Shure 110 ear phones review

By no means am I an audiophile but after a number of years of iPod use on a daily basis I opted to upgrade the ear phones with the purchase of an iPod touch. Previously, I had been using a cheap replacement pair of ear bud style headphones and grew tired of having to crank up the volume on the subway. Like many others I found that the stock Apple ear buds did not fit my ears particularly well thus my search for a pair of noise cancelling ear phones. Since I commute via subway and frequently fly having a small portable pair of ear phones is critical. I did some research and slowly ratcheted up my budget given that the cheap ear phones only typicallly lasted for a year. Given that I didn't want to spend more than $100 and am not an audiophile (my main listening on the iPod Touch is to podcasts) I quickly realized that I would be going with noise isolating ear phones. The main difference between noise isolating headphones is that they utilize an ear bud that can be compacted (similar to ear plugs) and placed in the ear that expand to block out noise. Noise cancelling headphones utilize a microphone to sample outside sound and offset the noise with a sound wave that is the opposite of the ambient noise being cancelled. My reading indicated that noise cancelling headphones were most effective at filtering out consistent frequencies (airplane engines) but were typically in over the ear style headphones or available in high end (read very expensive $300+ in ear ear phones). 

At the end of the day I opted to purchase a pair of Shure 110 ear phones for use with my touch and to-date have been happy with the performance of these headphones. The main challenge in using these ear phones is to get used to a pair of in ear ear phones. In this case I found the biggest challenge was to find the correct positioning in inserting these ear phones but I seem to finally have the knack.  The main complaint that I'd have about this pair of ear phones is that the length of cable running to the right ear bud is a bit short given that both earphones connect to a spliter that weighs enough to at times pull the ear bud out of your ear if not put in the correct position.  Overall I'd look at this pair of ear phones as a solid option for noise isolating ear phones. At the end of the day, spend the extra money and buy a quality pair of ear phones your hearing is worth it.