If you were about to go out and buy a pair of Sennheiser CX-300s, then STOP! Because Sennheiser has just dropped us an email informing us that there's an upgrade coming this quarter that'll significantly improve its mid-range earbuds.

The CX 300-IIs feature a completely new drive unit and capsule that goes much louder, with better bass, clarity and dynamics. The cable's softer, with improved 'strain relief' (sounds painful), and it now comes with a carrying pouch. Basically it's all-round better.

The headphones cost £40, and come with the aforementioned pouch, 1.2m of soft cable action, and three ear adapter sizes. They're available in black, white, silver, red (pictured) and pink. Oh, and for a fiver more, you can get a lanyard version, which lets you hang a mobile phone or MP3 player around your neck.

Sennheiser CX 300-II Precision (Black)

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Jays Headphones, from Sweden, is currently shouting about its s-Jays headphones. I was quite a big fan of the c-Jays that I tested out recently (video coming soon), but those were over-the-head, whereas these are noise isolating in-ears.

They've got some technology that Jays is calling SIREN, which is a tubeless, round balanced armature, promising a good dynamic range and decent bass, which can be rare on cheap earbuds.

They come with plenty of accessories, including a splitter, embiggener, and an airline adaptor, as well as a nice carrycase. They'll set you back £60, and are available right now. Looks like a decent upgrade if you're currently running a cheap pair of earphones.

Jays Headphones

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What a stroke of genius! These "Acoustibuds" slip over a pair of cheap earphones to make them into a pair of expensive noise-isolating headphones. The guys who run CES agree, awarding them an innovation award at the show this year.

They also promise to stick in your ear better than standard earbuds. The flexible 'wings' hold the bud in place "even with perspiration and extreme physical activity", claims the manufacturer. Not bad for $13 (£8.70), especially if you've got one of those awful phones with a proprietary connector meaning that you have to use the rubbish provided earbuds.

Amazon USA (via CrunchGear)

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This morning, Sony quietly added the DB-BT101s to its online catalogue. These rather attractive phones are wireless, and connect via Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, so they'll happily work alongside a bluetooth laptop, PDA, mobile phone or MP3 player.

Those are the all the details we've got right now, but they do look lovely, so here's hoping they'll get some sort of Western release, along with some tangible specs, in the near future. Until then, you'll have to keep yourself content with that beautiful picture. Print it out and have it next to you on your pillow at night, or something.

Sennheiser's making quite a bold claim here - the world's best headphones. The HD800s apparently sound better than any other pair of headphones on the planet. I suspect that it might be difficult to prove that one to a jury - surely it's more than a little subjective?

But let's not quibble over that - it's beyond doubt that these are damn good. A brand new "RING" driver, developed specifically for these cans alone, can deliver an amazing 6Hz - 51kHz frequency response. For comparison, your average person on the street can hear about 20Hz to 20kHz. Unless you're an audiophile, therefore, you're not going to get much out of these. Sennheiser also claims an amazingly low 0.02% distortion.

Next up, it's Logitech's turn to show off its new products to the world. They've got the G19 keyboard, the G13 gameboard, the G9x mouse and the G35 surround sound headset. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the G stands for 'gaming', because these are all very squarely focused at PC gamers.

I'll start with the G19, which we spotted previously, but called the G18. In every other respect, though, it seems to be the same model - it's got the same 320 x 240 colour LCD, the same 12 macro keys, and the superb "game mode" switch that disables the Windows key so you don't hit it by accident at a crucial moment. No sign of that D-pad, though.

These over-ear headphones are Denon's latest release to the 'I've got rather a lot of money' target market. How much money? Well, the AH-D7000s will set you back £800. That's a lot of money, so you'd be right to ask what you're getting for that.

You're getting very high-class components, that's why. A couple of 2" drivers with free-edge microfibre diaphragms that'll play notes up to 45kHz (20kHz is the top end of an average human's hearing).

You also get housings crafted of mahogany (which I should point out is a highly endangered wood) with carvings on the INSIDE that 'enhance the natural tonal balance'. The cable is 99.99999% oxygen-free copper, too, so you'll get absolutely no distortion from that.

What do you think - worth £800? Or snake oil? Let us know your opinion in the comments.

Denon UK

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When I first read that LimbGear was releasing an mp3-enabled skullcap, I pictured a niche market of rockin' rabbis. Sorry to disappoint but that is not the case.

Apparently "skullcap" is an Americanism for a beanie type hat and the one of note today is the Noggin Net. But that just made me think of Latino gangsters. Again, this was a mistake. With the benefit of the image above, we can see that it's a normal hat with a little pocket clearly market for mp3 player storage.

"But why not just put your music maker in your pocket," you ask and rightly so. At the worst it turns you into a mugging target. At the best, it might make you think twice about headbutting someone. Well, what you can't see under that coasy yet breathable fleece is that the Noggin Net also comes fitted with LimbGear earbuds too.

Of course, I can't guarantee you the quality of the hardware until it's shown off at CES but if you're willing to take an uncertain $29.95 plunge then you can pick one up now. Let me know how it works out. I won't be holding my breath.

LimbGear

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Sennheiser has announced a new professional line of in-ear earphones, the IE series, offering high quality, accurate sound for a range of budgets (well, except under £120).

The Sennheiser IE 6 are hi-fi earphones with enhanced bass and come in at £119.99. The Sennheiser IE 7 are classic hi-fi earphones with a balanced sound, for £169.99, while the top-of-line IE 8s are aimed at audiophiles and cost £249.99.

All feature high-end, accurate, pro-grade audio and are based on Sennheiser's in-ear stage monitors, having a single driver to eliminate distortions, strong Kevlar cabling, metal carry cases, and a two year guarantee.

Those purchasing pods, players and PDAs for Christmas may like to think about picking up some of these headphones from AKG. They range from £6.99 to £99.99 depending upon how much you love them/yourself after you receive a device with some terrible audio out ear-scratchers.

As part of the Harman Kardon group you can pretty much guarantee solid quality whichever you choose as well as some audio porn shots on their website and a collection of particularly silly colour names such as Milk, Grasshopper, Pebble Black and Haemophiliac Red (one of these is not true).

I've painstakingly assembled them into gallery format for your pleasure and actually, I think they rather deserve it - very pretty indeed. Click on the 309s below to begin.

The world of mid-range headphones has just got a little more cluttered with the release of the c-JAYS, from Swedish manufacturer Jay's Headphones. They're over-the-head jobbies and they come with three sizes of foam cushion, from small to whopping (whopping pictured above).

You've got to love that way that whenever technology companies invent something, they give it a silly name and acronym. In this case, Jay's has invented something called the Elastic Multi Layer (EML) Membrane, which apparently makes things sound nice, and SGSCC (Single Crystal Copper) cables, which reduce distortions.

For those keeping score, that's the second time today that an abbreviation doesn't match up with what it's abbreviating. I'm not a happy bunny.

Annoyed with your current headphones? Bothered by people yapping and eating Rice Crispies on the bus in the morning, and need to replace the crappy pair of earbuds that came bundled with your MP3 player? You need to see this video.

Lucy, Zara and I tested out some of the noise cancelling and noise isolating earphones on the market. Dan made some noise. You can see the results above - the Shure SE102s won out, thanks to their low price and extreme effectiveness. Highly recommended.

Shure SE102s

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High-end audio manufacturer Klipsch has just announced a new set of earphones to sit alongside its prosumer X10 and budget Custom-1 models.They're called the X5s, and they're ever so slightly larger than the X10s.

That slight embiggening saves £50 in the manufacturing process, which they've passed on to the consumer, so the X5s will cost £130. For that, you're getting 50 ohm impedence, 110dB sensitivity, and -26 dB noise isolation. Klipsch are calling these "the least fatiguing in-ear headphones around", and they'll be available in 'late November'.

Sennheiser has brought out the office kit version of their Voice Max Bluetooth headset and just in time for Christmas too. The Sennheiser VMX100 Office will set you back £199.99, so you'd better like that special someone a whole lot to chuck in this 15g high end device as a stocking filler.

It's ergonomically crafted with a 3D ball to position it just where you want it and it's designed to fit both lug holes, although presumably at not the same time. The real bonus about this little device is that it has a range of up to 35m from the base station - handy in the home or the office. Walk in, strap on, chill out. Please kill me for writing that.

Dr William Maisel, a cardiologist at the Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, caused heart-murmurs across the internet this weekend thanks to his claim that music player headphones could break pacemakers - and stop defibrillators restarting dodgy hearts.

It's all because of the magnets in headphones, which could, possibly, if held very close to them, make pacemakers and other "embedded" medical devices stop working.

I should probably have left this announcement for our resident DJ Duncan, but as an aspiring one (and resident trumpeter) I'll bring you the news that Pioneer has just announced its HDJ-2000 professional DJ headphones.

Let's take a look at the specs:

These fully-enclosed dynamic headphones have a decent frequency response of 5Hz-30kHz, 36Ω impedance, 107dB sensitivity, and 3,500mW maximum power input. They are constructed with 50mm dome type drive units and come with a 1.2m-long coiled type connecting lead which connects via mini-XLR.

Panasonic has just dropped a bunch of new earphones on the world, the RP-HNJ150, RP-HJE700, and RP-HJE900. The RP-HNJ150 are the low-end model, feature a frequency response of 6Hz-23,000Hz, with an impedance of 16Ω. They're available in pink, white, blue and black. They'll cost you US$34.92 (£25 or so).

In the mid-range there's the RP-HJE700s, which have a wider frequency response of 6Hz-26000Hz, along with an impedance of 16Ω. These have 12.5mm drivers, slightly bigger than the RP-HNJ150s which contain 10.7mm drivers. The RP-HJE700s are selling for US$135.80, which converts to about £85.

Audio-Technica's new earbuds, the ATH-CK100s, feature a slightly-ridiculous triple-driver system. Why would anyone need three speakers in an earbud, especially when even the best sound-isolating earbuds don't block out enough noise to hear sophisticated sound improvements on the bus?

Ah well, "because they can" is probably the answer - these are the smallest three-driver earbuds on the market, come in a titanium housing and provide a frequency response of 20Hz-18kHz, with an impedance of 23Ω. That's good, in case you aren't too familiar with impedances. They'll cost you ¥56,700 (£323) or so.

Also released are the more entry-level ATH-CKM30s. These colourful chaps are pictured above, and come in black, brown, orange, purple, red, and white. They've got 10.7mm driver units, a frequency response of 14Hz-24, and an impedance of 16Ω. They'll be a fair bit cheaper at ¥3,675 (about £21, but probably more, once imported).

Audio-Technica

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I suppose there are two schools of thought with regards to the current whirlwind around the stock markets. One group of people will save every penny they have, so that they're sure of being able to afford to eat in a year's time still.

Another group, however, thinks "sod it, I might not have any money left tomorrow, I better spend it all today just in case", and buys these... hideous... things. They're diamond-encrusted headphone covers. You have to provide your own headphones!

According to some scientist, humans have stopped evolving. This means we're not going to get any better - at least not naturally.

So I propose science steps in to make us better, seeing as Mother Nature can't be bothered any more. Here's how. These are the evolutionary steps scientists need to introduce to our gene pool ASAP.

1. SIDE EYES Seeing as our ears are always in use listening to MP3s of 1980s cover versions, it's hard to hear cars, bicycles and lorries coming toward you. I therefore suggest moving our eyes to the sides of our heads, like horses, so we're less likely to step out in front of buses because we can't hear them coming. You never hear about horses getting run over because they're too busy listening to the new Oasis album to listen out for cars, do you?

2. WIDER EAR CANALS Dunno about you, but my ear holes are never big enough to accommodate all these so-called "in ear" earphones. You know, the ones you're supposed to ram right in. I ram them in so hard it hurts and my brain pops, yet they still fall out after three minutes when the cable snags on my shirt. I therefore suggest scientists develop wider ear holes for better audio clarity and comfort "on the go."