8 years on and I'm still using them but 5 years in their life span the adjoining hinge did break vie an unfortunate twist that broke the small plastic clip on one side. Something that wouldn't have occurred if the hinge mechanism was an all metal construction. In the short term at least for a few years of my initial purchase I did try and protect them in general use such as re-looping the cable connection back round so the connection wouldn't break.
Subsequent revisions use a jack connection but in my experience, even those type of connections are not immune from breakage. With that Audio Technica Monitoring headphones are generally really good, but not without some issues that might occur very easily. They are not exactly the most comfortable out of the box either with a tight clamp to the head for most people and hard headband to go along with it.
To protect and extend longevity I employed some antibacterial based socks I got from M&S, and cut them up to act as covers, which protected against moisture and abrasions of the earpads. The blue and black strapping was later secured further after these shots...
A velvet bag is supplied with these headphones, but I didn't want to continually use the bag due to practicality.
