Depending on your headphone/earbud style i have seen people who have de-soldered the OEM buds and just used the cables on a replacement set of buds. YMMV. but i know one guy that put some sony in-ear style buds on the Apple cables. he was a decent solder technician, so again, you may have some trouble if you aren't too good at fine-pitch solder work. but it can be done. I've replaced the cables on a few sets of BOSE headsets that the cables had been pinched or not long/too short for use. so i can vouch for doing it. i have thought about doing the same thing, but don't have a set of headphones that i've wanted to try it with as of yet.
good luck to you. and if you are willing to plunk down the green for it, the Apple In-Ear Headphones are actually quite good. I have a set and they sound marvelous. They have the control on them