Thanks for all the suggestions.
I have Sennheiser earbuds (I've been using them for about 4 years. Every time they break, Newegg always replaces them.
), and I love 'em, so I trust the Sennheiser brand.
To answer your question Mustard, as I said, it will be while I'm traveling, so the audio source would be an iPod/iPhone/BlackBerry/Laptop depending on the situation.
The $80 ones (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826737002) SAY they use Active Noise Canceling, which is the better method:
"Active noise-canceling headphones can do everything that passive ones can do -- their very structure creates a barrier that blocks high-frequency sound waves. They also add an extra level of noise reduction by actively erasing lower-frequency sound waves. How do noise-canceling headphones accomplish this? They actually create their own sound waves that mimic the incoming noise in every respect except one: the headphone's sound waves are 180 degrees out of phase with the intruding waves."
And as a review states:
"I only wish that these had an automatic shut-off on the noise cancel. Im finding that no one remembers to switch em off, so I have to keep throwing in new batteries."
So they DO cancel incoming sound, not just try to block it.
But what do I know.
Also, it's headphone.com. The site name is Headroom (very confusing). Headroom.com is for Manhattan Real Estate.