Earphones / Headphones: Where to try, what to buy?

[quote=hippy;2966890][QUOTE=rhowe;2966824]Sony have discontinued their MDR-ED21LP headphones and mine just died :(

They were quite good for cycling - cheap, snug fit, sounded OK and let in plenty of ambient noise.
Nobody seems to make nice earbud headphones which don't have that silly rubber plug any more - they block too much sound for me to feel comfortable.

Sony do a cheaper version..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-MDR-E818LP-HEADPHONE-IN-EAR-TRADITIONAL-BLACKIN-MDRE818LP-CE7-/230765281850?pt=UK_AudioVisualElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Headphones&hash=item35baaec23a#ht_1022wt_1163[/quote]

Hm, they look better than the horrible fontopia ones which are all plastic and just don't stay in my ears.
I'll give them a try I think.

Verdict - they're good enough.
The foam pads are cheap and nasty, but functional.

and they almost lasted a year - not too bad for £6 I guess.[/QUOTE]

replaced by some MDR-E755s which have now lost their right channel 9 months in (although I'm not sure if these were new, or ones I found in a drawer somewhere).

The current Sony equivalent seems to be the MDR-E820LP or the MDR-E9LP both of which seem to be pretty awful from what I've read (odd how nobody seems to dedicate much review time to sub-£10 earbuds!).

Time to do some more research I guess.. the Soundmagic E10s sounded good aside from the noise isolation, which isn't something I want - I'm after the ability to hear music in the background of the London traffic noise.