There are days when I want to stick my fingers in my ears and scream such are the annoying trills and whistles and random shrieks that occur as several German soldiers die whilst the other half plays Call of Duty or one of a dozen or more very similar sounding games whilst the demonic daughters watch TV in another room and our youngest plays the nauseatingly chirpy build a Bear Workshop game on her Nintendo DS. On days like this you can't hear yourself think and whilst pulling the circuit breaker to the house is very tempting its not overly practical. Clearly the easiest solution is to stick my Ipod headphones on and enjoy the relaxing strains of Bach but then I'm blissfully ignorant when war breaks out and the dog starts barking at the postman so I hit upon another cunning plan. A battery of headphone suitable for each and every occasion. We have everything from wireless ones for watching TV to wired ones that shrink small enough to fit a six year old with a very very small head.

Actually the hardest part of finding a good pair of headphones has been the size. The in the ear ones are uncomfortable for children, the sort that hook over the ears are too heavy and dangle too low and the majority of the old fashioned alice band type simply don't shrink small enough for her head. Not one to be deterred we eventually came across a pair of Technics RP-F290 headphones which although heavier than I'd have liked have very squishy foam filled leatherette pads which sit comfortably over her ears and have been pronounced the best headphones ever. They have several very handy features. The first is an incredibly long cable which is fab when watching TV as it allows you to get about 3m from the screen although at the same time this extra length is frustratingly long in the car when it seems to get tangled up around everything. The ear pieces pivot and also swivel which allows them to be perfectly positioned to your head and the alice band style head support is fully adjustable but unlike cheaper versions it does actually stay in the position to which you adjust it rather than stealthily extending itself over time.

The headphones are marked as right and left because the alice band is angled slightly to provide the optimum listening position. Its pretty obvious when you've got them on the wrong way around as they feel draughty whilst the right way round they fit snugly over your ears. The most important bit is obviously the sound and they sound great and are far better than our previous tinny freebie aeroplane headphones.

At £20 a pair they weren't cheap but they are a well made entry level pair of headphones.