interesting that this topic has been brought up. As for slicing the earphone cables and joining them, I have done that already with my old sony earphones that came with the HD3. the wires inside were cut due to long use, I found the approximate place of the damage and cut that portion off and joined them. Yes, you have to solder the wires coz they are film insulated. As for the sound quality, those earphones were already screwed up (more than 2 years use) so I cant say really, but there didnt seem to be much change. Also I have an idea regarding the converter thing. the s700 earphones are different in a way that there are two more contacts in the jack probably to power the NC circuitry in the earbuds. so if you find out whats going through those contacts ( i suspect some dc power), we can use those two wires to supply the same externally. So we not only have these earphones working with a ordinary jack but also get them to cancel noise!! howz the idea, any takers?? we can easily atempt this if we have a spare extension cable for the earphones. btw, i am an electrical engineer, but i did not use any engineering
