Snapper

Gee, I could swear that expatmatt and ka-boom took pictures of my headphones, because mine look identical to theirs, bare copper wire and all.

I am having the same problem. I demo'd a pair of Custom 3's that I ordered directly from Klipsch last year. The cables were soft and plyable, and I never had any kinking problems. I ended up returning them for a pair of Image. I forgot them on the train one day, so I decided to go back to the Custom 3's this time. I ordered them from Amazon this time, since I had $300's in GC's and the new pair I got is quite different from the first pair. The cables are stiff and not even close to being as plyable as the first pair. The wire on my first pair straightened out almost immediately, but this second pair never has. All of the kinks that were their from the original packaging are still there. The inner portion of the cable started coming out of the braiding within a day or two right next to the memory wire. Now it is coming out right next to the housing by the 1/8 connector. I have had these headphones for 1 - 1.5 months, and I always put them in the case and coil the wire up like others have shown in their pictures. I am so disappointed, and I am starting to question the build quality of these headphones. The rubber stress relief portion next to the metal housing started ripping on my Image headphones. I only had those headphones for around 6 months, and they started ripping at least a month or two before then. If this is the type of quality Klipsch is going to put into their headphones from now on, then I want nothing to do with them. Right now I can't help but feel some buyer's remorse for not spending the additional money on the Westone 3's. Hopefully my replacement Custom 3's will be better. If they are not, I will likely sell them and buy something else instead. Too bad they don't have replaceable wires, or I would just buy a better quality 3rd party wire. Before anyone flames me for this being my first post. I came on here to try and find out where to find the serial number, and then I saw the OP. I felt compelled to add my own experience, and I don't see how it is possible that the materials haven't changed from that first pair to the second pair I have now.