I just came back here this morning to see if there were any more suggestions. I'm glad I did. I just bought 2 pair of the Monoprice 8320's :
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10823&cs_id=1082303&p_id=8320&seq=1&format=2
and
I bought two pair of Maxell 190336 Crystal Ear Buds from Meritline for just under $10 with free shipping :
http://www.meritline.com/showproduc...rystal-ear-buds-with-swarovski-elements-black
(use $5 off coupon code "MLCR30YN")
Lastly, I'm looking at a set of Sennheiser CX150's for $26 shipped from Amazon.com. I don't know if I'll buy the Sennheiser CX150's, but I'm thinking if I don't like the rest, I'll grab those and a few other cheap ones from amazon (like $3-$5 ones).
At this point getting four pairs for under $25 works for me. The last set I bought were $12 (after haggling) from a store that is as close to a street vendor as you can get in Flushing, Queens. I almost bought another pair from there last night. But I thought about it and figured that would be $24 on two pairs, the first of which sounded decent but didn't last. The problem with them is that the cords don't fit tightly into where the strain relief section is right before the earbud. That means that the strain relief will still help keep the cable from bending sharply, but any tugging will just pull pretty much directly on the speaker connection. That's likely why the left earbud stopped working (the shorter of the two cables) and why the right one is still fine (a slightly longer section of cable to the earpiece).
If only I could find another set of the Phillips that I had. They held up fine, but unfortunately got lost after 6 or so months. They had a short cord (for runners using an armband device) and an extension cable (which gave a great 'break away' connection whenever I accidentally dropped my phone). The sound quality was fine and the ear pieces were supposedly bacteria resistant. All of that for $8 shipped. Too bad they are discontinued on Newegg ($8 was a sale price too). I see similar ones (but no breakaway cable and no microphone) for over $20.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826138109
