My primary IEMs that I use most often are my SSP. I got it around 2020, and it's still doing good today. The cable is pretty yellowed, and the paint on the shell is all scuffed up, but they're still working as well as they did when I first got them!

I'll go (oh wait someone commented first!) second. Got BLON BL-03 in late 2020s, my first ever IEMs. Loved them to death. However, halfway there, the Left guy split into two shells. Glued and soldered them till they gave out. Lasted approx. a whole year.

They're doing OK, although with IEMs in general it's worth it to at least be able to repair your cable. It is so thin... The prevalence of connectors in the earpieces is a very good thing although many budget IEMs don't have these parts secured properly. With IEMs it's particularly important to take care of hygene and clean them regularly and store them in the pouch. If you can manage the above, you should be able to own a pair for a few years. At least to me personally a driver failure never happened. Maybe they just haven't managed to figure out how to screw it up.

Just a reminder to add a "see results" option to polls or people will pollute the results as they want to see the outcome.

I see. Which IEMs are you talking about in particular?

Budget != Chi-fi.
I'm sure my ER2XR will last forever.

ER2XRs. Heard great things about them!. How long has it been since you have had them?

I had a set of Arias that died about a year of limited use. It's too bad, because they sounded amazing.

I don't know how long cheap Chi-fi stuff will last, cause they are still too new, but I've seen people with 10+ year old Shure and Etymotic IEM's.

Next month I'll have 1 year with my ES4 (my first IEM) on December my EDX Pro will also join and on January my TA1 and SSP will too, after that the rest are not that old.

The ES4 still going but I don't use them since my TA1, SSP and SSR are just too good daily drivers for my needs so I just stopped using them since May, on January I passed the EDX to my sister (because I gifted her some BLON-03 on Christmas but she lost them) and still going strong, the TA1 is also working.

As for Moondrop, all my 4 (soon to be 5) Moondrops all still work just fine, SSP and SSR doesn't have the inner paint anymore, my Nekocake Achy Acht still working (although the silicone case started loosing some small letters) and I'm babysitting my Starfield, I would love to daily drive them but I fear someone would try to steal them on the public transport so I'm being extra careful with them, I'm waiting my blue Kato to arrive.

I clean them with facial degreaser (micellar water) and wipe them with cotton, if you use alcohol you're risking yourself to mess with the glue on the filters and in the long term they will fall off and also damage the paint, after that I store them on their cases with a small silica bag and let them rest over night, never had unbalanced issues even though sometimes I use my SSP while exercising and they are still working, planning to get some Chu to see if they work as well as the SSP, got my suspicions that some people don't take care of their personal stuff.

Edit: planning to get some car PPF for the Starfield although I doubt it would be any help because the Starfield paint issue it's because of small impacts (like hot wheels), thinking to also add the PPF to the Chu test alongside with an acrylic paint coat and MMCX reliability.

I won't go back all the way to 2009 when I bought my first pair of IEMS, but the most recent problems that I remember was Surise earphone enclosure opening because there was simply not enough glue. This is dangerous because you can rip the circuit board from the driver without it.Then TRN IEM had it's connector pushed inside the enclosure. Again, nothing that can't be fixed with glue. The rest were Sure IEM cables that people want fixed because they can't find replacement. Any cable with a microphone will have these issues, because these cables are so delicate and third party replacements often don't have the functions that people want like three button control or quality of the mic.
The hygene part I don't think I need to explain apart from things that use tuning filters at the tip, which of course will get dirty, you'll try to clean it and you'll lose one in the process.

I bought the Chus from Amazon a month ago, mainly because of the recommendations here. Within less than a month of light use the right earbud went to maybe 20% volume max. Luckily I could return them.

I don't mind spending more £s and I'm still looking for something that will last, will keep an eye on this topic.

I’m not the guy you asked but I’ve had my ER2XRs for about 18 months. I use them 3-4 times per week for 6hrs in my wood shop. They have given me zero issues even with the abuse.

I've had them for more than a year, don't know exactly.
The fact you can replace the tips and also the filters and also the cable makes me think that unless they fall on a wet floor they will always work.

I've had Bluetooth Haylou and Ugreen that die maybe after 2 years. Either the battery or charging case dies, or the earbud just opens by itself.

For wired, kz decals fades over time. Still works thou.

This thread makes me want the SSR\SSP

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When I was in middle school, my $5 earbuds lasted about a year before disintegrating.