Well now you're making me feel like I'm shaming you for wanting surround audio; I didn't mean to -- sorry!LOL, I didn't bump into or break anything. And I'm not trashing a great set of surround sound headphones with an excellent noise cancelling mic just so I can plug something, which I'd have to buy, directly into the Rift. I'm considering doing the 3D print/Koss modification, just for the convenience, but I'm waiting to see what Oculus does first. It's not that terrible dealing with separate headphones for now.
Anyway, I'm sure the failure was just infant mortality and a coincidence (although the HMD may have died hours earlier for all I know).
I care, too. I'm using 5.1 speakers as headphones just don't cut it for the immersion. I haven't ever tried true surround headphones (multi-driver) but I assume that would get pretty close.
Some cable ties to make that extra USB join with the Rift S multi-core would be a good solve for the extra cable issue.