Sol Republic Relays Sport

£50

The sporty-looking Sol Republic Relays Sport separate themselves from bog-standard cheap buds with an off-kilter design and a variety a funky of colour choices. They sound surprisingly good for the price too, with a cleaner, if less smooth, sound than the budget favourite Soundmagic E10s.

Special challenges

The challenges of a sport earphone include finding a way to make them stay in your ears when you move about a lot, and to withstand a bit of sweat without conking out.

To deal with this, Sol Republic has come up with what it calls the Freeflex wheel – a disc of rubber that sits around the end of the earpiece to help secure it in your ear canal. In practice this wheel doesn’t do a great deal, but with the right tip the Relays Sport are fairly stable anyway – and sweat-resistant.

Android-friendly Relays have a one-button remote, used to play/pause your music and take calls. Lucky iphone types get a 3-button remote that can also alter volume.

Considering the low price, these are very nice-sounding earphones. They are remarkably clean and clear sounding, with good soundstage width and solid stereo imaging.

Importantly, the solid bass thump that’s always a bonus when you’re running is clearly audible. It isn’t terrifically fast, but it has a pleasant, plummy tone and is separated enough from the rest of the frequency range to avoid spoiling articulation.

There are weaknesses though. The midrange has a slightly cool tone and the edges of vocals can sound a little hard. We also find ourselves listening in vain for the rich smoothness Soundmagic and Sennheiser offer from their entry-level pairs. But the Relays remain a solid buy, with much to commend them.