Special UnderCurrent Feature

2012 was undoubtedly the Year of the High Concept Headphones. To celebrate the incredible surfeit of styles, endorsements and colours available to audiophiles, fashionophiles and wellheeledophiles, UnderCurrent today presents a special look at its 25 favourite headphone brands.

All the below models were relased in 2012 - UnderCurrent has chosen the ideal audio to listen to while considering each individual pair. Most are popular songs, one is an athletic event, all the links are to YouTube.

Street by 50 Cent: perfect for when you're in da club, or any club for that matter.

The Matador from Aerial 7: bullfighting has never been so stylish.

Bowers and Wilkins putting the B&W back into Black and White.

Beats by Dre: UnderCurrent guarantees that the actual headphones include the top arc of the band.

UnderCurrent's first MP3 player was a Creative - it likes to be different.

Sol Republic - endorsed by DeadMau5 - presumably he is the Mr President of the Sol Republic.

The Globe Cruiser range from Denon, with matching tones for a brown eyed girl.

Diamond Tears: if diamonds do tear, then surely they are not forever?

From Fanny Wang: the most comfortable looking pair for having fun tonight.

Ferrari da Logic3 è perfetto per lunghi viaggi in Italia in una macchina veloce.

Harman/Kardon proves that it's hip to be rectangular.

Logitech is a Swiss company so these headphones are great for Bern-ing down the house.

This Marshall pair is very white, much like another famous Marshall.

Like Little Monsters, these Monsters are sleek, stylish and very shiny. Paws Up!

Lucky iTunes finally got hold of the AC/DC rights so people can enjoy George Young hits on these On.Earz headphones.

There's only one song worth listening to on Panasonic headphones.

Parrot Zik headphones are ideal for your favourite French bird-themed musical act.

Philips is an UnderCurrent favourite, as is once-popular Dutch country-dance crossover. Hard to believe that was ever popular.

Polk Audio - based on absolutely no research, UnderCurrent posits that this is the most successful polka musican of all time.

Sennheiser ist die Marke für ironische teutonic Amerikanischen patriotismus.

Proper Journalist has a pair of these Sony headphones and they are pretty good - so the opposite of his taste in music.

Soul by Usain Bolt. Celebrate the greatest moment in the history of humanity.

The TDK in TDK Life On Record can stand for Tokyo Denkikagaku Kogyo or The Dark Knight.

Urban Ears may be urban but they're certainly not urbane.

Yamaha ha nippon de ookina mono no tame no kanpeki na heddo fuxon burando desu.