Lindy HF-20 review

The Lindy HF-20s are billed as portable and lightweight and they are certainly the smallest on-ear headphones we've used for years. The earpieces swivel 90 degrees so the headphones can be packed flat when travelling, yet they're surprisingly sturdy for the price.

We're less convinced by the company's claims for sound isolation. When walking by the side of a busy road we struggled to hear Start The Week with Andrew Marr - who's not known for his quiet delivery. It would be wise to resist the temptation to over-crank the volume to compensate though - excessive volume can damage one's hearing.

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Away from intrusive background noise, the headphones delivered pleasant, crisp sound. Although they lacked the strong bass performance promised by Lindy we were particularly impressed with the way they reproduced acoustic instruments like guitar, mandolin and fiddle.

Although these headphones are unlikely to be sought out by the style conscious, these are nevertheless a real step up from the earbuds that typically ship with smartphones and digital music players and they are good value too.