Aloha! And Merry Christmas to you all.  

I do agree that to get the same quality from an earphone as you would a headphone, you tend to pay a bit more. And as for headphones being ugly in public, its not necessarily the case. OK, a pair of massive sennheisers WILL get you some funny looks, but smaller headphones aren't so bad. And I've...

I would also recommend the Grados. They are certainly not too Flashy, but not ugly either. You'd be hard pushed to found anything as good for rock under $100 and as for comfort, i think trying one on would solve the problem, but I think the people that have comfort issues are a minority.

To be honest, at the end of the day while the AD700s may be great for gaming, they are quality headphones and as any AD700 owner will tell you, they are good music headphones too, just as long as you're not listening to anything really bassy. If you can, try and get your hands of a pair of each...