Dear iPod Owners:

You are idiots. Or, at least 95% of you are. Because 95% of you are still using those little white freebie earbuds that Apple tosses in the box.

And those little white freebie earbuds suck monkey.

I won’t plug the Etymotic ER-4‘s again here; if you’d appreciate them, you probably already own a pair.

Instead, you need something a bit more practical. Something you can haul to the gym, ride with on the subway. Something that seals out the whir of a treadmill or the screech of train tracks. Something sturdy, small, and cheap enough not to break the bank.

And, most importantly, something that sounds so good you’ll kick yourself for every day you wasted listening to those little white freebie monkey-suckers Apple stuck you with.

In short, you want a pair of Shure earbuds.

The cheaper choice is their e2c, which goes for as little as $70 street.

Or, forgo the extra iPod case, armband, dock and car charger on your wish list, using the saved $100 to bump up to the Shute e4c‘s, which CNET’s seasoned reviewers called “simply the best in-ear headphones we’ve ever heard.”

Either way, pick up a pair, and experience actually hearing your music, like it was meant to be heard, for the very first time.