Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I played the numbers game when deciding on a pair of earbuds for listening to voice podcasts on my daily 20 minute train commute. Figured that with a 4-out-of-5-star average on 870 reviews my chances were pretty good that I'd get a great product. Well, I've read the 1-star reviews and not all of them are by people who are sound-afficionados concerned with clarity, bass, etc. No, the majority of 1-star ratings concern a crackling and then total failure of one of the earbuds. My 1-star review falls in that category. I'd had these earbuds exactly 3 months when the right-side earbud started to die. At first, if I wiggled the jack or held the wire a certain way, and remained perfectly still, it'd come back but only go out again. I became so focused on holding/wiggling the wire that there were times I forgot what I was trying to listen to on the podcasts. Today was the last time I attempted the odd hold/wiggle/be still sychronization. Nothing worked. I think now it's gone for good and I'm down to one earbud, which is annoying and leaves me with mono-ear. Can't think of anything unusual I did. Just sat on the train and walked in the train station. Disappointing.