I've personally auditioned (and when I say auditioned, I mean actually used each model for at least a week with my own music listening) a wide range of earbuds including models that cost $300-$500. I have a fairly good background in pro-audio/music engineering, so I'm pretty picky when it comes to good sounding audio.

Personally, the standard iPod earbuds don't do it for me. Curiously, the iPod D/A converters which drive the earbuds are actually very high fidelity, so your iPod will sound much better if you would pair it with some good earbuds. In fact, the iPod D/A puts to shame the PowerBook G4 headphone output quality.

My personal choice are these SONY earbuds ($26 US). SONY is demonstrating their clear superiority in audio products here, and even the earbuds that cost $20 US are superb. If you want to make sure your iPod is visible to potential thieves, they come in white as well ($27 - 2004.04.29: I just ordered a pair). And, for those of you who like the ear-clip thingie, these ones are white also.

If you know someone is getting an iPod for christmas, and you want to put something significant into their stocking, get them these, and they will feel the love.

Highly recommended (I'm using them now).

Other earbuds I have tried in my quest for favorites:
Etymotic - found them prone to clogging with earwax and lacking bass response. High-frequency response is stunning, however.
Shure e2c - did not find the sound particularly good, and had a hard time getting them to stay in my ears.
Shure e3c - same basic complaints as Shure e2c.

Labels: earbuds, headphones, iphone, ipod, psp