I personally find them to be overpriced and unreliable long term. I've bought many, many Sony products, only to find that other brands outperform them and cost less. Just personal experience though.
The ipod earbuds are amazingly loud for what they are. Mine broke too, and I haven't found a good replacement yet myself. Of course though, with (most) earbuds, you're not getting much bass, so you should look more towards headphones.