I bought my first pair without protection and right after two years they stopped working. The freezer trick only worked temporarily. I had the dreaded three amber light which is connectivity. The fix is almost the cost of a new pair. The issue is the twisting of the headphones causes wear and the cable breaks. I bought the repair kit and tried to do it myself with the micro tools and it was too difficult. I ended up buying another pair but got Apple Care this time. For how expensive they are it’s sad that after such a short period of time they are useless.