The I paid $25 for these pretty decent ones, they go for $60 retail. Everything was fine and then I remembered the third reason this is trash technology: the screen thingie always comes off, or gets gummed up and has to be taken ‘ off, making it sound like something I wouldn’t even pay $5 for.
If it isn’t that, earbuds will either not stay put, or I’ll lose one, just one.
I've got two pairs of headphones, I'm very fond of. 1 is the bone conduction ones that last most of a work day, and the others are an old pair of Sony wh 1000s that, even though they're old, sound great. Ones for music the others for convenience. Both pairs probably get used for 30 hours a week.
I use some bone conduction ones for regular podcast and music stuff, and I have some Shure SE215 wired IEMs for any loud noise or audio quality situation. Which is to say usually doubled up with earmuffs and running a chainsaw, riding a motorcycle (helmet instead of earmuffs), driving a tractor, running a grinder, etc and so forth. The Shures are expensive but my first pair lasted eight years before I replaced them and the originals still work the plastic body is just chunked up and has full passthroughs to the interior.