Well.. I think is some ways its the "shoppers mentality". When you go out and buy an item, you don't really want to spend a significant amount on accessories.. a buyer wants the complete package. Hence why manufacturers of MP3 players throw in the headphone - but the manufacturer is competing in a market so wants to splash out on say the player and put minimal allotment to the headphone. When you buy a car you expect a decent set of tyres especially if you buy say a luxuary/sporty model. So if your ipod cost say (shuffle)$49 you are going balk at spending $40 on some headphones.. if you have say a touch at $229, then definitely yes. How about this: 1. can manufactures offer units without headphones. You can chose to buy their standard, their high end or you go off and get your own. 2. people should use their volume limiters. 3. Realise that by cranking up the volume, you are compensating for surrounding noise. Get some proper earphones sand stop being so cheap as it may cost you alot more than loss of hearing. With noise isolation, I even use these as ear plugs with I am walking past a building site/road works.. or on the subway. Actually I find that I am now more sensitive to loud noises.. because I have been used to a lower background noise level. Anyway, I have had Shure E2s, E3s / Sony MDR-71sl / Sennheiser CX400. I wanted something in black and discrete. - the Shures are really good, but I personally had a lot of problems with the 3.5mm connectors - they kept breaking and i would lose sound in 1 earphone. And they are too bulky. I even had custom inserts - brilliant, but everyone thought I was hard of hearing as they were flesh coloured.. - Sony, for a long while (I had around 4 pairs over 4 years) were great cheapish ($25) in ears. I loved the short lead, especially in conjunction with the ipod remote. - Sennheiser, best balance between price, sound quality and noise isolation. Definitely recommend! Thanks