I put a CD on and it was only coming out in distorted mono so, the cable had been going I have replaced it a year ago with a Maplin solutioin but every time you moved it crackled so I assumed the socket had finaly given up. Anyway I went to buy some new headphones costing me £65, Beyer DTX900s and the same problem occured, it turned out the internetconnect in my CD player was loose., Anyway it wasn't a waste of money becuase they sound quite a bit better than my old ones, bass isn't quite as good but everything else sounds so much more natural and I can hear things I could not hear before. I guess I can still use my Philips for dancier tracks.