So, iPhones don't have conventional headphone jacks any more, and if you need one you must buy a lightning-to-3.5mm adaptor at the Apple store for $12. Of course, Apple would prefer you to buy AirPods for $229, but for this money you can get very nice headphones indeed. Shop around and a pair of Audio Technica's deliciously good ATHM50X, for example, can be had for $200.

But AirPods have lots of appeal. They're new, sexy and exciting; just pop one in each ear and crank up Bluetooth. They also have their downsides, the biggest being that they're very easy to lose.

Or you can have one of a dozen or so alternatives that follow the AirPod model with a Bluetooth earbud for each ear and no connecting cord. Pricing runs from $199 to more than $400 and none of them have the spaciousness or presence of the Audio Technicas. Or a dozen others I could name priced between $150 and $250.

Jaybird wants you to consider an alternative – Bluetooth earbuds inter-connected by a 50-cm cable that can be clipped to your collar. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Jaybird is a pioneer of sports earbuds and has just released its X3s at $200, in your choice of black or white. It claims they are sweat-proof and will stay in place whatever sport you may be pursuing short of the unequivocally wet. But these are not their only attractions. The unique sales point is that you can dial up your own sound equalisation. Too much high-range? Tap and drag it down. Voices too weak? Pull the mid-range up. Dance music? Increase the bass.

This works up to a point, although the default setting is probably the best compromise for general listening, but like the great bulk of earbuds these are high-range-oriented and on the default setting, or even with the equalisation flatlined, the highs can get very brittle, even sharply uncomfortable. But dial the highs down deep and you start losing detail. With the low-range pulled up the music can get muddy. And if your tastes run to a full orchestra working hard, the X3s can get confused and you'll lose detail with the instruments that are not dominant.

That having been said, these perform better than most earbuds and the sound is detailed and defined in most situations, and quite acceptable unless you're a headphone junkie which, admittedly, I am. To me they fell well short of the "supreme audio quality" promised by Jaybird.

But they certainly work in every other respect. The buds have wings that fit comfortably inside the ear to hold them tightly, but unobtrusively in place and they're small enough to be helmet compatible. I got them very sweaty indeed and they didn't miss a beat. They also charge quickly, lasting up to eight hours unless the volume is way up, and they're dead easy to pair with voice prompts that also tell you when charging is needed.

Now charging is something you need to approach with a clear head. The charger is a tiny, flat device 1.5cm square, mounted on a 12cm USB to mini-USB cable – it plugs into the mini USB end and is tethered to the cable with a removable lanyard. So the charger can be just as easy to lose as an AirPod.