I blogged before about being an avid podcast listener. In my new job at RBC, my commuting time is longer (about 50 minutes door-to-door), so now I have full 100 minutes to randomly go through my ever-growing list of fluffy stuff. For years I’ve been using Sony Fontopia in-the-ear headphones. While not great, they fit my ears better than the ones that come with the iPhone – which kept falling off all the time. I’m not sure about the precise Fontopia model I had, but it looked like this one:
On Monday though, my 3-year-old decided to play hide and seek with them, and I’m still trying to figure out where they are. I bet that a few years from now I’ll find them inside some old shoes or some jar around the house. After a day suffering of podcasting withdrawal, I paid a visit to the Best Buy store at Yonge and Dundas to get a new pair, and found these Philips in-ear headphones (model SH5910) for CAD$ 9.99:
Of course, take this recommendation with a huge grain of salt. First of all, I’ve been wearing them just for a day. Also, I use these phones mostly for podcasts and audio books. At home, I have fairly good Sennheiser wireless headphones to listen to my favourite songs, but for the road I really need something I can fit in my pocket. Finally, the rush hour ride in the Toronto subway is not exactly a home-theatre like environment, so my number one need was good isolation, not pristine sound quality. The fact that I can now listen to podcasts without having to max out the iPhone volume is probably good for my hearing health anyway.
The bamboo raft 
I like it: earphones for the subway! I think you created a new niche! Seriously, Aaron, these sound (pun intended) like great value. I am going to get a pair also. (My apple ones are shot, and I am not paying $40 for a new pair).
also, I think Philips is vastly underrated as a company.
I might get a pair too!
My son got me into the interesting world of podcast, woah! I didn’t know what I was missing, but the earphones are a challenge!
Bernie and Benedicte,
Just one caveat: like the Big Bad Wolf (or Yoda, for that matter) I have a huge ear channel. The Philips phones may be uncomfortable for “normal” ears. If you can, you should try them out before buying.
Duh, I meant ear canal. In Portuguese, channel and canal are spelled the same.
[…] mysterious case of the missing headphone is now solved 15 08 2009 In my previous post I wrote that my son found a way to hide really well my old Sony headphones, and therefore I had to […]
Actually, Aaron, you are right. I bought these and could NOT get them to fit. It drove me crazy! I opted for some Sony’s that were pretty cheap and fit nicely.
Sorry to hear that, I suspected that those phones would not be a good fit for you. I’ve heard that at Winners they have cheap, decent phones too.
Actually, for $10, it was worth the chance!
when i first saw them i was like ( cmon they look cheap ) but when i tried them i went back to the shop and bought 5 . im a music lover and i love to listen to my iphone while walking and i like loud music and never had any problem raising the volume to the maximum but when i tried these headphones i actually had to lower the volume a lil bit.. even on the maximum volume i still couldnt hear any static from the earphones and they were and still are amazingly clear with awesome bass sound .. one of the best earphones ive bought in my whole life . 🙂