...So I took the foamies off of the JVC's and installed them on a set of "Skull Candy" phones. Found my perfection.
...Couldn't find the foam buds on their own ...
I tried listening to my ipod on a recent trip, using a set of Sony in-ear phones. Not noise cancelling, but with rubber tips for some noise isolation. Results were disappointing for several reasons:
1. noise isolation was not good enough, i.e. allowed too much wind noise. Could not really hear the music over 50 mph if I did not have it at too loud of a volume for low speed.
2. not as good sound isolation as my hearos ear plugs, so higher noise level all around.
3. uneven volume of music from the ipod, with no way to change while on the move. I know you can even out the volume of the music in itunes, but that’s a lot of work. I also wish the ipod could reliably shuffle albums. I like to listen to a whole album, not just random songs. I would not mind random albums. But even though the shuffle option has an “album” setting, it never works for me. Shuffling all songs exacerbates the uneven volume issue.
4. Could not hear my riding mates at stops until I stopped, unzipped jacket, found ipod and pressed pause, pulled off the helmet and took out the phones.
5. I think my riding mates got tired of waiting for me to put the phones back in my ears, start the ipod, put in jacket pocket, adjust the cord etc. before starting out after every stop. (I seem to already take the longest at stops to put on helmet, gloves, etc.)
Even though I had the above issues, I was still interested in solving issues 1 and 2 so I could listen while riding, so after my trip I searched around for noise isolating in-ear phones. I did not find a consensus “magic bullet”. I did find a tutorial on making your own noise isolation tips out of foam ear plugs: basically cut it to length, then flatten it (lengthwise so you end up with a little pancake shaped thing) and “drill” a hole in it with a small tube. Been meaning to try that, perhaps I’ll buy a set of the skull candy phones.
Not sure what to do about issues 3, 4 and 5.