Last a long time. Not sure why they took so long to break in but glad I stuck with it. As with a lot of his previous work the novel has a spiritual theme running through it but, whilst I myself and not a spiritual person, I still managed to engage in it. I cant say enough how much I love the sound that comes through these little ear speakers. Installation was a BREEZE. I recommend ordering a size bigger than your normal size, so I should have got an XL instead of a L. The upside of that negative is, again, excellent wet surface traction. They?re easy to use and connected to my phone within seconds, overall really love these I will probably get some longer ones for other applications - because they wrap back on themselves, the 12" ones dont reach as far as I had expected. They should at least be honest about that.