[VTAb182]

I'm looking for a pair of earbuds for around $40 or less that are the style of apple's stock ear buds, not the kind that make a seal with a rubber tip in your ear that isolate outside sound (i'm not sure the technical name on either of these). I've heard good things about the Yuin Pk3's, and they are definitely in my price range, but I basically don't know of any others that I should look in to. I want to get this style because I want some buds that I can use for situations that would be good to be able to hear outside noises too. I mostly listen to pop punk, rock, alternative, some hardcore, and some rap and it'll be playing through my ipod. I'm no basshead, so a lot of bass isn't too important to me, especially with this style bud.
 
The Pk3's are $38 on amazon, but there is also a combo deal of Pk3's and a Fiio E5 amp for $49. Would I see much of an improvement by using the amp with the Pk3's (or buds in the price range in general) versus playing them straight from the ipod? For an extra $11 dollars it really seems like i might as well go for it, but I'm wondering if such an inexpensive amp (usually $23) will do much of anything, not just for these buds?
 
This is semi-unrelated, but I figure I'd ask anyways: I'm getting a pair of ATH-M50's soon, too, and I was wondering if they would benefit much from using the E5 amp as well (also playing from an ipod)?
 
Thank you in advance!!
 
EDIT: I'm mainly looking for input on the ear buds, not so much on the amp. I only thought about getting an amp when I saw the combo deal, and now that I think about it more it seems like just extra stuff to carry around for the fairly basic setup i'm looking for.

 

[sari0n]

The E5 has some pretty nice synergy with certain earphones but a lot of the time they just make the sound muddier.  Since they're so cheap you can try for yourself but generally they're not as beneficial to higher end earphones as they are to cheaper ones.
By the way the type of earphones that you're looking for are just known as "earbuds"
Yuin PK3's are a good choice.  Sunrise also makes a couple of nice earbuds that you can look into, and the Piano Forte's are supposed to be good as well.

 

[chrisw142]

I'm in the same situation as you right. Looking for some new earbuds for the same genres (minus rap). From what I've found out so far it seems the pk3's would be the best for us but I'd like to hear a couple more impressions. Also if anyone has pk2's do you think that the raise in quality is enough for the money?

 

[kjk1281]

Take a look at ClieOS' earbud comparison review for other possible options: Earbuds Round-Up - Head-Fi.org Community
 
Also, I recommend avoiding the Piano Forte.  In my opinion they're not even worth the ¥3000 or so they go for in Japan, much less the exorbitant price importers get away with charging.

 

[Inquartata]

I picked up the PK3's for my husband a while back (he wanted earbuds) and he absolutely loves them. So, there's another good mark for the PK3's for you, I suppose.