To the sound I can not say much sooo. I hear so audio books and for me it is perfectly adequate.
Among the cables:
The Normal cable is sufficient for me from when I use the player in front of Bach or on the side carrying. But I'm only 1.66m tall -D and 5cm longer would not interfere there.
With the extension of the player I could without problems somewhere in the backpack wearing if I wanted to. For bags on the body that would be too long. As the cables are quite stiff are the somewhat if the cable is too long the body from where you will easily hang in there Teit. But even then, the headphones do not fall out of your ears :-P