Earphones. They don't need to be expensive to be great. A middle range in-ear ones that fit your ears well will give you that super bass, noise cancelling sound that those crazy expensive ones offer (To be honest I never really tried them expensive earphones but unless you have super high quality files on your iPod, these are pretty useless).
A couple of years ago I went to get a pair of in-ears at HMV, and discovered the best thing ever. They suggested I buy this insurance thing for £2 I think it was, which allows me to return a broken pair and get a new one of the same price. It was most triumphant! For broke music enthusiasts like me. That first purchase was a £15 blue Philips kind (£5 cheaper than the black ones. I guess blue paint is cheaper) and I must've broken about 4 pairs of earphones and managed to always get free replacements (cos I buy the insurance every time I exchange a broken one).
One time, I paid an extra £5 so I can get it replaced with a £20 one, thinking that it's more expensive hence better. Man, was I wrong. It was the worst of the bunch! It's designed a bit funny so it didn't fit my ears, and just sounded awful. Wish I can remember the make or model, but all I remember is it said it was a 'surround sound' earphone, which is already an obvious sign that this was a piece of monkey turd.
You know how earlier I said earphones don't last 4 months? Well, this shitty one lasted a freakin year! After thinking that I could either shell out £20 for another pair or be stuck with these ones forever, it was finally busted. Excited, I went and exchanged it with a nice £20 Sennheiser ones. They were perfect... and I LOST those at a gig after only a couple of weeks. Now my insurance is useless cos they only accept faulty returns, not loss on the grounds that you're an idiot. Heartbroken, I started accepting charity earphones from friends and after 3 pairs breaking on me in 3 months, I decided to buy a new pair. I bought the same kind as the blue Phillips ones that I used to have, cos I remember they were good enough, and how I used them as earplugs (we had loud neighbours) so it must've fit well. Plus, now it was only RM35 (£7) and when I put them on, lo and behold, everything was INCREDIBLE! Now, maybe I've been using bad earphones for too long, but I thought it was actually as good as the £20 Sennheiser.
What did these 2 pairs have in common? They fit well. That equals to noise cancelling and bass boosting. To me, that's all you need to have great earphones.
The best part is that this one is cheap, so it's not such a lost if it broke. In fact, I could've bought 2 or 3 pairs as reserves. In case you're wondering, they are Philips SHE3590BK.
By the way, HMV is now going out of business. Guess it's just the signs of the times what with digital files and all. but I've bought tons of CDs from them when I was young. And they deserve props for the faulty electronics insurance thing. Hope they go out with a bang!
