The one of the earphones that came with my MP3 player broke - I should’ve replaced them sooner anyway because they didn’t appear to be designed for human ears, but I’m not getting around to it until now.
They don’t have to be very high end - I’m just going to be using them at the gym a few hours a week. Comfort is good, but I can deal with mild discomfort. Mostly I want good sound quality - and preferably something with noise blocking capabilities so that I don’t have to compete with the overly loud gym audio system and damage my hearing.
So they have to stay on your head while you exercise strenuously?
You might want to check out ‘clip on’ style headphones. On the other hand, foam headphones that you put over your ears won’t block noise all that well. To get good noise blocking, you really have three choices - over-the-ear sealed phones, which aren’t too practical for exercising, or ear-canal phones (not ear buds like the ones that came with your MP3 player, but ones that slide right into the ear canal like a hearing aid), or headphones with active noise cancellation circuitry.
Here’s a good overview of your options for portable headphones: Replacing Cheap Headphones.
Here’s a link to an article about ear canal headphones.
I have a set of Koss Porta-Pros, and I think they’re still about the best value out there. They’ll block a little noise, but not much, but they are comfortable, stay on your head, and sound great. They’re also virtually indestructible and they fold for carrying.
Wanted to bump once before I ordered tomorrow. Thanks for the info - it got me looking at various stuff.
I’m not sure I want to try the ones that rest in your ear canal - it just sounds like it could be very strange feeling and uncomfortable, and I didn’t really want to spend $80+ on portable headphones to find out.
The Koss KSC-75 clip on type got surprisingly good reviews on audiophile sites, so I’m leaning in that direction. I’ve never had the clip on type - do they usually fit securely enough that you don’t have to worry about them when you’re moving/bouncing/whatever?
I’m probably going to end up going cheap anyway, something around $20 - I don’t use them enough to justify expensive headphones - so if I get something I don’t like I could always grab something else.