Just a thought:
Thin wires are a benefit in designs where bending and flexing are prevelant. A thick wire would develop hight stresses than a thin wire.
Yours might have a wire that was routed improperly causing a problem. Don't chuck them, see if you can figure out where teh break occured. It's probably worth fixing.
the wire fix is easy it's the spring that pop when you open them up and didn't see where they came from. It's not that hard to figure out though but when it happens you say** what was that. Also placing them over a garbage can helps to work on them,you have to turn then upside down to get them open. Finding the right size can was the hard part for me because I went to homeboys site and read the write-up on how to fix them.
I look at it this way I owned analog set for 6 years maybe longer and know usb for as long and that's the only thing I had to fix. I'll stick with CH made in USA and don't have to replace them every couple years like others.
The best thing about them is if you take advantage of the CH Control Manager and learn how to use this program. There are endless things that you can make them do if you take the time to learn how.