Top earbuds and headphones for iPad, iPhone and iPod: Beatweek 75

The sixteen top rated earbuds and headphones on the market for iPad, iPhone, and iPod, ranging in price from $25 to $400, including three button, one button, and no-button control options:

Etymotic hf2 • one button earbuds • $179: An essentially perfect product for their price point, the hf2 offers a triple-flanged design goes deep into the ear canal and provides the kind of detailed listening experience that’ll make you hate your existing earbuds. The catch-22 at present is that Etymotic’s three-button hf3 has been announced but isn’t yet shipping, so it might be worth it to wait at this point.

Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Tour with Control Talk • three button earbuds • $179: Dr. Dre’s signature earbuds are certainly the most unique looking we’ve ever tested, and they’ve got a fantastic sound to match. While the competing hf2 slightly edges them out in audio quality, the fact that the Tour is available with a three button configuration right now is enough to get them onto this list – along with the definitively 21st century styling.

v-moda vibe ii • one button earbuds • $119: An oldie but a goodie, this product has a firm grip on the sweet spot of not being too expensive and yet offering audio quality that’s head and shoulders above any other iPhone-specific earbuds in the roughly hundred dollar price range. And the earbuds themselves are lightweight and tiny. Fair warning: they have a higher than usual bass to treble ratio.

Shure SE115m+ • three button earbuds • $119: These earbuds sound excellent for their price and offer perhaps the best noise isolation of any earbud product we’ve ever tested. The colors are a bonus, as are the built in three buttons; make sure you’re actually getting the SE115m+ and not the older SE115, which doesn’t have three buttons built in.

Ultimate Ears 220vi • one button earbuds • $89: The overall audio quality of these earbuds is the best of any sub-$100 iPhone earbuds we’ve tested, crisp and expansive on both the high and low ranges. The design is lightweight and non-bulky, without feeling fragile. If you can afford an extra $30, you should probably move up to the vibe ii. But if $89 is the high-end of your budget, you’ll be plenty happy with these earbuds.

Radius Atomic Bass • one button earbuds • $49: These earbuds surprised us by sounding noticeably better than even some competing iPhone-specific earbuds that were more expensive. We can’t be the only ones who’ve caught on, as the silver model is out of stock at the time of this publication. No worries, though – also available in red, black, and pink. There’s also a $39 non-iPhone-specific version.

Macally HifiTune • one button earbuds • $49: These earbuds are remarkably similar to the Atomic Bass earbuds in overall quality, with the primary difference being that the HifiTune sounds a little better on the high end and the Atomic Bass (as its name would predict) wins the battle on the low end. With an identical price tag, you can use that fact (along with the differing styles) to decide which of the two is right for you.

RadTech ProCable • one button earbuds • $25: You wouldn’t think you’d be able to get your hands on iPhone-specific earbuds for twenty-five bucks that would sound even decent (and some competing products at this price point don’t), but these earbuds will significantly improve your audio experience over the ones that come bundled with the iPhone – and they come in a choice of five colors.

Westone 3 • no-button earbuds • $399: These iPod earbuds offer such a stunningly expansive sound that after using them for a few minutes you’ll forget you’re wearing earbuds and swear you’re instead wearing cup-style headphones. They’re also stunningly expensive, leaving us skeptical going in, but as it turns out they really do offer four hundred dollars worth of sound quality – you’ll notice it immediately.

Future Sonics Atrio • no-button earbuds • $199: For those of you who can’t quite manage to spend four hundred dollars on earbuds, the Atrio will still move you nearly to tears of joy over their audio quality while not quite as likely to leave you in tears over their price tag. As with the 3, our only knock on the Atrio is that they won’t come in an iPhone-specific version with a built-in mic and button. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.

Wi-Gear iMuffs MB220 • wireless headphones: We’ve tried out any number of wireless headphone solutions, but we keep coming back to the iMuffs, which provide playback controls on the right headphone and allow you to toss your iPhone in your pocket. Good luck finding them though, as we can’t currently find them in stock anywhere.

JayBird SportsBand SB1 • wireless headphones • $89: These new challengers in the wireless headphone arena are a virtual tie with iMuffs in our book: they’re comfortable and they sound great. The only catch is that the SB1 is about to be replaced with JayBird’s even newer SB2 – which we haven’t had the chance to test out yet – and while we expect the SB2 to be even better, the SB1 is in fact the model that’s available now.

Ultrasone HFI-2400 • high end headphones • $329: These massively sized headphones sound so brilliant that you’ll think you’re in a room equipped with surround sound speakers – and for this price tag they’d better. They’re brilliant across all audio ranges, and comfortable. Yeah, you probably can’t afford them, but they are more than worth their price tag.

v-moda Crossfade LP • high end headphones • $249: Metallic styling and the best bass at any price – the two hallmarks of v-moda’s line of earbuds – translate nicely to the company’s new headphones. If you like your bass crisp and heavy, the Crossfade LP is what you’re looking for. As a bonus, they come with a pair of cables, one which includes three control buttons and the other of which doesn’t.

AKG K 450 • portable headphones • $189: These small fold-up headphones are designed for traveling light, as they have some of the smallest cups of any headphones we’ve tested. But that doesn’t keep them from sounding great – and for those who want to travel with something more substantial than earbuds but can’t lug around full size headphones, the K 450 represents an excellent middle ground.

Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7b • noise canceling headphones • $219: We’ve tested various active noise canceling headphones, which surround your head with white noise to block out the surrounding fray, but none of them measure up to Audio-Technica’s rather technically named ATH-ANC7b in terms of audio quality or noise suppression. These are a lifesaver if you’re on an airplane or just trying to block out neighborhood noise.

View all seventy-five winning accessories for iPad, iPhone, and iPod (including cases, earbuds, car products, stereos, batteries and more) in Beatweek Magazine’s 75th issue which you can read digitally for free right here.