My cousin wants to find a new pair of headphones for her iPod, but she's only a college student and doesn't have a clue about picking headphones. To make matters worse, I have not been able to find technical specifications of the iPod in question (e.g. output impedance and power rating). So I need the help of you guys here.

If you guys can dig up some technical specifications, that would be great. Otherwise, simple recommendations regarding the headphone would do just fine.

Basically, what my cousin is looking for in the new pair of headphones are the following:

1. Preferably, the earpiece shall be larger than her ear. Because she has multiple piercings, the earpieces pressing directly on her ears is uncomfortable;
2. It has to produce nice bass. She listens mostly to pop music with good bass;
3. The cord, connection, and soldering must be durable. She used to have a pair of Victor at around the equivalent of 90 USD - I can't recall the exact model name - but the assembly was not durable and the connections have soon become unreliable, resulting in skips as soon as she moves her head.
4. The headphones shall fall into a budget of around 100 USD;
5. The headphones MUST work well with her iPod in terms of sound production; the plug size is not a major issue, we can always get an adapter.
6. A stylish design would be a plus, but not mandatory. In fact, it would probably be fine as long as it's not common among her schoolmates (yes, the vanity), so let's not worry about this point too much.

Many thanks.

Just an FYI - iPods use a standard 3.5mm headphone jack just like every other DAP on the market. They don't require special headphones or anything like that. You also wouldn't want to get headphones with a larger adapter and step it down for the iPod. That would drastically increase the size of the unit and defeats the purpose of having a pocketable portable player.

I think Sure and Sennheiser make some pretty good headphones. It sounds like your friend would be more comfortable wearing headphones that are completely over their ear. In fact, Sennheiser makes a pair of $20 headphones that I have and always turn to (Sennheiser's website marks them at $50 or $75 but you can easily find them for around $20). They are large "cans" that fit completely over my ear. I find that their quality is about on par with most other, more expensive, large cans in my arsenal (which includes a $150 Sony pair).

Just know that all of the opinions that you get will be subjective. It would be impossible to quantify the quality of headphones. There are some people who may have a negative disposition against headphones simply because of their brand and would not be willing to give them an equal chance.

Thanks for the advance, kornchild2002.

When I said "plug size", I did not mean the diameter of the actual metallic contact; I meant the plastic (or rubber) jacket. I know that many 3.5 mm headphones cannot be plugged directly into the iPhone because the jacket of the plug gets in the way, so I was afraid that the same limitation would exist for the iPod. I have never owned an iPod, so I just mentioned the possibility of such a limitation to be safe.

Oh, OK. iPods are not like this. Even the iPod touch will fit securely with any headphone. You might run into trouble with certain cases not allowing for a snug connection but the iPod itself will be fine.

That's correct. I can really recommend Grado's SR60 or SR80. They look strange but sound excellent. They fit the iPod mechanically (like all other models) and impedance wise.

im very sure this was only an issue on the iphone, even the touch doesnt appear to have this problem