[andy popp]

Faced with the perennial and much dreaded 'what do you want for Christmas' question I realized my headphones were getting a bit knackered. Does anyone bother with anything other than standard issue for ipod headphones. Is it worth spending more (or even less)? In-ear or out?

[Bubba]

It's well worth getting some decent earphones, it'll be a massive improvement over standard.

I bought some bottom of the range Shure earphones years ago and they've been fantastic - sound great, isolate you from ambient noise and well built, it's not often something like that lasts so long.

I guess the equivalent today would be these ones.

[Mike Tyson]

I won a pair of Sennheiser PX100's (i think that's what they were) and they were awesome until my housemate lost them.

I think they retail for between £20 & £30 and fold up nice and neat. They are over the ears style and I think were trying to have the look of walkman headphones from the 80's. They cancelled a huge amount of external noise, oh how I miss them so!

[rainbow]

I won a pair of Sennheiser PX100's (i think that's what they were) and they were awesome until my housemate lost them.

I also rate Sennheiser for ipod etc.  These are the ones I use loud, clear and good at handling deep bass.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-Neckband-Headset-Intergrated-Remote/dp/B004LY3LP2/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1322394619&sr=8-10

[andy popp]

Cheers everyone, I wasn't sure ipods put out a good enough sound for the headphones to matter. The Sennheiser's do look good and the PX100s have nearly £15 off at Amazon at the moment.

[tomtom]

For those long haul flights, it may be worth getting a pair of noise cancelling ones? I've a (relatively) cheapy pair of JVC ones and these make all the difference... I even sleep with them (on flights) on, as they cut out a whole chunk of that aircraft drone etc...
T

[Muenchener]

The Sennheiser PX100s sound great but don't seal out enough external noise for use in trains & planes.  The slightly sealed version (PX200?) is a bit better but not that much.

That said, I've had poor experiences with in the ear phones, two of the three pairs I've had having died very quickly.

[dobbin]

i have some shure ones which are amazing. about £80 5 years ago. Still love them.

[Monolith]

Does anybody have a pair of Bowers and Wilkins headphones? I tried a pair on in John Lewis during a mince about town and was very impressed. Retail at 250 long ones though Andy which I'm sure Dobbin and others would suggest that this isn't a necessary amount of money to spend on good sound?

[dobbin]

depends if you have the cash I suppose, and of course how much they will be used. If you will wear them for hours a day and they will make you happy then go for it!

Bowers and Wilkins seem to do well in reviews that i have seen. Here are some of which :

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/07/28/ten_in_ear_headphones/
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/19/product_round_up_ten_noise_cancelling_headphones/
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/03/24/ten_on_ear_headphones/

[andy popp]

Pair of Sennheiser PX200 somethings currently winging their way to me via Santa - apparently. Better carry on being a good boy.

[SA Chris]

Nice. I've got the PMX 200 (neckband version with earhooks) and good sound and v comfy. Prefer to in-ear type which I find uncomfortable after long use (no doubt due to odd shaped lugholes).

[Ru]

Does anybody have a pair of Bowers and Wilkins headphones? I tried a pair on in John Lewis during a mince about town and was very impressed. Retail at 250 long ones though Andy which I'm sure Dobbin and others would suggest that this isn't a necessary amount of money to spend on good sound?

I've got a pair of P5s: they're the shit. They don't sound sound 5 times better than PX 200s, but they're very pretty. I once read somewhere that you should only buy things that are either useful or beautiful and these tick both boxes as well as any headphone can. Bit of an extravagance though.

[Monolith]

That's a good enough review for me Ru.

I also noticed that every person that had purchased them on Amazon wrote a review to say how their lives had changed. On the one chance I got to sample them in John Lewis' recently, I was super impressed. They really are a beautiful piece of design too aren't they.