There is nothing worse than having your music disturbed by external sources. Be it the noise of a train rattling through a tube tunnel during the morning commute, a hoody playing a pirate radio station out of a tinny phone speaker at the back of a bus or a road chomping jack-hammer drilling as much into your head as it does the street, regular headphones just can't defend your personal, harmonious music bubble from the outside racket of the modern world. AKG's K390 Noise-Cancelling earphones aim to thwart these sonic invaders, with varying levels of success.

AKG K390 earphones certainly look the part with a shiny black plastic casing and matte trimmings. The elegant curves of the earphones are durable too, with reinforced cabling near the ear piece protecting from any sudden tugs.

The earbuds and sound apertures themselves are a little large, though the earphones do ship with numerous replaceable sizes. Putting the earbuds in at first feels a little like the sensation of wearing ear-plugs, magnifying the sound of your own head as it were. But once you have some tunes playing through them, the earphones have a bright, full sound with good bass response and a clean high-end.

Active noise-cancellation is solid. A trek down noisy Oxford Street and on to a busy tube made no impression on my music, even with the volume down relatively low. The active noise-cancellation once switched on did produce a slight hissing sound that muddied bass frequencies, but overall made a huge difference to the clarity of my music.

However, the active noise-cancelling module is a rather bulky piece. It does fine in terms of features; it's good to see that it has a mute function and a switch for active/passive noise cancellation, and that it gets a decent run out of a single AAA battery. However its size (about 3 inches in length and an inch tall) and weight can make it a little cumbersome. It's placement along the length of cable is also too high, meaning that it cant be placed in a trouser pocket when out and about and in use, which is a shame.

Packaged in along with the replaceable earbuds are a stereo patch cable for connecting up other audio sources and a rather sleek carry case. It's also worth noting that the AKG K390 earphones also work as a hands free kit and do a good job of this secondary purpose.

The AKG K390 Noise-Cancelling earphones do a great job of defending your music from outside intrusion. However, a weighty noise-cancelling module drag the earphones down. They are pricey (you wont get much change out of £150) but the quality of the sound produced still make them a worthy purchase.

4/5

Click here to check out the product homepage: AKG K390 Noise-Cancelling earphones

Sennheiser's new Bluetooth headphones, the MM 100 will use multi-point connectivity to connect to two devices at once, perfect for those who always have their phones and MP3 players on the go.

Using Bluetooth V2.0 EDR, the headset can connect up to a MP3 player and a mobile phone, allowing quick switching between both devices.

The headphones will also support hands free and have a battery life of 9 hours, rechargeable via USB.

Sennheiser are always pretty reliable when it comes to sonics, with the MM 100 set to feature a wide dynamic range and natural sound reproduction.

The MM 100 will cost around £129.99, and will be launched by O2 in November.

For more details, click here.

If you want to make your millions don't bother spending days perfecting your Phone app. No the business that will really make money for you one day is around designing cool-looking hearing aids.

Lets' face it, since the invention of the Walkman and its offspring the iPod, several generations of teenagers have blasted their ears with music that is way too loud for them and are subsequently well on the road to going deaf. So anyone who invents a hearing aid that doesn't look like a Bluetooth headset for the terminally unfashionable is sure to hit pay dirt.

Saving future generations from such a fate is the mission of Griffin Technology. It has come up with a plan to ensure that youngsters don't damage their hearing until at least they hit the big 1-0 with the very sensible MyPhones- earphones aimed at kids with a volume cap of 85 decibels. Apparently that is the maximum sustained volume level recommended by many regulatory agencies. Also the earphones are supra-aural, which means that they sit outside the ear with no parts entering the ear canal and are even safer for youngsters.

In case kids do listen them and ask difficult questions about why The Saturdays seem a bit on the quiet side Griffin has created a cunning diversion by enabling parents to suggest to kids they customise their earphone's shell cap. Clever stuff!

The MyPhones go on sale inn Apple stores very soon and will retail for £29.99.

Everyone knows that German firm Sennheiser makes great headphones that look and sound great too. I swear by my pair of PX100s for listening to my iPod. This pair though look much more serious and come at a much more serious price too (a cool £140). A foldable set of headphones they are intended as professional monitoring headphones for audio professionals such as sound engineers and musicians. Sennheiser claims they offer high sound pressure level and extended frequency response. They are also provided with a zipped carrying case.

Sennheiser is to debut a pair of in-ear phones with a mic aimed at gamers who want a lightweight unit that is good for music too.

According to the maker the £69.99 PC 300 G4ME's in-ear design isolates annoying background noise meaning that the owner can concentrate on zapping extra-terrestrials or listening to tunes without distractions.

The unit includes a trio of soft silicone ear sleeves that come in different sizes. These apparently aren't just about ensuring a snug fit but they also enhances the system's bass performance

Other features include an Omni-Directional microphone for in-game communication, in-line volume control, a travel pouch and two metres of extension cable.

They will be available shortly.

More info here

Can you optimise earphones to suit a certain type of music? Internet radio company Radiopaq thinks you can. It not long ago launched its Custom Tuned Earphones which it claims are configured to create a balanced reproduction of sound to suit the music you listen to. You choose the type of music you want to listen to - Rock, Jazz Classical or Pop - and then the earphones apparently make the most of the big warm sound (Rock) or the dynamic sharp experience (Pop) etc.

Now the earphones are available in a specific permutation for the iPhone and include an inline remote and microphone that allow users to answer phone calls when the music is playing. This is controlled by one button which switches the music on and off when the call comes in.
The microphone, which is constructed from metal, is also multi-directional so users don't have to speak directly into it.

The earphones are £49.99 and are available now via Amazon and Radiopaq's website.

If you went to Glastonbury last weekend, or even if you just soaked it up on TV with the Beeb, you may have been aware that Mike Skinner of The Streets made a crop-circle impression of his face on a field near the festival site.

In the image he is sporting a pair of headphones. The same headphone he wore whilst he was performing. The same pair of headphones he described had become "part of my soul" on Twitter.

So what headphones were they? Well, they were none other than the Sony MDR-XB700s.

The XB700s have a powerful, ultra-low bass response and a driver unit that reproduces low frequencies accurately. The XB stands for 'eXtra-Bass' and these headphones are aimed at the bass-heavy music fan. That's a lot of 'bass' in one paragraph but I think you get the picture.

They're manufactured from synthetic leather and the king-sized ear cushions reduce sound loss. The urethane cushion spreads pressure evenly, providing comfortable wear over extended listening periods. The XB700s have a frequency response of 3-28.000Hz and the driver unit is a 50mm dome type.

Keep checking back on TD and we'll give these headphones the once over in the not too distant future.

Sony Centres will sell you the XB700s for £100 although you can get them a bit cheaper if you search around. £77.49 on Amazon for example.