My uncle was a lineman for thirty years and swore by his cheap hardware store headphones. Then one stormy night his audio cut out right as the crew chief was yelling a warning about a live wire. He switched to a higher end set after that and never looked back. Sometimes the extra cost is about peace of mind when you're in a noisy, dangerous spot all day. I get the spare in the glove box idea, but for daily use I'd want the reliable one on my head.

Honestly, that's insane for a VF-2. I've heard of some older Fadals hitting 50k hours before they finally gave up the ghost. It really shows what basic maintenance and good operators can do for a machine's life.

Oh man, @miad19, that reminds me of the time I tried to cram a huge heatsink into a tiny ITX build.