Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

How much do you pay? Why?

I used to always buy the cheapest earbuds I could find. Having received a quality pair with my iPod (at least, better quality than I usually get), I am now willing to spend a little more on earbuds.

Headphones, though, I still go for cheap.

I don't do headphones...

I used to do cheap earphones and then they'd break and I'd be sad (granted, I chew on the cord when I'm nervous at work...that might not be good) so I paid more for the pair I have now. They've been great. Not broken at all!

I have some Koss KSC-75's that cost about $15 and are awesome! (I highly recommend this headphones. ) I also have a set of Ultimate Ears IEM's. They cost about $40, and are very nice. I have a hard time getting them seated correctly though.

If I had more money, I think I would like to get a nice set of Grado's.

To be honest I'm scared to spend a lot. I've had bad luck with every set I've purchased no matter the price. Although right now on my computer I use a pair that I spent $25 on, but it's a headset with a microphone on it. For my ipod I am still using the ones that came with it, but did wrap cloth around them. Yes, I know this reduces the sound quality, but it saved me from having to buy a new set. Or walking around campus with a headset on.

chillygator wrote:I don't do headphones...

I used to do cheap earphones and then they'd break and I'd be sad (granted, I chew on the cord when I'm nervous at work...that might not be good) so I paid more for the pair I have now. They've been great. Not broken at all!

So your new ones have more durable cords? (I chew on my headphones cords too lol...)

I just started listening to a borrowed CD with my KSC's, and was blown away again. These are seriously the best 'phones I have ever listened to, and they are cheap!

Fredjikrang wrote:I just started listening to a borrowed CD with my KSC's, and was blown away again. These are seriously the best 'phones I have ever listened to, and they are cheap!

Would you recommend them, even if I was willing to spend quite a bit more on earphones?

That somewhat depends on what kind of phones you are looking for. The KSC-75's are pretty portable, but are not for library usage. (Too much sound leakage.) So, for small phones, they are the best that you can get for less than $50, and compete well with a lot of them under $100.

Now, if you are okay with getting some bigger headphones, as in full size cans, go for the Grado's! You can get SR80's for just under $100.

If you want a library friendly set of headphones there are a couple options there as well, but you will be paying substantially more for the same sound quality. A good set to start with would be the Sennheiser CX-300's, which can be bought for about $35. Or you could try the Creative EP-630's, which are very similar. Or you could go a little higher end and try some Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3's or some Etymotic ER-6's for about $70-80 each. (I got the Super.fi's for about $40 on sale. They are very good headphones, but I still prefer my $15 Koss set. )

I keep the ones that came with the MP3 player until they break... Even iPod headphones break on me. So then I go out and buy $9.99 headphones

what's the scoop on Skull Candy?

In my experience, which I'll admit is limited, they are garbage. I bought some Skullcandy buds not so long ago (I think they were about $20) and they were much worse than the $10 sony buds I had.

i have the 100 dollar bose earbuds and i will never go back to anything else. i bought cheaper ones, but the sound quality was so bad it made me want to cry. so now it's bose or nothing.

Imogen wrote:i have the 100 dollar bose earbuds and i will never go back to anything else. i bought cheaper ones, but the sound quality was so bad it made me want to cry. so now it's bose or nothing.

Are these what you're talking about? And you'd reccomend them?

Imogen wrote:i have the 100 dollar bose earbuds and i will never go back to anything else. i bought cheaper ones, but the sound quality was so bad it made me want to cry. so now it's bose or nothing.

I love the bose ones!

Sony's a cheap, but nice alternative...

But I have the bose over the ear headphones...

I don't recommend Bose. You can get better sound quality elsewhere for less money.

If you really want to go in depth, go check out the forums at http://www.head-fi.org/. This is a forum full of audiophiles, many of whom have spent thousands of dollars on headphones, and have tried quite a few models. There are a lot of topics there about headphones in different price ranges, and different types. If you can't find a topic that you think gives the information that you want to hear, try asking them. They are pretty helpful. (I spent quite a bit of time there a while ago, when I was looking for some new headphones. Most of the headphones that I recommended are ones that were recommended to me by them, or that I found were well thought of.)

i have a pair of koss portapros.. paid $30 for them, and they quality is wonderful. but they are ugly as butt.

yellow m&m wrote:

Imogen wrote:i have the 100 dollar bose earbuds and i will never go back to anything else. i bought cheaper ones, but the sound quality was so bad it made me want to cry. so now it's bose or nothing.

Are these what you're talking about? And you'd reccomend them?

those exact ones. and if you lose the little silicon ear buds bose will send you a new set for free. i ordered 3 extra just because i could.

I love my Sennheiser HD-580 headphones. You can get better sound, but these are at a really sweet spot in the price vs. performance curve. I got a steal on them (they'd been discontinued) and paid $130 plus shipping and handling. I'm with Fredjikrang about Bose: they make decent sound equipment, but it's overpriced for what it is. You can get the same quality elsewhere, minus the hype, for less. Head-Fi is a great resource, like he suggested; HeadWize is another one. Don't get scared off by the prices people talk about on these sites; they also discuss lower-end stuff, though a poll on there would have very different price points than the one here.

What to get really depends on what you're looking for. Generally speaking, full-size headphones will produce better sound than smaller ones, but will be harder to carry around. Also, you'll need better equipment to really make them shine. Driving my 580s with an iPod just doesn't cut it. I prefer an open design, but like Fredjikrang pointed out, they'll leak a bit of sound (and let in noise from outside). Closed headphones generally won't sound quite as good, but can seriously muffle exterior sounds. Before I settled on the HD-580s, I was also looking at the HD-280s and Koss's Pro4AAT. The Sennheiser HD-280s seriously muffle outside sounds--up to 32 dB. Each of these two models run around $70.

I also have a couple pairs of stock iPod earbuds, and they're better than nothing when I need something portable and won't have a good audio source anyway.