My husband's previous job was as a sound engineer, and he's always praised Sennheiser products, so when I saw the Sennheiser CX 400 II Precision Noise Isolating Ear-canal Phones with Integrated Volume Control for the bargain price of £20 on Amazon I purchased them and put them away for Christmas. As they were for use with his ipod and iphone I bought them in white but they are also available in black. The usual RRP is £35 so £20 is a bargain.

In the packaging along with the earphones you get a cable clip, a cable winder and a soft carrying pouch. The length on the cable is nice and long which is good for my husband as he is tall and there needs to be enough cable to get from pocket to ear!

Apparently the phones are optimised for MP3 use, iPod, iPhone, CD players and portable gaming systems such as the PSP and DS. My husband has used his with an ipod and iphone as well as for listening to videos through his netbook and his feedback has been that the quality is excellent. You can really tell that they are quality earphones. The bud design cancels out any background noise and is very comfortable in the ear, too. There is an in-line volume control which is very effective and useful so you don't have to take your player out of your pocket.

There is a 2 year warranty with the earphones, which is good, however in the last 8 months there haven't been any problems whatsoever with the earphones. I would certainly buy them again if I needed a good pair, as they are far better than the ipod earphones that you get.

So to conclude, if you are looking for a superior pair of headphones at a bargain price, I highly recommend the Sennheiser CX-400 II. They make a great gift for the gadget or music lover (or both), and are a quality piece of kit. OK, you can get cheaper headphones for the untrained ear (and yep, I'd probably class myself in the cheap and cheerful league there!) but for £20 you can be sure you are getting a top quality ear bud set for everyday use.