I have always bought earphones - with steadily increasing price tags - but I've never invested in a set of headphones. I was always put of by the size of them and a strange sense of self consciousness that I might look like a bit of a dick in them, but now I feel like a bit of experimentation.

I've heard a few opinions in the past - the view by a lot of seemingly knowledgeable sorts, is that headphones are always better quality. Now is this really true? Could someone clarify things? As a rule of thumb are headphones better than a similarly priced pair of earphones? And consequently, are cheaper headphones equal in quality to more expensive earphones and hence are they better value?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.