The modern stereo headphone set is a compact tool that allows you to get the most from your iPod or MP3 player. While traditional headphones provide clarity and response from home-systems, they are not designed for use with portable audio devices. To maximize the quality of sound from a digital audio player, you want headphones / earbuds that are made to be used with devices that put out less wattage than a home system. With the popularity in recent years of the iPod, portable headphones have become a niche-market unto themselves with different manufacturers pouring much money into research & development and marketing.

As with most advances in audio technology, these new earpieces provide for more and more of the experience of being in a concert hall without the inconvenience of interrupting your daily routine. Some of the most popular brands for the earpieces today are Etymotic Research, Panasonic, Shure, SkullCandy, Sony, and Ultimate Ears.

Earpieces for the serious audiophile

Most of our parents' and grandparents' portable audio devices had their own poor little sound amplifiers built in to make the sound loud enough for our hearing. Now days, you can get really high quality portable audio devices that don't mess with poor little sound amplifiers. Instead you can provide your own little cool head phone amp to turn your high quality little portable stereo system into a booming sound experience. The head phone amp is the latest in audiophile gadgets. They are a bit more to haul around than your old headphones and earpieces, but they provide a sound experience to make it all worthwhile.

Accessories for the serious audiophile

To get the most of your portable audio experience, you need a good portable audio accessory kit. You'll find that you are soon looking forward to all of those times that were once boring when you have a good accessory kit.

Even if you aren't taking your portable audio device along everywhere you go, you may want to take your earphones. A long airplane flight will be greatly enhanced when you have a pocket-sized earphone kit to plug in and watch the in-flight movie.

Your accessories should include cable clips. These keep your headphone cables all nicely organized so you are free in movement to do other things while you enjoy your own little concert hall experience. All audiophiles have had experiences where our cords hung on something and got ripped away, often taking other things with them.

A good accessory kit will also include replacement accessories to make sure a small malfunction or accessory loss doesn't ruin an entire day. You'll want a spare ear phone, spare jacks, spare ear pads, and spare cables. This is especially important if you've invested in a very expensive sound system and you don't want to be stuck with anything less than the best.

What goes in must be hygienic

Remember you are putting these headphones or earpieces in your ear for quite a while. You can get wax buildup and other things building up on them. Over time things can start growing cultures on your valuable sound device if you don't take due time for cleaning. If you love your audio, you must also keep your headphones and earpieces cleaned regularly with some cleaning solution or alcohol.