Sennheiser CX 400-II Stereo Ear-Canal Headphones - Black

Decent sound, good fit, poor build quality
I purchased these headphones to listen to at work, on the subway, while traveling, etc. I listen to my Droid phone and my iPad, and the sound quality is adequate. There's more bass than those white things that come with iPods, but not really a lot more, and the sound is certainly more balanced and less tinny. I really wish I had spent more for better sound, but that's just me, and I don't really think the sound quality was out of line with the price (I paid around $50).

I also like how they fit in the ears (I use the larger plugs). They can be pushed in very snugly to provide isolation from almost all surrounding noise, or if I'm at work and want to hear a bit of what's happening around me, I can push them in a little less. Fine.

The build quality, however, is poor. I take very good care of these headphones, and always keep them in their pouch in my backpack when I'm not listening to them. After about six months of use, the rubber 90-degree-angle mini-jack tore...

Good earbuds for the price
While not the best earbuds money can buy, these are lovely earbuds for the $40 range. I've bought two pairs for myself.

Build:
The first lasted a year and three months and the second pair lasted a year and a half of daily use and abuse. I was not particularly careful with these earbuds (shoved them in a pocket of my bag and left plugged in, or falling asleep with them in) and had I cared for them better, I'm sure they would have lasted at least two full years.

Comfort:
The tips for the earbuds stay on well and fit my ears wonderfully. (I used the medium sized double flange tip, the the wide variety of tip that come with up the chances of finding a pair of tips that suit your needs.) I could easily wear these earbuds for three or four hours, but eventually they caused a little pressure which became uncomfortable with very extended listening.

Sound:
While these will not completely blow you away, the sound quality is definitely in line with...

Sennheiser CX 400-II earbuds

An affordable upgrade to the earbuds that come with an ipod. These come with lots of soft rubber adapters to make the proper fit inside your ear. The volume slider is a great feature for situations where the player is in a pocket or jacket and you need to adjust the volume for some reason. The only part of the design that is weak is the right-angle plug. Be sure to grip the plug as close to its end as possible (the part closest to the ipod) when you remove the plug from the ipod. If you grab the right angle section and use it to unplug the earbuds from the ipod on a regular basis, eventually the metal plug that connects inside the ipod will separate from the plastic right-angle housing. I broke my first pair that way but like the product so much I bought a new pair.

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