I haven't been able to find any recommendation that seems to fit my needs. Here are what I'm looking for...
Important: I definitely can't use earbuds because they don't stay in my ears. Apparently my ear openings are not round and earbuds are round.
Important: I want to use them while working out in a gym and gyms are very noisy. (People stomping on treadmills, a defective machine squeaking, a bearing in the ear conditioner grinding, the leader of an exercise class shouting out instructions through a loud speaker, etc.) So I need good isolation from surrounding sound sources. I don't think active noise cancellation will be effective because gym noises mostly are not steady noises. I guess this means I need over-the-ear earphones.
Important: I don't want to spend over $100 and the absolute max is $150.
Desirable but less important: compact size and/or folding for travel.
Sound quality: Obviously this is not a serious listening situation. I'm NOT looking for audiophile quality, just not too crappy. I don't want pounding base or shrill highs and I don't want to hear obvious distortion. I'd rather the base or highs be absent than over prominent.
I'll be driving them from my iPhone or from the TV display built into the exercise machines. The iPhone sound quality is fairly good considering its size but certainly not audiophile quality. The TV display's sound quality is poor (and it's mostly only speech anyhow).
In case you think it matters what kind of music I want to listen to, it's either classical or rock (or speech from the TV-- like CNN). Classical is my favorite but the wide dynamic range of classical music doesn't work well in a gym, except maybe it will work if I can get phones with very good isolation.
Obviously comfort and light weight are pluses.
So what fits this bill?
