The modern ones aren't that much better. Sure, they fit better in the ear and the play/pause + volume buttons in the cables is a really nice touch, but they break really easy. I'm not joking, all I did for the last few months is store them in my pockets the same way I would any other earphones (rolling them up my hand, but not too suddenly, then putting them in said pocket), and the cables eventually snapped.
The USB adapters are even worse, because not only are they just as fragile, if not more than the earphones, they do not work with older Apple products.
Ok, this might tell you how much I care about audio quality, but I boguht like 2 years and a half ago a pair of 150$ Bose headphones.
You might think I'm crazy, but considering that:
- I never uses speaker, only headphones
- I wear them hours on a daily basis
- I want to get the most of the music I listen to
- I HATE mp3, sderiously, can't stand youtube compression....I rip ost in wav
It was worth it. The fact that they have yet to broke and they still have some usages mark is just worth the money. Also, if the wire breaks, it's detachable.
And I honestly sometime didn't make it easy for them to not break. I sometime think I wasn't careful enough, but they still function like they were new.
I cannot tell you how much awesome it is to listen wav at 100% with these. They are stereo only and on some music, I feel it surrounds myself. Also, they aren't closed, but at least 75% of the noise is not audible, the person would pretty much have to yell quite loud to hear me.
Like, I actually care more about audio than visuals.