My iPod earbuds are damaged

I am quite sad and a bit disappointed with my iPod earbuds. About two days ago while listening to Adam Curry's DSC I started hearing static in the earbuds at certain bass level (I am not a audio expert so I might not be describing the problem correctly). Initially I thought it might have been on the podcast but no I tested a couple of other podcasts, a Midnight Oil song and yes deep base sounds now cause static in the earbuds. The really disappointing part is the iPod is only 2 months old and I have been reasonably careful with it. Normally I am very hard on technology items but I was given very clear instructions from my wife that if the iPod broke there would not be a replacement.

I searched Google but did not find any real help, iPodLounge had a similar but different issue that caused static

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