For the price point I consider the Shure SE310's to be an excellent value. They have a full clear sound that accurately reproduces the music on my iPod. They come with a full range of ear bud tips including small, medium and large silicone tips, small, medium and large foam ear plug style tips, and triple flange tips so virtually anyone can find a comfortable and isolating fit. They are also quite small and light so they are comfortable to wear. The best price I was able to find was at Amazon.com which was about $100 less than MSRP. One thing to consider with these ear buds, however, is that they do not enhance the bass at all. They reproduce the low end as recorded, which may actually come across sounding a bit thin if you're in to the enhanced bass that seems to be popular. If the bass is important you might consider going to the next model up, the Shure 420's which have a seperate sub-woofer and, according to reviews, has a stronger low end than the 310's.

Really, though, what is best is probably determined by the size of the check you're willing to write. There's a pair out there that you can find for about $15.00 that has excellent sound isolating qualities, but the music reproduction is terrible. On the other hand, if you're willing to drop $500 there's the Shure SE 530's, but that's a bit much for me.

There are other brands you could check in to, but so far I haven't found any reason to look outside of the Shure SE line. They're light weight, they sound very good, and they're fairly small, though they do get bigger in the higher model numbers because of the technology and additional monitors in the 420 and 530 models.