V-Moda VM-501 Professional Headphones

All I want is a freaking button. For $100, is that too much to ask?

Last month, I bought an iPhone and gave my 30GB iPod to my brother-in-law. The iPhone is a wondrous thing , but it does not play well with standard headphones. The iPhone's headphone jack is recessed, which means you have four choices with regards to headphones.

1. Use the headphones that came with the iPhone. I would, but I can't. I have small ears, and the earbuds that come with the iPhone refuse to stay in my ears for any length of time.
2. Use an adapter to allow your existing headphones to work with the iPhone. When I made my purchasing decision, available adapters did not have a microphone or pause button. Recently though, Sure Music came out with a $40 adapter that adds a microphone and a control button. It would have been a better choice for me.
3. Mutilate your existing headphones to make them fit the iPhone. Some people are reportedly trimming plastic off their headphones to make them fit. Again, this doesn't have a microphone or control button and isn't for klutzes like myself who could just as easily trim off part of their finger as part of the headphones.
4. Buy a third-party headphone set that works with the iPhone. The only suitable choice I found was the V-MODA Vibe Duo Earphones/Headset. So, for $99.95, that was my solution.

All in all, the headphones are very good. They are in-ear headphones with several silicon earpieces in a variety of sizes. The small set even works with my ears. They are comfortable to wear for extended periods of time at work.

I find the sound quality acceptable, but I am not a sound expert by any means. I do not notice static or sound distortion when I use them – even at the iPhone's top volume.

They seem durable enough. I use them daily at the gym and in the office. Many headphones I've owned quickly stop working in one ear or the other. These are still working reliably.

The microphone works well enough. People call me and whatever I'm listening to fades out and allows me to answer the call. I don't have to yell to be understood, and the conversation is audible to people I'm talking with. BUT, here's my gripe. There's no control button on the headphones. I can't answer the call by clicking the headphones. I have to dig the phone out of my pocket, unlock the phone and answer the call. Furthermore, if somebody walks in to my office, I can't pause the music quickly by clicking a button on the headphone. (I can pause it by disconnecting the headphones from the phone.)

So, I'm now in the market for yet another set of headphones for my iPhone. Part of me is considering the Sure adapter, but another part of me thinks I'll wait until somebody comes out with decent in-ear headphones with a microphone and control switch. And, I'll pass these headphones down to my son, who can use them with his iPod.

If you're in the market now for better headphones, I recommend the Sure adapter instead of the V-MODA Vibe headphones. The adapter will work with any headphones you have in the house, and will give you the functionality of the headphones that came with your iPhone. I can't for the life of me figure out why V-MODA left the button out.