what you need to get is the hugest pair of 1970's headphones and plug it into your shuffle. then you can run with the big dogs

Belated thanks for the advice, Stewie.

I went ahead and got the Shure E4s. They're pretty good. The sleeve you choose (they come w/ foam, soft + hard rubber, and the multiple-sealing disk type sleeves) makes a huge difference in the sound. I like the expanding foam sleeves coz they block out noise best, but they dull the highs and boost the lows. One of these days I'd like to get the Sensaphonics custom-fit sleeves.

None of this will ever be as good as my big AKG astronaut headphones, but those are too damn hot to wear right now.

oyrgawd wrote:Thanks for the tips. I think I'm going to go for the E4s. I kind of wonder if the ported design will reduce the isolation some, but I bet I'll be able to live with it.

Actually the porting takes place inside the enclosure, so the isolation on the E4 is the same as it would be on the E3, E5 or E500. The driver itself is a sealed box and there is a small vent on the back it. But it's all contained inside, the vent only increases air flow behind the driver which improves low frequency response.

oyrgawd wrote:The sleeve you choose (they come w/ foam, soft + hard rubber, and the multiple-sealing disk type sleeves) makes a huge difference in the sound. I like the expanding foam sleeves

Me too, especially when I'm on a plane (with snakes).

Actually, I noticed that one set of those foam sleeves lasts only for about 10 hours before either getting covered with earwax (gross) or not really isolating the airplane noise much. That's why I ordered tons morefrom Shure. I'm already half-way through my first packet of 10.

http://www.bang-olufsen.com

Here you´ll get the perfect headphones... (look for the earphones under Accessories

Great, and they sound soo clear...[/url]

Do really big headphones work with really small portable systems, like Ipods? I'm no technician but don't bigger phones need more power to vibrate a bigger cone?

Just askin'

Josef K: Some will work, some won't. I have a big set of Sennheiser HD280's and some Sony 7506's that are driven to acceptable levels by an ipod. But higher impedence headphones like a Sennheiser HD600 do not get nearly as loud, and need more power.

There are adapters that connect to the 30-pin i/o on the bottom of most ipods and deliver a line level signal that can be connected to a very small portable headphone amplifier that will drive most large (high impedence) headphones.

they dont fit in my ears. or rather, they fall out. i dont use them.