Since I've never used any of the models that you've gone through I won't pass judgment on the user...but given the posted failure rate it's EXTREMELY tempting. I started my long-term usage of Shure products with the E500 and yes they broke (cracked 'trumpet' arm on the right earpiece); Shure sent the SE530 (re-badged E500) as the replacement and they've worked great until I finally retired them after discovering sonic wonders of the Sennheiser IE-8. That aside, I WILL admit that I wasn't easy on either of my Shure sets at all (though I was surprised that the E500 broke while doing something as mundane as swapping eartips). In hindsight it's amazing how easy it was for me to forget that these were $500 IEMs.
ANY set of IEMs will fail if treated improperly; for instance, yanking them off via the cabling--even gently--instead of physically removing the earpiece by "digging" them out from your ear does wonders (NOT) to the connection points of the wire into the driver housing, for instance. The top-range E500/SE530 are notorious for having relatively weak contact/wire durability at this junction point, so it wouldn't surprise me if other models in the range also suffered from this.
My Senns use a detachable cable assembly, so in theory this should relieve some of the stress that pulling on the wire could place on either of the earpieces. Of course a good yank could also potentially damage the socket(s) that the cable itself plugs into. Of course, I didn't buy the IE-8 merely for its replaceable cable and any potential improvement in durability as a result (though having potential 3rd-party wire options was in the back recesses of my mind); these, simply put, sonically EMBARRASS the bejezus out of anything from Shure...plus I've always been a sucker for 'the Sennheiser Sound'. Not cheap, but well worth to my ears.
I purchased the E4c in 2006 at a cost of over $300. I had to return them twice for repair service during the warranty period. On the second repair, Shure sent the SCL4 as replacement in late 2008. Although I only used them a handful of times since receiving them, I took them on a business trip recently, and, guess what, the left phone became full of static and finally stopped producing sound. Before people blame the user, I always kept them in the hard-shell case and was very careful with them. Now Shure wants to charge me over $80 to repair them. Forget it. I've already paid that price with regard to out-of-warranty SCL3 earbuds (which, conincidentally, were also returned twice during the warranty period), and I think it's time to move on to another, more reliable brand.
Any suggestions? Looking for a great set of buds that are also well-made!
Thanks.

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