I like IEMs and love that I can swap cables on them if they get damaged, but I can't keep having to buy new IEMs once I inevitable break or lose one of them because of the cable. My first pair, which had MMCX cables, I lost one of the sides because the MMCX cable had become loose and I was running and it dropped out, and I couldn't find it again. My second pair, which was a 2 pin connector, I had wanted to listen to music in bed with it, and when I woke up one of the pins had been lodged in the IEMs itself and I couldn't get it out for the life of me. Now, I'm back to cheapo soldered headphones, which is fine, but the sound quality was definitely better when I spent close to 100 dollars on the IEMs previously. Does anyone sell headphones with a locking mechanism, so that the stress of movement goes to the housing of the connector and IEM instead of the connector itself?
Sound wise, I was really impressed with the shure se205s and bought them for the same reason you are asking about. I have had 3 cables replaced under warraranty and one earbud along with it. If they have not changed anything, I would be hesitant to buy another set. The cable failures I had were all at the 3.5mm end not the earbud end and I was very careful about not bending them. I eventually got a short (3"ish) 90 degree adapter cable that I use to keep the main connector from having any chance to pull or bend.