Cygnett GrooveAtomic

Claiming to "bring energy and power to every track on your playlist", Cygnett's GrooveAtomic ear buds are a compact, stylish and lightweight set of headphones. Although they provide powerful and deep bass, this comes at the cost of clarity and crispness.

Cygnett claims the GrooveAtomic features "powerful bass" and we are inclined to agree. Even without any equaliser settings, bass was loud, forceful and punchy. Although this may appeal to those who like their music bass-heavy, the rest of you will be left with a pair of headphones that struggles in most other areas. In particular, the mid-range is quite muddy, especially if the track happens to be bass heavy. We also found that the general tones produced aren't as crisp or clear as we would have hoped.

That being said, if you are after an improvement on sound quality of stock headphones, then the GrooveAtomic is a decent option. At such a low price, it is a solid choice if you are after a slight upgrade in sound quality to your pre-packaged headphones, such as the ones Apple includes with iPods and iPhones. Conveniently, the GrooveAtomic has been designed so it fits the recessed headphone jack of the iPhone.

The design is quite appealing — in addition to being compact and lightweight, the ear buds are well designed and comfortable to wear for long periods of listening. Cygnett includes two different sized ear buds in the sales package, so there should be one to suit most ears.