John, I remembered something else. at Barns and Noble in the listening
stations, they use Koss 80 earphones. I almost bought them from amazon for
$34 a couple years ago. I liked the rugged construction with heavy gague
wire instead of plastic headband  connecting to each earphone. the coil cord
was heavy as well. the Sony phones I mentioned use plastic all the way and I
believe their weakest point is where the head band connects to the
earphones. mine haven't broken yet, though. as I mentioned, the Sony
earphones have a cord that looks like regular ac line cord.

Bob Sikkila k8mxc