Candy for your iPod

Recently I needed new headphones for my iPod, but I wanted to get "ear buds" instead of traditional head phones.  This is because I like to keep things simple.  To me, ear buds just look cooler.  They are sleek and small, discretely sliding right in the ear.  I don't need the whole world looking at big silver headphones stretched across my skull. 

I spent a ton of time researching ear buds because even though they're physically small, these things can still get pricey.  I didn't want to spend $80-$100 on some lousy ear buds that hurt my ears or didn't have loud enough volume.  That was actually one gripe I had about the white buds that came with my iPod.  I couldn't always get them as loud as I needed.  Even when blasting my music, I still felt like I could hear every car honk and conversation taking place around me.  This was one of the main things didn't want to deal with any more. After all my research I decided to go with the Skull Candy brand. 

One reason I chose these was simply because of brand recognition.  I've seen the name pop up more and more lately.  If I hear lots of good things about a product, I usually assume that product is well made.  After all, good things spread by word of mouth. Also, the Skull Candy ear buds just look cool.  They don't only come in white, you have a variety of designs to choose from.  The model I chose are the "ink'd" earbuds and I selected a nice color of blue.  To go with the name of the brand, there is a skull on each ear piece, which definitely makes them stand out from the average headphone. 

Another great thing about them is the cord isn't overly long.  In the past I've owned headphones with cords that reach so far, they practically drag on the sidewalk.  Either that or I had to bunch it up in my pocket, only to have it all fly out when I needed to get my keys or change.  The Skull Candy cord reaches perfectly up from my pocket to my ears, with no extra length to get in the way.

Now we get to what really matters, or at least what should matter the most, the sound.  I honestly wasn't expecting much.  After all, they only cost $15.  I figured how good can something that cheap possibly sound?  To my complete surprise, these ear buds do an amazing job of producing full, quality sound.  They have a good amount of noise reduction and I can even hear the low end bass lines.  I don't know how they accomplish so much with these tiny ear buds, but somehow they manage.  The sound of the street gets blocked out and I can listen comfortably when my iPod is only turned up to half volume.  I remember on my old headphones I struggled to hear everything even when the volume was cranked.

These earbuds can easily be found on ebay or Amazon, and they are nearly 3 times less expensive than normal headphones.  There is no point in paying $80-$100 on average looking earbuds when you can get one-of-a-kind Skull Candy's that easily sound as good as the expensive pair.  Maybe it's just me, but there is a great feeling that comes from having cool looking headphones.  When I wear these things, I feel like I'm in the year 2050 and everyone else is still struggling through '04.  The name truly lives up to the product, it's candy for the skull in an industry full of the same old bread and butter, boring earphones.