After several years of brutal abuse and several pad and plug replacements, my trusty Sony lightweight phones finally expired.  I can't even tell you what they were, they went out in the trash already.
 
And goshdarnit, I can't find anything like them to replace them with.  Everything now is either big cans or little plugs.
 
So here I present you with an opportunity to display your superior knowledge.
Tell me what to buy.
 
It should cost $30-40.
It should be a foam-pad on-the-ear type, so I am not isolated from the stuff happening around me and am not getting all sweaty.
It should have clear, clean sound with no harshness.
It must have NO bass boost.  None.  Not at all.  Especially when it's too high to actually be bass.
It should be very easy on and easy off in case I want to talk with someone.
It should span overhead not hook onto ears.  My glasses are doing that.
It should not be falling off all the time.
It should not be torture after an hour or two.
It should not be a goofy overcomplicated design like those little Koss, although if that's the only thing....
 
I took a flyer and bought Sennheiser PX-90s.  Wore them for 15 minutes and put them back in the package.  They have the bucket-over-your-head high bass boost that I don't know who likes that kind of thing but I don't.  Otherwise they'd be a good format.
 
Plugs are not appealing.  My right side ear canal is tight, and I'm prone to ear infections despite pretty rigorous cleaning.  Plus they probably isolate.
 
Have I eliminated everything yet?
 
Sog
 

For about half price of your budget, you could get a pair of Koss KSC 75, remove the ear clips, and use the parts express headband mod to wear over the head.  I never did the mod, but if you search around you'll find lots of threads about it.  Supposed to be easy and you just pop off the earphones that come with the cheap headband and the KSC 75's fit really well into it.
 
Koss KSC 75:  http://www.amazon.com/Koss-SportClip-KSC75-Earphone-07/dp/B002JFQPQW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323018611&sr=8-2 - $10
Headband to use:  http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=240-015 - $1.99
 
EDIT:  Oh yeah and Koss has lifetime warranty so if it works well for you then you're set.

Dig this.  Five days and exactly one reply.
 
Which sounded like fun and I was all ready to jump on it except apparently if you buy two phones and two cards of replacement foams, Amazon charges you four shipping charges. 
 
That won't do.
 
So off I go to find another vendor and what do I find but a chart that shows the response of the Koss at 105Hz to be 7db above 1kHz.
 
This seems to me, who knows nothing about this stuff, absolutely nuts.  This seems to me, to be just another PX-90 with cheap-ass low-class bass boost.  Unless I'm confused, which I might be.  7db might be an appropriate compensation for the acoustic field that an instrument like this would have to work with.  Or it might be absolutely nuts.
 
I will be happy to consider any clarification from any person who knows something about this stuff.
 
Thank you for your kind attention.
 
Sog
 
 

Stay away from this website.  It is not for you.  It is generally more high end.
 
Go to Target or Walmart to get your $30 earbuds there.

 
Quote:

spyro said:

Stay away from this website.  It is not for you.  It is generally more high end.
 
Go to Target or Walmart to get your $30 earbuds there.

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That's a gross misrepresentation...
 
 

Quote:

alexm23 said:

 
That's a gross misrepresentation...
 
 

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As a 4000+ post head-fier whose preferred earphones are $10, I second that remark
 
To the thread starter: would earbuds be good for you?  They are generally thinnner on the bass and really easy to put on and off.

Slightly off topic, but what are the $10 earphones you prefer?

I would like to hear about this $10 magic as well : )  I am also interested in a quality response to this thread, though it seems that this should be directed  more to the Earbud crowd.  Here is a recent thread that reviews a dozen non-isolating "foam-pad" buds:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/531063/earbud-guide-12-earbuds-compared
 
Happy hunting...

I think my AKG K412p might be something for you. I think they're discotinued now even though they seem to be available to buy on eBay. I think you should take a look.
 
This is a review of them: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15061
 
I don't know if these are any good, but Jays c-jays seem to get pretty good reviews from some people. Take a look at them too.

Quote:

dnb sublimity said:

Slightly off topic, but what are the $10 earphones you prefer?

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http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial/675#post_7953461
 
The Philips SHE3580 IEMs pictured in my avatar.  Unfortunately for the OP they're IEMs and the other caveat was that I tweaked them extensively.  Using a tone generator and a parametric equalizer (as detailed partly in the OP of the linked post and partly in my responses) I had precisely tuned out all the peaks and valleys in the frequency response that I hear, especially in the treble, after compensating for the uneveness of human hearing frequency response itself with another equalization preset.  The result is as close to simulating flat frequency response from loudspeakers as one can get without somehow sticking microphones in the eardrum for measurements (it could be done for over-ear headphones but never for IEMs).
 
Of course I would never have bothered to do any of that if I did not hear potential in these phones in the first place.  The 5 things counting for it were
1. solidly constructed, completely closed enclosure with no ports; closed speaker design means no flabby ported mid-bass
2. metal grille over drivers instead of fibre plug means sound reached ear more directly
3. incredibly precise channel matching, 2 pairs of $10 SHE3580 I own each have better matched L/R drivers (as I heard from sine sweeps throughout the frequency range) than the Etymotic ER-4Ps I have now!
4. incredible bass and treble extension, treble going beyond the limits of my hearing and bass still going strong way down at 30Hz
5. just a general feeling of "these actually sound pretty good" when I first paid $10 for them and plugged them in my ears, and moments where I got this nagging suspicion that I was hearing things I never even heard on the etys even before doing extensive EQing (and most of this EQ is turning the treble down, yet I can still hear everything in the recording I have ever heard)
 
My etys were broken when I got these.  When the etys came back from repair I thought at least I would prefer them for portable use where I can EQ the philips less well.  But turns out that for portable use the philips' superb bass also trump any finesse the etys might have over the philips in vanilla form.  Tonight I just got around to tweaking the etys with half as much care as I did the philips on the computer and I still can't say there's anything about the etys I would prefer over the philips, if anything the channel imbalance probably means the $200 etys will always play second fiddle to the $10 philips
 
(not sure if it's the etys' fault or a fit issue.  Both buds of the etys get a proper seal, but each ear kinda feels different from the other.  I suspect there's also a small hole in one of my eardrums as I only get this sucking thump sound from one ear when I swallow when both ears are plugged.  I suspect the etys with its tight seal is more sensitive to this than the philips with its looser seal and that's why I'm hearing more bass on one side with the etys.  But everything's just perfectly balanced with the philips!)

Why are you guys recommending IEMs, when OP asked for non-isolating 'phones, and when OP mentioned that OP's ear canal is tight, and OP's prone to ear infections?
 
sometimes Head-Fi's lack of reading comprehension makes me laugh.

Quote:

crystalt said:

Why are you guys recommending IEMs, when OP asked for non-isolating 'phones, and when OP mentioned that OP's ear canal is tight, and OP's prone to ear infections?
 
sometimes Head-Fi's lack of reading comprehension makes me laugh.

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That's why I didn't recommend IEMs.

Quote:

crystalt said:

Why are you guys recommending IEMs, when OP asked for non-isolating 'phones, and when OP mentioned that OP's ear canal is tight, and OP's prone to ear infections?
 
sometimes Head-Fi's lack of reading comprehension makes me laugh.

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I was only responding to the question about my preferred $10 phones.  I can't help it if they happen to be IEMs!  I only mentioned my preferred $10 phones because someone told the OP to leave head-fi because this place is supposed to be too expensive for him.

sennheiser 202
$18, really good for the price

 
Quote:

jaqueh said:

sennheiser 202
$18, really good for the price

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The hd202’s seem a little bass heavy for what the OP was looking for, and they probably isolate too well for him anyway. I actually use them for gaming, which is probably due to their powerful, if sloppy bass as well as moderate isolation and soundstage. Definitely a good buy for the price, however.
 
I was actually looking for phones similar to the OP's request, and came up with the hd228's. Might be a little over the price range, but they can slip below $40 if you look around the holidays. They're a little awkward to position and a little loose, but thats probably the least of the OP's concerns, as they sound fairly smooth and under control ( atleast to me ), especially without the earpad mod. The 2 year warranty should also be helpful, as sennheiser support pretty much always ships out a new pair of phones upon request for service.
 
EDIT: They're about 35 bucks just about everywhere when i looked today.