I’m admittedly not a huge audiophile, and these days I don’t have many uses for earbuds or headphones in my daily life, but while $40 or so earbuds used to serve me just fine sound-wise, but I went through a lot of them. My earbuds lived a rough life, getting mangled up in my pockets, bags, the occasional trip through the washing machine, etc.

Then I got a pair of Shure earbuds after doing a bit of searching around for the most indestructible ones. I didn’t get their highest -end model, I think they ran me about $100, but they’ve held up for like a decade at this point. Part of it is probably that I’m a bit more careful with them than I was with cheaper buds, but they’ve still seen plenty of abuse and neglect.

They don’t get much use anymore since my phone doesn’t have a headphone jack, but I’m pretty sure I can buy a Bluetooth adapter or USB cable and slap it on them if I felt the need because the cable is replaceable, which is nice.

I haven’t gone earbud shopping in a decade so I can’t really say if their quality has held up, or if there are better options today. I haven’t quite gotten onboard with Bluetooth buds yet, so I can’t really comment on them.