Have you ever thought of all the cool stuff that you can do with an iPod Shuffle because of it’s small size? This is one of our favorites so far. Monster Cable, notorious for their high quality cables and accessories, recently released the iFreePlay cordless headphones, where you slide your iPod Shuffle right into a dock built into the left headphone.

What’s the damage for a pair of headphones like this? Just $50. Not bad if you ask us. Just try and get a matching grey iPod Shuffle, so it’s not so obvious that you have an iPod sticking out of your ear.

After spending a few hundred dollars on an iPod should you spend a little more money on some nicer headphones or earbuds? We’ve been asking ourselves this for awhile, so we recently put some different earbuds and headphones to the test. First off, we want to say that we think earbuds and headphones serve different purposes. If your somewhere noisy, like a plane or a car, we’ve found headphones to be much more appropriate. If your walking around a city and want something as small as possible to fit in your pockets, this is where earbuds come in handy. For our complete review of the models we tested keep reading below.

The standard Apple Earbuds

These are the standard earbuds from Apple that come standard with iPods. Is there anything terribly wrong with them? Not really. In our tests we found that they don’t do the best job drowning out background noise. The higher end Bose headphones and earbuds are designed specifically for these purposes, which is why they cost a pretty penny. While the Apple earbuds are fairly rugged, we’ve broken a few pairs over the years that we’ve owned iPods.

Apple iPod In-Ear Earbuds

The Apple In-Ear Earbuds are a small step up from the standard earbuds included with your iPod as they go deeper into your ear and drown out more of the background noise. We found that over an extended amount of time they got to be a little uncomfortable, but these headphones provide great sound, nice bass and treble, at a reasonable price. We haven’t had these earbuds long enough to know if they last any longer than the standard iPod earbuds.

Bose In-Ear Earbuds

The Bose In-Ear earbuds are definitely a step up from the Apple branded earbuds, featuring the Bose’s proprietary TriPort acoustic headphone structure! Right away you’ll notice that they’re nice and soft, which as a result makes them more comfortable over extended listening sessions. The sound quality is top notch, and they block out a little more background noise than the Apple earbuds. These earbuds come with three different sized tips, which helps if you have a small ear or a big ear. Be careful that you don’t lose them though!

If you’ve got $100 to spend on some headphones, then we definitely recommend the Bose In-Ear Earbuds. If you’ve got $159 to spend on earbuds, then you might want to check out the holy grail of earbuds and go with the Bang & Olufsen A8 Headphones.

Bose Triport Headphones

Even though these may be the low end Bose headphones, there is nothing low end about these! These headphones are a lot smaller than the big, bulky headphones we’re used to from the days of Walkmans. At just $139 they are cheaper than a lot of the high end Sony headphones. For years we wanted to test these headphones out because we heard such good things about them, and now we know why. They provide better sound than any earbud can produce and better sound than most headphones for that matter! They’re very soft and we’re great for us during long jam-out sessions with our iPods! There’s nothing bad to be said about these headphones.

Bose QuietComfort 3 Noise Cancelling Headphones

These headphones are absolutely amazing! The price tag may scare off a lot of people, but if you’re like us and travel frequently then these headphones are everything you’ve ever wanted. What finally drove us to buy a pair of these headphones was a cross country flight with two crying babies in our area. If you want to completely drown out background noise you won’t find a better headphone. It’s amazing what these headphones can do. Crying babies and jet plane engines are no match for the Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones. These headphones are a little bulky, but for the features that these things have, we don’t mind. It’s a little weird that you have to charge these headphones every 20 hours (of use) or so, but if that’s what it takes for peace and quiet, then it’s a small price to pay.

We love Bose and these headphones remind us why. On a scale of 1 to 10, we give these headphones an 11!

If your looking for a place to buy any of these earbuds/headphones or want to read more reviews, check out Amazon.com.