Sennheiser IE 900

■ In-ear headphones

■ £1099

“They’re impressively clear and open sounding, able to dig deep into the production of a recording”

Sennheiser’s new IE 900 in-ear headphones are a purist design, engineered with the singular purpose of offering the best sound quality possible at this level. Their technical highlights include a single 7mm drive unit per earbud, an intricately machined aluminium casing, and the use of some clever resonance chambers inside that casing to improve the driver’s frequency response.

New premium wired in-ears are far less common than they used to be, and understandably so. In-ears have always been about portability and