We all know kids have a reputation for losing things and are particularly hard on electronic devices. It makes no sense to purchase a n expensive pair of phones for children, when they might lose them or break them. Besides, most kids do not take the time or have an appreciation for the reproduction qualities that an expensive pair of headphones can provide.

When using a pair of earphones for when performing such activities as yard work and other physical activities, having a cheap pair of earphones available on hand makes some sense. If you have invested heavily in a set of expensive audiophile phones, you may be reluctant to risk damage to them when engaged in heavy physical activity. Of course the decision to use a lesser set of phones and live with the less than stellar audio performance of a cheap set of phones is a personal decision. There are many who will not compromise on their music listening experience, under any circumstances. Another downside to cheap eheadphones is that they tend to be uncomfortable, especially compared to a premium a more expensive pair of aftermarket earbuds, which in most cases will come with several sets of earbud tips for optimizing the fit to the individual user.

The downsides to a purchasing a cheap set of earphones are obvious to anyone who has used a set of default earbuds with their IPod or mp3 player and then experienced the improvement after they upgraded to a more expensive set of replacement earphones. Upgraded earphones typically will provide a shocking improvement in clarity and performance across the entire audio frequency range. Even a $20 pair of phones can significantly improve the listening experience over the stock earphones. The second area of improvement is enhanced comfort.

While you may understand that the sound and comfort inherent in a cheap set of earbuds is a trade-off you may be willing to make in order to economize, purchasing earphones that simply become inoperable in a matter of days defeats the purpose. For this reason I would caution against purchasing ultra-cheap set, say in the $5 range. Typically these will not hold up to the rigors of everyday use, and will easily break. For these reasons, I would suggest spending at least $10-$12 as a minimum. You may not end up with the best sounding or most comfortable earphones, but at least you will enhance the possibility of acquiring a set that will hold together.

Finding a set of earbuds that create an effective seal between the earbud tips and the ear canal is imperative in order to experience music that is accurately reproduced. Unfortunately a tight –sealing fit is not always consistent with comfort. The challenge is to find a earphones that offer a comfortable listening experience even during extended listening sessions. This is further complicated by the fact that everyone’s ear anatomy is different. This is why a more expensive set of earphones will come with several sets of tips of different sizes and in some cases even different materials. With cheap earphones, customization of fit is limited and therefore one must suffer with the resulting limitations in the area of both sound quality and comfort.

Finding the best earphones at any given price point is a challenge. If you are limited to budget-wise to cheap earphones, you must be prepared to live with compromises in the areas of comfort and sound quality. But by staying away from purchasing the many offerings that are available in the under $10 range, you can reasonably expect earphones that will be usable for more than a couple of days.

Our somewhat arbitrary categories are broken out by price; those with a street price of under $25, under $50 and under $100. Here we go:

Best iPod Headphones under $25:

Best iPod Headphones Under $50

Best iPod Headphones Under $100 (actually under $80)

Klipsch S4: If I were shopping for a set of phones for under $100, these would be my choice. With no glaring weaknesses reported they appear to deliver, outstanding audio performance, comfort, and a goof track record in the durability department.

There are actually several styles of headphones/earphones and there can be confusion about the nomenclature because different terms have different meanings, depending on the individual.  Listed below is a summary of the various classes of earphones.

Earbuds
Earbuds generally refer to the small cushiony tipped devices that either fit at the opening of the ear canal, or in some cases inside the ear canal.

Earbud Headphones
Just another name for earbuds

Headphones
Generally refers to the style of headphones where the two speakers are attached to a common strap that fit over the head when worn.  The speakers themselves fit entirely over the ear in the traditional DJ headphone style configuration.

Earphones
I have found that this term is tossed around rather loosely and can either refer to earbuds or headphones.

Types of Earbuds/Headphones

Google Adsense and the DoubleClick DART Cookie
Google, as a third party advertisement vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. The use of DART cookies by Google enables them to serve adverts to visitors that are based on their visits to this website as well as other sites on the internet.

To opt out of the DART cookies you may visit the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following url http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html Tracking of users through the DART cookie mechanisms are subject to Google’s own privacy policies.

Other Third Party ad servers or ad networks may also use cookies to track users activities on this website to measure advertisement effectiveness and other reasons that will be provided in their own privacy policies, Best Earphones has no access or control over these cookies that may be used by third party advertisers.

Collection of Personal Information
When visiting Best Earphones, the IP address used to access the site will be logged along with the dates and times of access. This information is purely used to analyze trends, administer the site, track users movement and gather broad demographic information for internal use. Most importantly, any recorded IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Links to third party Websites
We have included links on this site for your use and reference. We are not responsible for the privacy policies on these websites. You should be aware that the privacy policies of these sites may differ from our own.

Changes to this Privacy Statement
The contents of this statement may be altered at any time, at our discretion.

If you have any questions regarding the privacy policy of Best Earphones then you may contact us at tom@bestearphones.net

This privacy policy was generated by the Easy Privacy Policy plugin for WordPress.

Name:

E-Mail Address:

Subject:

Message:

CAPTCHA Code:

Powered by Fast and Secure Contact Form