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

Loud enough to be audible, and give me a tiny bit of tinnitus after some interesting song selections from the Ellis.

ps. is this how edscoble feels?

like a cheap Hi-fi at max volume, yes, a bit.

as for headphone, I ride with this;

the worse thing about those, is that there's only one manufacturer making this in the world, even worse, they're poorly made and often break after a year usage, very rubbish but it's the only option.

the best bit however, is I can turn the volume in my hearing aids to it's lowest setting, increase the volume to max on the iPod and instant noise-cancellation.