So I sold a bunch of parts off my GS which left me with some cash to play with... I bought a Creative Zen V Plus MP3 player, my first mp3 player, which was a steal at $90.

One thing that sucks is to rip CD's onto it in Mp3 format I have to download a $10 audio pack. Still, I am thrilled with the thing.

Anyway the included headphones are crap as far as wearing a helmet over them. I'm looking for good in-ear or "noise canceling" headphones, basically any earbuds that have a very low profile on the outside of the ear so it doesn't rape my earholes when I put my helmet on or take it off.

Circuit City had JVC, Creative, and Sony "noise canceling" earbuds but none of them have a true zero profile outside the ear.

Anybody have suggestions and/or links?

You can convert for free on many programs..

www.zamzar.com converts many things for free.. Just make sure your using mozilla..

I'll talk to my friend tonight. He's always raving about these headphones he got...says when you put them in you can't hear ANYTHING outside. I just can't remember what they were 

You can find many earbuds with earplug-like tips which are nearly zero-profile.  I have a set from griffin which sit fairly far inside the ear (never tried them with a helmet though)

Try http://www.mediamonkey.com/ to rip CDs to whatever format you wish and to manage music...it's free

A controversial subject for sure. My view is that it's no more dangerous than people blasting their super high powered audio systems in their cars. I myself have the 8 gb version of the v-plus. It's a great player. I actually have a velcro mount on my gas tank to place the player on so I have easy access to skip songs or raise and lower the volume. As for good earplugs, forget the noise cancelling stuff they suck, they can't attenuate wind gusts, sound quality is crappy and they require another source of power. I'm a bit of an audiophile myself, though I try not to overspend. Bang for the buck is my aim, so shure's and etymonics are out of the question especially since you'll be quite rough on them and may even lose them. So when it comes down to it the best sound, comfort and noise isolation earplugs are the Creative EP-630.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Earphones-EP-630-Eng-fr/dp/B000LVIC58/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1209861945&sr=1-1

Price is right and the sound quality is better than the sony's and even the v-moda vibe headphones that everyone raves about and that I own but don't use on a frequent basis because these are better. And at less than half the price. These are so comfortable I've had them on long 10 hour rides and my ears weren't the least bit sore. Also I bet you've also noticed that you only can charge your v-plus by connecting it to a computer or getting a special wall charger. Well there's a way around that, I made my own charger. You have to get this portable charger that's says it's made for the V-plus but in reality it doesn't work, for some reason they're wired wrong internally. You have to take it apart and rewire it to put all the cells in series instead of the 2series 2parallel original design. I myself just used a more compact 4 cell battery holder I got from a hobby store. You can then use 4 AA nimh batteries to charge the V-plus and charge those up when they die. I usually can charge my zen about 6 times from dead before my AA's need to be recharged.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Battery-Charger-Extender-Fit-Creative-Zen-V-V-Plus_W0QQitemZ300220098605QQihZ020QQcategoryZ86541QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Enjoy your music!
Oh yeah windows media player rips cd's with a better mp3 encoding algorithm than the stuff you have to pay for. I set mine to 128 kbps and it still sounds better than the licensed crap I used to have to buy.

CDex does best IMO, free too. Very easy, fast, simple program

riding can be hazardous enough without the distraction of music, not being able to hear your engine..in case something is wrong.  sirens, horns ...u get the idea

Quote from: nightrider on May 03, 2008, 03:33:44 PM
So I sold a bunch of parts off my GS which left me with some cash to play with... I bought a Creative Zen V Plus MP3 player, my first mp3 player, which was a steal at $90.

One thing that sucks is to rip CD's onto it in Mp3 format I have to download a $10 audio pack. Still, I am thrilled with the thing.

Anyway the included headphones are crap as far as wearing a helmet over them. I'm looking for good in-ear or "noise canceling" headphones, basically any earbuds that have a very low profile on the outside of the ear so it doesn't rape my earholes when I put my helmet on or take it off.

Circuit City had JVC, Creative, and Sony "noise canceling" earbuds but none of them have a true zero profile outside the ear.

Anybody have suggestions and/or links?

unless it's one of those crappy mp3 players that requires everything to be DRM'd before you can use it on your player... i'd just use WinAmp. or itunes. or whatever you find for free.

i got a pair of JVC headphones for $9, and they rock pretty good. try them on before you buy.....

I have a pair of Creative EP-630's that I have chopped up to feature as part of a rider comms system.  They go into your ear canals like earplugs do, and they fit very comfortably with the helmet on and remove a lot of extraneous wind/road noise that gets annoying on long journeys.  They do however still let in enough sound for you to still hear your bike, the other traffic, etc.  They come with a variety of rubber flanges to suit your ear size/shape.

A while ago, an audiophile friend of mine and I went on a headphone shopping spree. Although the pair I swear by (Sennheiser HD570) doesn't fit into a helmet by a longshot, my friend always opted for the earbuds.

Basically, what you really want is not the noise-canceling ones but the sealed ones. Noise canceling is still a virtually crap technology. Works OK for airplanes, where the engine is relatively low-pitch, but doesn't work at all for screaming motorcycle engines with heaps of wind. I used stock iPod headphones (about two gens ago) on my last trip, and only caught the baseline of 80s songs.

My recommendations are:
Shure i3c http://www.turntablelab.com/apple/56/1302/15102.html isolating headphones. These are amazing suckers for about 200 with absolutely epic response across all frequencies. They come (or at least, my friend's did) with about 4 or 5 different types of plugs, so they fit any ears.

Ultimate Ears http://www.ultimateears.com/_ultimateears/products/superfi/superfi3studio_description.php. They go from 130 to well over a grand. Definitely worth it. Rock bands use these as personal monitors, and even their cheaper models have amazing handling across all frequencies.

wow these replies are great, like magazine quality and sh1t... awesome.

I ordered the etymotic or whatever er6i's but the price just bugs me. Then after hearing qwertydude's recommendation for Creative Ep360's, I remember these are what I picked out in person at Circuit City. Creative has been around for a long time doing soundcard stuffs and I trust they are not going to make a piece of crap like Sony or other bloated non cool companies might do.

I canceled my etymotic order and got the creatives instead. 

also thx for ripping alternatives. was recommended CDex from Downloads.com.

dude i just wear a helmet at it does just fine for me with my earbuds that came with it

I use the Etymotic Research ER-6i and I love them.  They sound fantastic.  With any in-ear phones, the fit is critical.  If you don't experiment and find the best tips to fit your ear canal, you don't get bass response.

As far as safety, I am Mr. Conservative when it comes to safety and gear.  I ride with earplugs when I am not using my stereo.  It reduces fatigue.  I am still able to hear (with plugs OR my phones) outside noises, including my engine.  What I do NOT hear is the continuous wind noise that I find very distracting.  My fatigue level is much lower when wearing earphones or earplugs.  I find that my MP3 player can be at a reasonable level and I can still hear well.  I actually hear detail better than in my Nissan Maxima (admittedly the Maxima is 13 years old, but has a good stereo).

Keep the volume down and be aware, and I don't think it's any more dangerous to use the phones.  Also, I keep my player on shuffle so that I don't have to mess with controls.  I keep the player in my tank bag sitting on top of a jacket to dampen shock and vibrations.  If you use a flash memory based player (I also have an 8GB Sansa like that) you don't have to worry about shock.

I also have a Creative Zen player (an old one -- 30 GB).  It has software that rips to MP3 with no additional charge.  I don't know why they changed that!

I use these they work great. Ear buds allways hert my ears an a long ride.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-Motorcycle-or-ATV-Helmet-Speakers_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ34284QQihZ007QQitemZ170213653147QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Quote from: squirrel-22 on May 04, 2008, 07:56:18 AM
I use these they work great. Ear buds allways hert my ears an a long ride.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-Motorcycle-or-ATV-Helmet-Speakers_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ34284QQihZ007QQitemZ170213653147QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

We want to reduce the noise going to our ears this won't help with that, if your plugs are uncomfortable they probably aren't fitting your ear correctly. Change the tips, and you should be able to wear them much longer.

I'm with frankieG, I'd rather hear my engine and the traffic noises around me, it could save my life. The helmet makes that difficult enough without plugging up my ears. I have seen too many close calls at intersections where people in their cars had the music cranked up or were on the cell phone when emergency vehicles came roaring up: if the EMTs hadn't been prepared for oblivious idiots zooming through an intersection, the crashes would have been horrendous. No way I'd ever want to be in that situation myself.   

If you're going to be riding across AZ or west TX, maybe. But an urban environment?

BTW, soldiers in vehicles in Iraq get wiped out by roadside IEDs because they turn off the jamming equipment that prevents the things from blowing up, because it interferes with their iPods.. 

That's what I love YOU would say anyway.

Quote from: Teek on May 04, 2008, 02:52:22 PM
If you're going to be riding across AZ or west TX, maybe. But an urban environment?

Even though I'm a headphone and earplug wearer, I do agree with Teek here and I should have clarified.  I wear plugs or phones ON THE HIGHWAY ONLY.  Not it town.

And I do a fair amount of riding in West Texas.  Heading there next week in fact.

Definitely not in urban environments. I spend 95% of my time commuting on freeways, at those speeds it's been proven the buffeting and wind can cause hearing loss. I'd wear earplugs normally but having music is nice too. I still hear my engine and sirens just much less wind buffetting. I went for an extended highway ride without hearing protection and by the time it was over I had noticeable hearing loss, temporary but it was noticable.

Quote from: dleemiller on May 03, 2008, 04:52:04 PM
I'll talk to my friend tonight. He's always raving about these headphones he got...says when you put them in you can't hear ANYTHING outside. I just can't remember what they were 

i think tho while on a bike, you wnt to hear your surroundings) 

i've watched a van plow into a cop car in a line of emergency vehicles because she didn't hear the sirens.  if she had been on a motorcycle, she'd be dead.  i prefer to keep my ears open.  i don't go on the freeway much anyway.