Can you actually get old style earphones any more?

[Pink Gregory]

Lost my (discontinued) Sennheiser MX170s and am a bit loathe to try and source some (also discontinued, but still available overseas) MX375s; but I don't think you can buy non-ear canal, non-noise-cancelling wired earphones any more.

The reasons being -

I use them for work (I'm a mobile gardener, have extensive mental illness issues and also boredom so I do need them) so I'd rather not buy expensive ones in the first place, but at the same time I don't want them to be absolute dogshit

I need to be aware of my surroundings when I have them on, so I'd rather not have noise cancellation

They get ripped out of my ears all the time and because they only sit on the earlobe the cable doesn't break, which I assume it might if they're jammed in my earoles

I use a portable media player, not my phone, so no bluetooth/wireless


Does anything like this actually exist that's easy enough to order, or should I just keep getting the Sennheisers until they run out?

[The Guppy]

My favourite earbuds are the Venture Electronics VE MONK Plus, only £16 but they sound really good. You'd have to get them from abroad though, either directly from their shop on AliExpress or from Amazon US. Similar price to the Sennheisers but I think the VEs are way better.

I can't remember the last time I saw earbuds in a UK shop, except for this shit. And they probably won't be around much longer since they can't plug into any of Apple's current phones.

[peanutbutter]

On ear headphones like Koss PortaPros might do the job?

Except not PortoPros, they rule but they're super brittle so wouldn't last long gardening, I imagine.

[The Guppy]

I considered suggesting PortaPros but yeah, if the cord is being yanked all the time they'd fly apart in no time.

[Pink Gregory]

On ear headphones like Koss PortaPros might do the job?

Except not PortoPros, they rule but they're super brittle so wouldn't last long gardening, I imagine.

Thing is I need small ones to go under my ear defenders, when you spend as much time on a lawnmower as I do

[Zetetic]

Buy all mine from Wilko to be honest, which is deeply connected to them breaking after 8 weeks. Most ecologically irresponsible part of my life.

[peanutbutter]

Looks like googling "best old school earphones" worked for me.

https://headphonesfans.com/best-classic-earbuds-with-mic/
https://headphonesaddict.com/best-earphones-classic-earbuds/

[olliebean]

I'm a little taken aback by the discovery that the name "earbuds" doesn't just refer to the ones that go into your ear canal, i.e., the ones that are (roughly) bud-shaped.

[Pink Gregory]

Might try and get hold of the Monk ones; I've got a pair of Panasonic in ear ones that I'm borrowing but they sound horrid and tinny to my ears.

[The Guppy]

There's some on eBay for £8 if you don't mind a couple of weeks delivery.

[Ferris]

The wired apple ones are pretty good? If you keep the receipt, the apple store will replace them if they break within a year (which they definitely will). In my experience they issue you with a new set and a new receipt no questions asked. When those new ones inevitably break, you can take them back and get a new set, ad infinitum.

I think I've had 5 pairs off them over the years, but they're apple so I'm going to keep mugging them off because they're cunts. Switched to (non-apple) wireless ones a year or two ago so they might have changed how they do things but I doubt it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Get some iems, great sound and value for money, I've had sennheisers and soundmagicks for way more and these are great, pretty robust too, and you can replace the cable or add bluetooth modules should you wish to.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002945616297.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.60c23209AmIm8D&algo_pvid=bc6a0683-39c9-484e-865b-d6a3e4ef6627&algo_exp_id=bc6a0683-39c9-484e-865b-d6a3e4ef6627-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B"sku_id"%3A"12000022907382947"%7D&pdp_pi=-1%3B23.83%3B-1%3B-1%40salePrice%3BGBP%3Bsearch-mainSearch

[olliebean]

Weird how in these recommendation threads someone always recommends a thing that you've explicitly said you don't want, isn't it?

[Sebastian Cobb]

missed the non-ear canal bit, apologies.

[Rev+]

Just into my seventh year of using a pair I picked up at Poundland, if that helps.

[imitationleather]

Just into my seventh year of using a pair I picked up at Poundland, if that helps.

I hate to break this to you but they're not the same pair. Every week or so yer parents replace them after they send you to bed.

[Pink Gregory]

I found my old ones where we keep all the shoes.

But thanks anyway chaps.