Happy: Piano and general musicality improving. Started some jazz stations on Pandora. Mind expanding with respect to "whoa, music can be like that?" Good stuff. Oh man.

Not happy: Headphones have flaky cord/connector. (Nikki did warn me about this - she has the same ones - and granted, the fact that I literally run around the room, spin on my drum throne, etc. while wearing them probably does not help.) They're worth the sound and time I'm getting from them, for what I paid, but I would really, really like an upgrade. Criteria:

  1. must surround ears (not earbuds)
  2. must not leak noise (when volume is such that I can hear it, others should not be able to)
  3. must end in stereo 1/8" plug
  4. must sound good, particularly in the bass where I can hear - I'm not an audiophile and can't hear the high frequencies in any case, but these should not sound bad.
  5. must be mel-durable (cord and connectors too)
  6. bonus points: not cost a lot
  7. bonus points: fold up into a portable-ish size
  8. bonus points: cord that is not absurdly short

Any recommendations? I'd like to hunt for these with a friend who has good ears, since they might be able to more quickly tell (by listening to high frequency reproduction) things about sound quality that might take me a longer time with my bass-heavy mel-can't-hear filter.