Etymotic Research Isolator™ ER-6i Consumer Headphones

These are truly great earphones - great pluses - while they're working. You get fantasic isolation, great bass, and very clear sound. But there are drawbacks, minuses against these pluses. One is casual, and likely when you're least prepared for it. You can take them out of your ears, only to find the silicon cap is still there, jammed in your ear canal. In other words, for emergencies you need to have a low panic threshold, and a pair of tweezers by you. The second and more serious minus is that if they fail you have to face a terrible rigmarole to get them fixed, by Etymotics in the US. There's so many blogs telling how costly this proved that you may despair - as I did, when the right hand phone dropped its volume - simply give up, and settle for something cheaper and worryfree that isn't prone to mysterious breakdowns. If Etymotic Research were somewhat more active and customer-friendly at Etymotic repairs, then these would be the tops, but until then ...