For years, I struggled to sleep on long flights to and from China. With many experiments, I nailed down the ambient noise to be the key culprit. That led to an iPod investment and the quest for a good pair of earphones. (Those white iPod ear-buds were useless.)
High quality earphones come in two categories: noise cancellation or noise isolation. The nose cancellation ones first cover the entire ears, then their fancy electronics produce sounds that are the opposite of the ambient noises. To the wearer, the experience is near miraculous. The best known brand is Bose. The $300 or so price tag did not stop me, but their bulk did. I couldn’t possibly sleep with them on my head, let alone allocate precious hand-carry space to store them.
Eventually, I chose Shure E2C and loved them. They are the noise isolation kind, designed to block noises from entering your ear channels. They are light-weight, small to carry, and offer excellent sound quality. I was happy to pay $250 or so for a pair. When I needed to replace them, I found that Shure renamed their models. While I was hesitating and researching, a professional musical instruments store recommended M-Audio IE30. They are comparable to Shure, only the cable is a bit stiff. I flew in them for a year and have been quite happy with them. Until I upgraded my iPod to Touch.
IPod Touch is full solid-state and suitable for exercising. For that, these high-end earphones are not good: they are too expensive for outdoor sport uses and tend to fall off my ears. I bought a pair of Philips SHS3201 hooks. They worked and I wiped them after jogging, until a friend’s pet cat nibbed on them. Sigh, those wimpy cables were no match to cat gnaw.
Interestingly, Sony MDR-J10 sport earphones project sound front-ward, instead of into the ears. They could have good reasons for this design, but it did not work for me. The sound fades in and out when I jog and the ambient noises further degraded the experience. I found I would rather run without any music than keep on fidgeting with the earphones.
By this time, I have become a reasonable expert in earphones. Here is the summary:
| Price | Sound Quality | Storage | Cable and Fit | |
| Shure E2C, E3C | ~$300 | Superb | Hard case | Sturdy and flexible |
| M-Audio IE30 | ~$250 | Superb | Hard case | Sturdy, less flexible |
| *Philips | ~$15 | Good | None | Flimsy, good for outdoor sports |
| Sony | ~$20 | OK | A pouch | Flimsy, good for threadmills |
Yes, Philips is the best value by this reviewer.
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