The ear buds that came with my nano were crap! Not only was the sound not great, but they hurt my ears and were always falling out. These are a tad confusing at first...as far as how to put them into your ears... but not for long. The sound is really quite good and I can do mindless work around the house without distraction from others. Vaccuming is noiselesss! Be warned; people can and will sneak up on you, dont wear them when you need to have your wits about you.the only things that I would change:* the cord over the ear thing is hokey, it seems like there must be a better way to deal... but in order to keep them small I guess not* I dont care for the way it plugs into my i pod, it seems like that would be something to really work on, the plug and the connector/cord comes out at a right angle and is kind of bulky and not flexible plugged into something so very smallother than those petty things, I am really impressed