Playing Kanye West’s extensive catalogue made me appreciate both the genius of his production and also the Blukar in-ear earphones. The 3-D audio experience does things to you, once you cancel out any and all sounds outside of the song. You want a pair of wired earphones: Whether you're worried you'll lose true wireless or you don't like the feeling of big and bulky over-ears, it's good to have the option. Noise cancellation really matters to you: If there’s one thing the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II do really well, it’s noise cancellation.

You want ANC: There's decent noise isolation here, but nothing like the levels of ANC and immersion you'd find from buds specifically designed with ANC in mind.The best earbuds for you should sound good to your ears. Which means if you're a dedicated audiophile, look for buds that support Hi-Res Audio codecs, like LDAC and aptX HD Bluetooth for stellar connectivity. Two important things to consider when you’re choosing new earbuds is what you want to listen to and where you want to listen to it. You want top quality sound and have a stretchier budget: If sound quality is top of your list and you can spend a little more, do that. But this is not audiophile-grade.

We did enjoy the audio on offer from these buds, but you may want to do some tweaking when it comes to the audio profile. Out of the box, the sound is heavily scooped – at once overwhelming and sometimes boomy in the bass frequencies while being boosted and occasionally brittle in the upper treble range: all of this reduces the clarity of the mids. However, the five-band equalizer in the app means you can adjust the sound to your liking. You don't have an iPhone: If you're in the Android world, you won't get as much benefit from these headphones (although it's not as bad as previously). They’re not the cheapest buds, but because Sony has combined performance, ergonomics and build quality so effectively, we think they’re excellent value. Other true wireless earbuds may surpass the Sony WF-1000XM4s in particular areas – like noise cancellation – but they don’t offer excellent quality across the board. This is even the case after the release of the newer Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, which are fantastic, but we still rate the XM4s as the best all-rounders.You want wireless: It goes without saying that if you've become accustomed to wireless earbuds, you're not going to be happy with these. You love touch-sensitive controls: The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 Plus have physical buttons, so if you like to swipe, you’ll need to look elsewhere.