I had a nightmare scenario last week: I got one mile into my eight-mile run, only to have the batteries of my wireless headphones die. I then had to suffer an hour (who am I kidding? It was more like 80mins) of nothing but my heavy breathing, traffic, rowdy college students and squeaky right trainer to listen to. You see, I have always found that music increases my performance, blocks out any annoying brain chatter and generally just makes my runs more enjoyable.

You might be mistaken for thinking that the natural path for technology is to get smaller and smaller,  however the Crossfade 2 from V-Moda bucked the trend with these striking Hi-Res Bluetooth headphones. So, where to begin?

Since the Instagram revolution everyone likes to show off their skills. If you can’t walk on your hands, nail the Scorpion Pose or smash out Voodoo Child on the ukulele should you even have an account? However, you quit your dance classes and music lessons as soon as your mates started hanging out at the park after school and now you can barely get off the sofa without groaning and wouldn’t know where to put your fingers on a Uke.

The Vento P55 are SoundMAGIC’s first headphones where every component is manufactured in house. I don’t know why this is important, but you never know what questions might pop up in the pub quiz, so, while we are at it: the name Vento comes from the Italian word for “wind”; we can only hope it refers to the weather rather than butt acoustics.

From budget shoppers’ favourite RHA comes the S500 Universal headphones with voice control.

Sennheiser have long since been renowned for their high-quality audio equipment, so we had high hopes for Momentum Free.

As a keen, but slow runner, I prefer to hit the road with some music in my ears to motivate me and keep my pace up. The issue however, is that the area I live in has some very busy roads and some rather questionable characters, so not being able to hear the traffic and weirdos makes jogging (especially at night) a risky business.

When it comes to over-ear headphones, you want to make sure how they look compliments your style just as much as your music compliments your day. The New York headphones from Urbanista seriously look the part: available in either Dark Clown (that’s black to you and me) and Moon Walk, which is a white and grey combination.

As much as we moan about the kids of today being glued to screens, to be honest it can be a life saver keeping them entertained in awkward moments, long car journeys, queuing for anything and boring family functions. What isn’t as helpful is having to listening to the game/kid’s show/god awful pop band on repeat. Headphones are an excellent choice to alleviate the assault on your ears, however you don’t want them to wind up with hearing problems before they have had a chance to destroy them at various metal gigs when they are older.

The E10BT (super catchy name by the way) from SoundMAGIC are Bluetooth wireless connecting headphones which can provide you with up to 12 hours play time. The pack includes the SoundMAGIC E10BT wireless earphones, USB charging cable, semi-rigid carry case, three pairs domed silicone eartips (S/M/L), three pairs bowl silicone eartips (S/M/L), four pairs vented silicone eartips (XS/S/M/L) and one pair of double flange silicone eartips (M) so you can find the perfect fit that stays secure in your ear even when running or working out.