5 of the best headphones for summer

Atomic Floyd Superdarts

These bass heavy offerings from British headphone specialist Atomic Floyd combine edgy high-end, first rate design with top of the line audio for your iThings. Of course, for a pair of headphones that cost this much you should expect nothing less than a crisp, punchy and smooth audio experience. The stainless steel buds each contain dual drivers, so you’ve got two mini speakers in each ear for better sound deliverance – with each driver individually handling a separate part of the sound spectrum.

SoftSeal silicone tips make for good sound isolation, while a kevlar cable – which is almost impossible to get tangled up in a knot – conquers tangled cable rage. A stainless steel remote control and in-line mic are also on hand for music control and hands-free calling.

Powerbeats by Dr Dre

£120, beatsbydre.com

Dr Dre’s sporty in-ear numbers have been praised for offering full-bodied sound that reaches into the depths of your tunes to dig up a brain-shaking amount of bass. The flexible ear hooks stay firm when running hell for leather, but tend to fall on the heavy side when wearing them for the long-haul. Their thumping sound makes them a great workout companion – couple that with in-line volume and track controls and the Powerbeats are hard to beat.

Logitech Ultimate Ears 300

£35, logitech.com

Designed for pavement pounding and dumbbell wielding, the 300s sit perfectly in your ear once you’ve found your sweet spot, with malleable ear hooks on hand to keep them in place. Sound is fabulously detailed and dynamic, while effectively blocking out most outside noise, justifying their noise isolating claims. So whether you plan to sweat all over them or not, you should pay extra attention when using them on the road.

SoundMagic E10

£35, amazon.co.uk

The SoundMagic E10s have blasted in from China to demonstrate once again that affordable, entry-level earphones don’t necessarily mean you have to compromise on audio quality. These fantastically stylish earbuds pack a durable metal casing that makes them feel much more valuable than they really are – and they sound rich, too, with awesome punch, excellent balance from treble to bass and bags of detail. They punch well above their weigh in terms of sound quality, which means you get the premium audio experience without the premium price tag. We’d have them at twice the price.

House of Marley Smile Jamaica headphones

£17, thehouseofmarley.co.uk

Nothing screams summer like the conspicuously stylish red, gold and green stylings of the house of Marley’s Smile Jamaica headphones. Considering The House of Marley lives by Bob’s mantra: One Love, One World – it makes sense for its range of headphones to be crafted from eco-friendly materials. The result? Brilliant environmentally-aware audio that throws up hard-hitting deep bass at a pocket-friendly price. Chuck in three sizes of ear tips for optimum noise-isolation, powerful 8mm moving coil drivers for clean, crisp audio and a flexible 52in braided tangle-free cord and it’s not just the bright colours that start to look attractive.

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.