, its just not worth it.