Philips Fidelio L3

Philips refers to the L3 as “accessible high-end”, an approach that extends to the choice of materials and build quality as well as sound that’s rich and refined, tuned as much by ear as measurement by the Fidelio team. Assets include a decent battery life of 38 hours, which falls to a still generous 32 hours if you keep the ANC switched on while 15 minutes plugged in gets you a handy six hours of playback. Forget to power down when you take them off and the L3s will do it for you after a few minutes.

Wireless connectivity runs to Bluetooth 5.1 and aptX HD and pairing teamed with a long button hold power up. Key play and phone functions can then be controlled with touch gestures to the outer surfaces of the left and right earcups. Google Assistant and Alexa are built in, so pulling up your favourite playlist shouldn’t be a chore.

The noise-cancellation system uses no fewer than four microphones to minimise outside noise, plus a fifth assigned to banish background sounds when making voice calls. There’s a dedicated app that lets you adjust the level of noise cancellation by switching between pre-set ANC modes. Also present is a dedicated equaliser with six bands.