travel in silence

If you travel via plane a lot, one annoyance, namely noise, can easily be avoided. Just use earplugs (e.g. 3M) or noice cancelling earphones, available among others from Sony and Etymotic. The Sony ones are less than 50$ and reduce the surrounding noise quite well, but if you want to have the ultimate in noise reduction AND sound quality, then try the Etymotic. They cost 150$ and up, but if you heard your music through them once, you won't want to settle for anything less.