Ever since the birth of the iPhone people have sent their MP3 players to retire in the dresser drawer and turned to their phones as a primary place of storing music, however as phones get bigger and bigger, music files taking up so much space and poor audio quality means there is certainly still a place for MP3 players on the market. The Hidizs AP80 is a Hi-Res music player with Bluetooth connectivity in a durable compact design, the Ess flagship ES9218P DAC chip delivers an SNR of up to 126dB and THD+N down to -113dB to capture fine details within the mus

My partner for reasons best known to himself still insists on running and working out with wired headphones, these often end up threaded through sleeves in various configurations and even gave him friction burn on his chest after a recent long run. When the 1More Stylish earphones arrived I practically stuffed them in his ears to show him there is a better way. These earphones come in Black, Gold, Green and Pink with a compact matching charging case which will boost the 6.5 hours of play time up to 24 hours.

The BE Free5 Nu Force from Optoma are true wireless Bluetooth in-ear headphones, ideal for escaping the cables that tether you to your device and helping you to become completely immersed in the audio experience, with unrestricted movement.

When the weather is glorious and you have a decent tune playing in your ears you can feel on top of the world, even when you are walking to somewhere hideous like the DVLA, the Viper sunglasses from Zungle cut out the cumbersome combination of headphones and sunglasses or earphones with their dangling wires by turning the sunglasses themselves in headphones. The Viper uses bone conduction and Bluetooth to allow you to listen to your music wirelessly but at the same time keeps you connected to the world around you.

The Backbeat GO 810 from Plantronics are over-ear headphones featuring Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) with dual mode and up to 22 hours of battery life per charge, available in Graphite Black, Bone White and an attractive Navy Blue. Self-titled as “escapeware” the dual mode ANC lets you choose how much background noise you allow to penetrate the headset depending on how noisy the environment is, whether you are on the daily commute or simply trying to drown out the family around you.

We were lucky enough to be sent three out of the four headphones Periodic Audio has to offer: the Magnesium, Titanium, Beryllium as well as the Nickel. This young company wants to create the best audio experience by stripping away all the bulk and unnecessary frills and focusing on a high quality sound in a super portable way. Periodic Audio is a company formed to act as the self-funded, small team of audio product specialists, who want to produce “performance heavy, and buzzword-y feature impaired”, devices.

Beauty doesn’t always come at a cost, but in this case it certainly does - you will definitely have to scrape together all the pennies from down the back of the sofa for these headphones - but if you love your music and style we think you won’t regret it. The MW65 is available in either the Gunmetal/Black Leather design or the Silver Metal/Brown Leather model (we received this version), they are constructed from premium materials including lightweight anodized aluminium and soft leathers for a comfortable fit.

The Q Adapt On-Ear headphones from Libratone are first and foremost a gorgeous pair of on-ear headphones, they come in Stormy Black, Elegant Nude and Cloudy White (we received the latter), they have been designed with clean lines, a minimalist finish and high-quality fabric-coated headband. They come in an attractive round box with a durable carry case that can be flattened down for compact storage when empty, they are lightweight at just 200g and when combined with the super soft ear cups you can comfortably wear them for hours at a time.

The Stockholm earphones from Urbanista are, as is so often the case with Urbanista products, rather beautiful.They come in four different colours: Black, White, Rose Gold and our favourite, Olive Green, with a charging case in the same colour as well as a micro-USB charging cable and instructions manual, all packed into an attractive box that would make a great gift.

There is nothing quite like music to motivate you on your workouts, people who manage to push themselves during a session with nothing but the sound of their own wheezing breath and pounding heartbeat in the ears are some sort of weirdos. The issue is that you may have some really good over-ear headphones already, but wires and bulky headgear are just not your friend in the gym, seriously try doing 10 burpees without them doing your head in.