What would cause this?

I have a Sony Bravia TV in a corner of my living room. There are archways on
either side of it, so I ran a fifty foot cable for headphones from the headphone
output of the TV, up through the ceiling behind the TV, across my attic about
fifteen feet, and snaked it down through a wall, where it comes out to behind my
sofa and I can plug in the headphones. I need headphones because I live about
200 feet from Interstate I-95 and it's impossible to hear the TV when the
windows are open. I also use the headphones at night when my wife is trying to
sleep.

Lately, the sound through the headphones is breaking up, fading in and out, and
sometimes I guess it's only giving me one channel. An example is watching a ball
game. I hear the crowd noises just fine, but can't hear the announcers. On some
shows, I hear the background music but not the characters or narrators voices.

If I fool around with the connection between the female end of the extension
cable and the male end of the headphone cable, I can hear that it sounds like a
bad connection. I can get it to sound okay, leave it sit there, out of the way
where no one can touch it, and after a while it still starts its fading, and
breaking up. What would cause this with no one or nothing touching the
connection?

I've bought a new cable to run through the ceiling, but I'm waiting for cooler
weather before I tackle a job in the attic.

Thanks.
.

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