[129207]

 
You don't have to extend your budget to $250. that's some pretty random advice right there. It wouldn't make any sense for a, correct me if I'm wrong, audio-beginner to go way over his budget and buy an expensive in-ear monitor and stick it into his smartphone. Be sensible. 
 
For $150 you can get some really nice sound quality and a great first step into portable audio. A Sansa Clip+ (or Sansa Fuze) won't cost you more than $50, has great sound quality and is Rockboxable (great third party firmware with excellent eq support) which means you can spend the remaining $100 on a pair of nice in-ears. There are a lot of wonderful options in that price range. 
Check out this great thread and see which one fits your budget. 
 
Just to get you started, here are some of the most popular in-ears right now. The prices are my estimates though. Check online for current pricing. 
 
 
- Brainwavz M2 $50

- Fischer Audio Eterna $65

- Etymotic MC5 $70

- Head Direct RE0 $80

- Hippo VB $80

- Panasonic HJE900 $110

- Radius DDM $150

- Fischer Audio DBA-02 $150

 

- Sennheiser IE8 $350

- Earsonics SM3 $350

 

- JH13/JH16 $1200/$1500

- JH-3A $a gazillion bucks

 
There are ofcourse a lot more options in your budget. $150 is a good way to start off with.

 

[luvs2squizz]

$150 will get you a sansa clip/refurb fuze and Panasonic hje-900
Or just a Panasonic hje-900 and wait until you can get something more along the lines of a cowon s9 or d2

 

[goodvibes]

Current Iphones or Ipod Touches are hard to beat. They're actually better than the older Wolfson DACed hard drive models. Right now Woot has refurb(new no box) 4gb fuzes for $28 shipped. Rockboxable and takes micro sdhc cards for expanded storage also.

 

[meltdown100]

Better in what way?  Certainly not capacity, certainly not in customization of sound via rockbox, or in the ability to play most file types such as FLAC, plus being rid of the aggravation of syncing in itunes.  Sound quality, if that is what you were getting at, is a subjective debate, but that's the only thing where iphones or ipod touches might be a 'better' portable player, as you said, and I'm kind of skeptical on that one.  But, I'm gonna test what you just said, I will try out my iphone 4 and see how it compares to my Wolfson ipods.

 

[nicknyhk]

just a heads up on the re-0 delivery, try out head direct to see much it is to ur area. Am in uk and they ship from us for only $10. It didnt state location except us or rest of the world so you can give that a whirl.

 

[v1ks]

I didn't find a 28$ deal, but the most recent one offers a 4Gb Fuze with free shipping (judging by terms and conditions it's worldwide) for just $29.99. That's a screwing bargain if I've seen one.
Am I righ that SQ-wise Fuze and Clip+ is the same?
In other words. Do I have the green line to check-out and get it shipped?

 
 
EDIT:
 
Gah, nvm, they don't accept PayPal payments from non-US accounts