Ipods are the next wave in portable listening devices. Once, people listened to music on battery powered portable radios. Then came the convenience of choosing your own music by carrying about the bulky Walkmans that played cassette tapes. Then those Walkmans slimmed down to something a little more portable. Then CD players became the must-have item. Those, too, started out rather bulky but then became small and portable.

Today, the must have portable listening device is the Ipod. Ipods hold a small hard disk drive inside of them that stores many songs (sometimes hundreds). Depending on the unit that you own, it likely has many of the popular features of most music playing devices, including play, random, and repeat. Many Ipods are coming with additional features now, too, that include photos, video, cameras, and cell phones.

Of course owning an Ipod means that you HAVE the music in the palm of your hand (after all, Ipods are extremely light and portable) but now you need to get it from your Ipod to your ears. Ipods can store high quality music so you shouldn't be tempted to save your money by spending a dollar on cheap headphones at the dollar store. Instead, if you like the music you're listening to, you should be willing to spend a little extra to actually hear the music and enjoy it. You need Ipod headphones.

Makers of Ipod headphones and other portable listening devices include Maxell, Sennheiser, Shure, Sony, Phillips, and Koss. Each of these companies, and the many others that make Ipod headphones, offer a variety of equipment: it varies in comfort level, affordability, durability, and ability to accurately transmit the sound. As well, there are other features you'll want to consider. Let's look at comfort level:

Ipod headphones are most frequently the earbud style, meaning they are small, semi-circular speakers that fit right into the end of your ear canal and point the speaker into your ear canal. They can produce a fairly good sound, however, if the earbuds are too big for your ears, you will experience discomfort. Supra-aural headphones (which are the second most common type for portable listening devices) are simply speakers surrounded by pads that just sit on your ears, usually with a band that goes over your head. There are other kinds, as well, include canalbuds (which are more comfortable and go right into your ear canal) as well as circumaural which don't just sit on your ears but encompass them entirelylike you've seen professional musicians listening to while they record.

Canalbuds are extremely comfortable because they are encased in a soft housing, unlike earbuds which often tend to be mass produced in a plastic housing. Supra-aural Ipod headphones can be comfortable but they can mess up your hair, which isn't nice. Circumaural headphones are great for transmitting sound but they can be heavy so if they are too tight, they'll cause a headache.

Comfort level is an important consideration when looking to buy Ipod headphones for your portable listening enjoyment.