Sturdy earbud headphones

I love the portability of earbud headphones, but hate the short lifespan of just about every pair I've had. I throw them around a decent bit, going from pockets to backpacks to sitting around, but honestly I expect them to last me more than a week and a half - unlike the pair I bought a week and a half ago that just today crapped out on me (one of the speakers popped off and won't stay on).

So can anyone recommend a pair of earbuds that'll stand up to some abuse? Hopefully for a decent price as well. Sound quality isn't of particularly big importance for me on the go (I have a good pair of circumaurals that I use when I'm in the room doing serious listening), I just need something portable to listen to music when I'm out and about.

How much do you want to spend? Most earbud headphones are pretty poor quality, and the ones that are actually sturdy can run pretty expensive.

Bose is probably the best way to go for reliability, and you get unmatched sound quality as a bonus, however, you're probably looking at $80-120 going this route. Still, a $100 investment one time is better than throwing $30 away on some worthless buds that break a week or two after purchase.

I was afraid of that. I guess there's no getting lucky like I did with my big headphones (they were like $20, have great sound quality and I've beat the crap out of them for the past three years and they still work wonderfully)

i have a pair of Sony Earbuds that have lasted me over 4 years so far, no joke, with awesome bass response, that only cost me aroud $20, i think i found them at Wal*Mart or Circuit City can't remember which one at this point... but of course i never turn the buds themselves over 50% volume, i already have tinitus and believe it was caused by almost always having earbuds in at a high volume a few years back, besides too high a volume distorts the audio quality of any recording on any speaker system...

my pair of earbuds have been pretty good:p I've had them since about 9th grade (and I used to use them a lot!) and the only thing is the padding is cracked/trying to come off. sadly I don't have a clue what I did with them. i think they might be at school.

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Originally Posted by Elly

i have a pair of Sony Earbuds that have lasted me over 4 years so far, no joke, with awesome bass response, that only cost me aroud $20, i think i found them at Wal*Mart or Circuit City can't remember which one at this point... but of course i never turn the buds themselves over 50% volume, i already have tinitus and believe it was caused by almost always having earbuds in at a high volume a few years back, besides too high a volume distorts the audio quality of any recording on any speaker system...

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I saw some Sony ones that I considered, they looked to be of fairly high quality.

Oh, Allie, are those the earbuds that you used with your MP3 player that you gave me a while back? 'cause if so then they're in my room... somewhere :)

why do you have them >:[

I've never really looked at cheap ones. I did try a few pairs for stage use, but they cost like $1,000+. =\ Would be awesome to have though. XD

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Originally Posted by Rubah Lapah

why do you have them >:[

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You gave them to me!

I've seen reviews for ones that were like handcrafted with wooden and gold plated parts that ran about $5000, and the reviewers were like this sounds amazing... but no thanks.

give them back; you're going to break them >;[

Break them Stu, it'll be funny.

I have a nice pair of Philips ones. They are pretty standard, but they sound jolly nice.

Why can't you just stick with the headphones then? They're more comfortable than earbuds, IMO.

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Originally Posted by Hsu

I've seen reviews for ones that were like handcrafted with wooden and gold plated parts that ran about $5000, and the reviewers were like this sounds amazing... but no thanks.

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I could see that. Gold plated anything in audio equipment makes for better quality -- gold is a better conductor for electrical signals (i.e. audio signals). I don't know if I'd pay $5,000 though.

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Originally Posted by Momiji

Why can't you just stick with the headphones then? They're more comfortable than earbuds, IMO.

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Because people might find them more comfortable than headphones? (especially the ones you can get moulded to your ear) And they are better quality? And the have the ultimate in noise reduction? I mean, the most expensive ones are generally used for live stage use, but they are also good for studio monitoring and stuff like that.

Personally, I'd rather go with earphones for everyday MP3 use (I'll use my headphones for uncompressed audio at home though). I have been thinking of getting some decent earbuds for home recording/mixing though.

he wants something he can shove into his jeans with his ds when he gets to class.

I'll shove something into Hsu's jeans.

OOC:	I'll have you know, five minutes after I posted my previous message, the right earphone of my headphones busted off.

Get whatever you prefer, I suppose.

I donated survey points I've earned toward a pair of comply noise reduction earbuds xD so he'll find out if he likes them in 10-15 days :p