I dropped my iPhone on the cement the other day when coming home from work late at night - I must have been delirious. The music started skipping shortly thereafter. I decided to give it a reboot to see if it would fix it. The phone decided to not come back on. I immediately booked an appointment at the Apple store. I went in later that day. They pushed the power button and my old phone came on. They were puzzled - "What's wrong with it?". I walked away, relieved.

I decided to check and see if they had the new headphones, as my stock headphones have had a horribly bad track record. 4 pairs have lost volume in one earbud. They replaced two of them and my newest two have gone bad within 6 months. The new model is lauded as the cheapest earbuds with separate bass and treble drivers.

I have a pair of shure in-ear headphones that I like, but they don't have a mic and control like these do.

The sound is nice and I was enjoying them until I slid my foot along the ground.

I received a severe shock to my ear canal.

You haven't been shocked until you've been shocked in the ear. What a surprise. I suspect Apple is selling these to Guantanamo Bay for interrogation purposes.

I had one more shock and decided to box them back up. Back to the store!

I suspect it's due to the metal ring around the unit - most other units are plastic. I've heard crackles in other in ear headphones, but never got a shock.