I have these in-ear earphone bought in early 2009 and since then in operation. Both in terms of the sound and the durability, I can not fault it and I'm still very satisfied. Since I insets mainly in sports, I can indeed confirm that there is cable noise, but I feel this not as disturbing as that may, depending on the sport but be different. Sonically, I find the CX400-II as well, if you do not count to the group of extreme audiophiles. All in all i would buy again. If there were the CX 400-II with a microphone, I would now prefer this variant, however, so they can be used on the smartphone also to hold talks.