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Okay, so our PA for practice fucking sucks dog balls. I'm really getting tired of it, if it's loud enough to even hear the vocals then the mic feeds back, and I'm just done with that bullshit.

I started looking at some in-ear monitors, they are fairly cheap now for a set of wired phones. Has anyone tried out the Shure SE215 yet? At $100 they seem to be at a decent price point for me, and I would actually be able to hear my fucking vocals while working out how to sing parts.

Any other suggested models?

I'm no expert here but those sure aren't 'true' monitor phones as they are not a flat response. I night Etymotic head phones for my iPhone because they'd also double up as flat response monitor phones for mixing . They are ruddy good!

I night? I BOUGHT. Fuck you iPhone4s

I can't imagine having any luck reselling in ears, so just save up and get some real ears.

http://www.1964ears.com/
http://www.jhaudio.com/

I can't find the ones listed by sloan in the sweetwater catalog, but there's these Etymotic Research mc5:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MC5Blk/

Are these decent ones? I don't care about them being perfect, I just want something that's not overly expensive and I can use to hear myself during practice is all.

Found them for $50 on Amazon, if you vouch for them I think I'll get em.

Eh, fuck it. I just ordered them. Further searches for reviews all said the same thing: "These suck for pop music! OMG there is no bass!" and others said "Yeah, these are designed to not boost any frequency over others, so they sound flat and boring".

EXACTLY what I want. Thanks for the suggestion.

i wish i could remember the brand but years and years ago when i was playing with a group called sirens in southern indiana we played a club that offered them, i know the first time i thought "FUCK YOU, I HAVE FUCKED UP EARS!" but when we played there again i ended up trying one in my right ear only and it actually did a fairly decent job, all i ever need to hear are the vocals tho. generally i just key off of the drums and bass.(unless im playing bass...)
im wanting to say it was like a bose system or something....

Yeah there's a lot of them by all of the big guys, but those are all stupid expensive. I just want something relatively affordable and I'm only going to use it in one ear anyway, I just need to be able to hear myself sing.

Sloan is kind of on the money here with the custom-molded stuff. I have a pair of Shure E4c in-ears, and I find them only useful with the expanding-foam attachments. The ridged rubber fuckers that come with in-ears are largely useless to me, and I'm guessing the problem with bass response in almost every moronic reviewer of in-ears is they do not take the time to ensure proper fit. If there's not a proper seal, they're going to sound like what they are: really tiny speakers held near your ear canal instead of sealed within it.

I've been happy with the expanding foam, but along with the companies Sloan linked, this company called Sensaphonics will retrofit many models of in-ears with a custom piece made from a mold of your ear taken by an audiologist:

http://www.sensaphonics.com/?p=337

I've been meaning to do it for about five years now but haven't managed to do it yet. Sure, it's pricey at $150 -- but when you look at the prices of the custom units, buying your own and going for the retrofit still comes in well below.

A word of advice that seems fairly obvious to the point of sounding stupid, but if you're going to be using these in a band context like you said, take extra caution with levels. It's way more intense than a PA to have powerful, sealed drivers in your ears when someone does something stupid. Ideally, you could place a limiter before the headphone amp to protect yourself from feedback and transients, but that may be too elaborate of a setup for your needs. I've never used mine in a live band/monitoring setup, but I wouldn't dream of it without something like that in place.

Amen on the ear protection mentioned. Most in ear units (not the actual ear pieces) have limiting included as far as I know... But it would be a good idea to run your own if you can and set it up for your specific use. Ears are a precious thing!

Yeah, I hear ya. That's why I was planning on just using it in one ear, so I wouldn't be tempted to crank it to hear everyone else. That's actually one thing I was worried about, having something directly in my ear like that, cuz I know I have had moments with headphones before when doing mixing that I forget I have it cranked and have to yank the headphones off my head because they are unbearably loud.