Jonathan Takiff | Nip the buds

THE GIZMO: Earphone roundup.

POD PEOPLE: Eighty-eight million owners already love their iPods. This year, predicts the Consumer Electronics Association, another 41 million MP3 players of all brands (at least three-quarters of them iPods) will be sold in the United States.

But most people just tolerate the earbud headphones that come with their music players. Those little sound makers perform reasonably well at moderate listening levels, doing the job in noncritical listening situations.

But the buds distort when cranked to the extreme volume you need on a subway car, airplane or noisy street. And the phones sound scratchy, lacking musical warmth and personality compared to a really good set of headphones or loudspeakers.

Adding insult to injury, anyone who spots you wearing those little white earphones knows immediately that you're a member of the boring iPod majority. And they're like a white flag to potential thieves.

The buds also have a bad habit of falling out of more active exercisers' ears. And they tangle up on their own connecting wire in your bag.

Help is on the way with the newest crop of earphones we've been testing, just in time for your spring walkabout.

Doing away with the standard bud design, all models but one (the Bose) get shoved deep into the user's ear canal to isolate you from outside noise and improve performance.

Also to guarantee a snug fit and maximize bass response, all come with "fit kits" - replaceable small, medium and large rubber, silicone and/or foam endpieces that compensate for the differences between users' ears and act like a "bottle stopper" to keep the good sounds in.

This new bunch of mini ear phones also offer some stylish designs that make a hip fashion statement. And, most important to this music lover's heart, the best of the bunch sound remarkably true to live music - natural and free of distortion.

SETTING THE GROUND RULES: I auditioned all the models with the particularly telling and aptly named "Who Cares?" from the just-out Patti Austin collection, "Avant Gershwin."

Brilliantly recorded in concert in Germany with the WDR Big Band, this jazzy piece regularly shifts the emphasis from player to player, spotlighting, at turns, honking baritone saxes, a fluttery trumpet, a brush-wielding drummer, stand-up bass and fleet-fingered guitar picking.

And in the midst of all that is one very fine, emotionally engaged singer. The female voice is considered one of the hardest instruments to reproduce and thus an "acid test" for the earphones' sound accuracy.

BARGAIN BIN: Don't want to spend a lot of money on earphones because you regularly destroy or lose them? Just $20 buys the JVC Marshmallow (HA-FX33), my pick in the bargain category.

These come in bright colors like pink or green, as well as a stylish, silver-and-black combination. Foamy little ear pieces create a comfortable and secure fit, even when you tug on the 4-foot cable.

The tight connection also helped those baritone saxes achieve a really "phat" sound, gave accurate "pluck" to the guitar strings and reasonable articulation to the massed brass. But the percussion sounded a mite fuzzy, and Austin's vocals suffered squeaks at peaks.

Relatively shrill by comparison were the Panasonic RP-HJE50s, retailing at $30 but selling for as low as $20. The best thing these phones have going for them is a two-piece (basic plus extension) cable design that lets you stretch out as far as five feet from the music player.

Even more disappointing, as I've always had great success with their earbuds in the past, were the in-the-ear Sony MDR-EX51LPs. They're stylishly small and attractive, but the phones' lack of character or articulation made me mad I'd spent $40 for them at Best Buy. (I later spotted the same model for $18 at amazon.com.)

A better performer, if sound isolation isn't an issue, is the Sony MDR-E282LP, a traditional (and now rare for the company) earbud design at $10.

THE SWEET SPOT: A hundred bucks buys either one of the most stylish of earphones: the V-Moda Vibe, or the model I'd judge the best overall performer and best value of the entire bunch - the Bose Tri-Port in-ear headphones.

While a bit on the trebly side, the Vibes sure have got the look, especially for women wearers. They're tiny and jewelrylike, available in metallic colors like Red Roxx, which matches the

iPod Nano RED special edition, and La Mocha, which compliments the brown Microsoft Zune.

Even the thin connecting cable is color coordinated. Users also will appreciate the included cable caddy and storage bag.

Introduced at year's end, Bose has continued to fine-tune its first in-ear headphones, based on early-adopter feedback.

Unlike the other phones in our test, which all get pushed into the ear canal, this model rests gently on the outer bowl (concha) of the ear, with an elongated silicon ear tip that funnels the sound up close to the canal.

Combining that design feature with Bose's unique triple porting produces a sound quality that's extremely well-balanced and natural-sounding from bottom instrumental notes to top, and with warm, lifelike vocals pressing just slightly forward in the midst.

While not isolating from outside sounds like the other models tested, the Bose design does hug the ear securely and far more comfortably. So the wearer doesn't suffer the eventual fatigue of in-ear models.

Even the storage case provided with these phones is a thing of beauty. And Bose has improved on the package by tossing in a cable-securing shirt clip and lanyard and better-clinging silicon tips, all of which will be offered free to existing customers (www.Bose.com/enhance or 800-819-7032).

HIGHER PRICED SPREADS: Another sleek-looking product, the

Denon AH-C700, stands out from the crowd with its high-tech, bullet-shaped aluminum case (in silver or black) and very fine performance.

Bass and vocals are well articulated and the high-frequency signal clarity is second only to the top-of-the-line Shure (below). But tug on the wire and these phones fly out of the ears. And for $200, Denon ought to supply a carrying case.

Shure has been making in-ear headphones longer than anyone, initially with professional-grade monitoring models worn on stage by musicians.

This serious build quality is reflected in the more bulbous shape and heavier-gauge cables of the new, consumer-oriented Shure SE210 ($149), SE420 ($349) and SE530 ($449) models I tested.

To achieve a secure fit, you wrap the wires over and around your ears, a chore that seems fussy at first. For the most precise sound, use the foam sleeves as opposed to the optional silicone or rubber variety also supplied in the fit kit.

With the least expensive and most diminutive SE210 model, the difference in performance was especially pronounced, going from awful to pretty damned good after I made the sleeve switch. (In the past, Shure used ugly, easily dirtied yellow foam sleeves. The new models offer more user-friendly and durable black foam replacements.)

If cutting out extraneous noise is a big issue in your life, say on airplanes, any of the Shures will do a better job than any of the competitors. That thicker cable wraps up better than others, for storage in the supplied case. And in terms of absolute performance, the SE530 is the top of the pile, equal in articulation to the best home speakers. *

E-mail Jonathan Takiff at takiffj@phillynews.com.