I purchased my set of Custom 3s in July 08. Out of the box, the cable was kinked because of the very tight wrapping by the packager.
I had given it time to try to unkink itself, but I too am not very happy with the fact that I paid $300 plus local taxes for a set of headphones that have a permanently kinked cable which is leading to premature wear.
If I was a Klipsch Quality Assurance manager, I would visit the Custom 3 packaging warehouse to correct this problem before they get indunuated with RMAs for worn/broken cables.
On a positive note, these headphones are like manna from heaven. I never thought I would find a set of in-ear phones that actually sound better than my MB Quart QP-240 open air monitors (bearing in mind I'm comparing these things without a headphone amplifier on my portable player versus plugged into my home audio setup).
Noise isolation is excellent, and the over the ear design has been what I have been waiting for. As a motorcyclist, I have tried all manner of earphones, and when I discovered the Custom 3s, it was almost as if the designers were reading my mind!