[JonnySayer]

Haven't visited the wonderful Head-Fi in a while and was wondering if anyone has any advice of some earphones (or iem's for that matter, I don't know the difference :/) which will sound great without an amp. I currently use some Brainwavz M2's if hatt helps in some way. The only criteria is they need to sound great unamped, driveable from an iPod Touch 3rd Generation or an iPod Classic (latest generation) and they need to be quite rugged since I plan to use them a lot outside and they will often be shoved into pockets.
 
I would appreciate if you could recommend some for under $50, $100, $150 and $200.
 
Thanks in advance.
 
EDIT: Forgot to add, low profile is a must, since they need to fit in quite small pockets.

 

[manbu]

Ety hf2/3/5... (150$)
klipsch custom 3 (Really bad cable) (100$)
SoundMAGIC PL50 (50$)
UE10 (I guess, I know that the UE5pro was very nice on my classic)- but probably not the most Rugged !!
 
Do not buy PFE022 (I was unable to drive it from my iphone4)
and Q-Jays is also hard to properly drive...

 

[JonnySayer]

@manbu Do you know how the Soundmagic's stack against the Brainwavz, I believe I once saw a comparison mid-thread somewhere but I can't find it anywhere.

 

[JonnySayer]

@cliffroyroyrolcole Thanks for the advice, I'll look into them!

 

[manbu]

Sorry, I never had the chance to listen to the Brainwavz M2 so I can't compare . but the PL50 (BA) is far superior to the PL30 (Dynamic Driver) and for less than 60$ it's hard to beat.

 

[ZARIM]

Sennheiser IE8 is very well built earphone and it has removable cable. It has all the qualities you require like it play loud, huge soundstage, deep punchy bass, nicely detailed midrange, highs. Some others earphones are recommended too like Radius DDM, GR07, HJE900, EX600 and IE7.