For a while I thought I had the problem sorted but recently my battle with earphones has re-emerged.

After joining the local fitness centre (yes,it was a New Year resolution!) I quickly re-discovered the pain of trying to find just the right set of earphones for listening to music and audio books whilst exercising.

Being half strangled by earphone cord as you move around the gym equipment is quite a motivating factor in getting the problem resolved. It took a little while for the penny to drop but eventually I realised that, largely after looking around to see what others in a similar situation were doing, I could put the cord behind my neck so it runs down my back into my pocket. But, alas the earphone cable is not quite long enough and this has introduced a new problem – something I am going to call the “ear wrench”. By having the cord placed behind my back whenever I lean against something then pull my head forward my ears are wrenched by the trapped cord pulling on the buds. So, what to do?

I have tried a single Bluetooth earpiece but it didn’t stay in place besides I prefer stereo sound and just a little noise reduction from the pumped up selection of music blasting out of the centre’s own speaker system.

I was a little relieved to see others seem to experience the problem. Thus far I have witnessed people wrapping the headset cord around their ears to try and hold things in place, work out in a full set of headphones, use a head sweat band to try and hold the cable in place, and even try to hold their MP3 player whilst they exercise, none of which is ideal.

I have tested a number of headsets and earphones over the last few years and a number have been stand-out buds such as the Creative Aurvana In-Ear 2 and the Digital Silence DS-321D. However, I do believe something very specific is required for successful use in an exercise and fitness environment in the sense that they need to be secure once attached, include a slightly longer cord, be sweat and water resistant, and ideally inline controls.

So, what are the choices for a decent pair of sports earphones?

Over the next few weeks I am planning to take a look at what is offer when it comes to sports earphones and I will report back with my findings.