ok, i bought these from target, they costed $40. when i first put them in, i want to do a comparison, so i got out my headphone splitter. i plugged in these in one side and the factory supplied earbuds in the other. i put one ear bud of each type in each ear to see if i could tell the difference. i was really dissappointed, i couldn't tell the difference at all. i was going to return them.

but then i remembered that these aren't earbuds, they are in-ear headphones. so, i did the "lift the tip of your ear and insert method" this made all the difference. they have great highs and midrange, but not super great lows, but thats probably because the driver in them is super small. the bass is decent for me, but if you like it loud, your going to get a good amount of distortion.

heres what i love about them:
they look awesome, i only wanted white headphones
they are super comfy
3 different ear cup sizes
easy to clean
sound pretty good
seal out alot of sound
comes with cool little case
it's made by apple

heres what i don't love:
a little pricey
hard to insert if you don't use two hands
some distortion at high volume
** you hear yourself breathing when you wear them (you also will be alarmed the first few mins. when the cord hits your chest, not good for active wear)

overall, i'd probably shop around a little more first, but i think i'd buy them again

I'm amazed anyone likes these.

I purchased these because normal earbuds feel uncomfortable to me after about 30 minutes or so. I found the sound on these in-ear headphones to be thin and lacking severly in bass sound. I ran some sound comparisons between these and the original earbuds by listening to a song all the way through with one set, then all the way through with the new headphones. I then had my tone-deaf roommate listen to them as well. We both concluded the same thing - the new headphones sucked.

I know I had the earphones positioned correctly, as I returned these within about 2 hours and bought the Sony in-ear headphones instead. The sound quality between the Sony in-ear headphones and the Apple in-ear headphones had no comparison.

Avoid these if your music quality matters to you. If you don't care that much, then they'll probably work, but I need my music to sound the way its supposed to.

I have small 'ear holes' - perhaps it's a disabilty, i don't know - but I do know that I am not the only person in the world like this.
So, I am limited in the ear phones I can use - the one's that ship with iPods simply do not even begin to fit in my ears. SO - I spend $40 on the in-ear type to have them stop working afetr 2 weeks... twice. Yes, I didnt learn my lesson the last time - and the same thing happened.

I also had problems with Apple's RCA cable (connecting a laptop to external monitor) - I went through 3 of these - and they all stopped working in about a month.

I don't think I will ever learn my lesson, because I just purchased ear-buds again.

I purchased a pair of these headphones because I found the pair bundled with the iPod to become very uncomfortable after a while. Initially they were great: extremely comfortable, great sound, and no tangled mess. About two months after my purchase the right earbud suddenly produced no sound. Thinking that I perhaps inadvertently damaged the cord, and because I was very annoyed with the lack of sound balance, I decided to purchase a new pair with a gift card. Yet the same problem has again occured, this time only after a few weeks of use. I am a big user of various electronics and know for certain that I was not misusing this product, so I am convinced this was niether my error, nor simply bad luck. They were great while they lasted, so hopefully I can convince Apple to exchange my bad set for a new one. Buyers Beware!

I have three sets of in ear headphones as I do not want to miss out on exploiting the possibilities of my ipod. These are a) originals, b) a set of "hi fi" ones which have light in ear soft plastic flanges that cut out ambient noise, and c) the ones under review. I must add the caveat that I listen mainly to improvised (jazz) and classical music with particular emphasis on the piano in both genres. THe originals have a strong bass but poor fidelity, the hi fi ones have good fidelity but are less comfortable in the ears, whilst the ones under review are comfortable, have excellent high end fidelity but lack bass presence. In conclusion, I am happy with the latest earbud headphones especially when playing piano music but switch back to the originals when I find the bass presence is crucial - acoustic bass, I mean.