[xCloudx]

First post here and I'm hoping the community can help me out with some suggestions.

I work in an industrial setting (steel mill) and am looking for a set of safety earmuffs that double as headphones for an mp3 player.

Here's what I'm after:
-Sturdy design (they might take a few hits)
-Discrete. Don't need an antenna coming out or cords everywhere. Would prefer the input hole is just on one side and besides that cord they look normal. Basically if I don't have the cord in, I want you to not be able to tell.
-Budget varies. If they're very strong looking, can take several hits without breaking, etc. I'm willing to pay for them. If they're flimsy and not, strong they need to be cheap enough that I can buy a few pairs and not be disappointed if one breaks haha.
-Do NOT care about sound quality. I'm not too big on distinguishing stuff like that. As long as they sound as good as my 5 dollar earbuds from Walmart I'm happy.

Not sure if something like this is possible. I looked through amazon and can't find much. I'm thinking maybe I'd be better off with my current earmuffs and earbuds underneath but I just hate having things in my ears haha.

Thank you very much in advance. And sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this in, I wasn't sure where this should go.

 

[jazzman7]

How about the Howard Leight Sync?  They appear to be the most-isolating headphone in Tyll's database at innerfidelity.com that are over-the-ear closed and don't require batteries (i.e. no active noise cancelling).  If you go to his resources webpage and scan about halfway down, you'll see the link to his measurements of them (where he calls them the Howard Light Sync):
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/headphone-data-sheet-downloads
 
You have to be careful with some headphones as they do not necessarily isolate all sounds well even if the headphone cover your ears.   In some cases, the headphone can actually amplify outside sound, especially at lower to midrange frequencies (between 100Hz and 500Hz).   The amplification isn't much (usually a few dB), but in a safety situation, you don't want to make things worse.
 
EDIT:  Forgot to mention -- if you are looking for a low-cost headphone that is over-the-ear, has a removable cable (so you can wear them like earmuffs), and sounds great, try the Monoprice 8323. 

 

[soccerdude84]

what you could do is buy a pair of these: http://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-H10A-Optime-Earmuff/dp/B00009LI4K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374452164&sr=8-1&keywords=3m+earmuffs
 
and then use your walmart earbuds
 
to me that seems that cheapest option and most effective