No matter how hard you try, sometimes you simply can't get a product to play ball. Wireless headphone sets, particularly at the budget end of the market, have traditionally had a few problems, namely with crackly reception and poor audio quality. But with the Digimate SW059 wireless headset, this was a product that did pretty much everything except what we bought it for.

The initial signs weren't promising. The cheap looking and cheap feeling packaging housed an equally cheap looking collection of hardware. The headphones themselves were okay, and there was a mini-pylon-esque transmitter. Plus there was an abundance of wires in there, too. We'd been interested to note that the SW059 didn't require a mains adapter (a good selling point over some of its competitors) and could run off batteries, but none were included in the box.

So we started there, by digging out a pair of AAAs for the transmitter and a further pair for the headphones. In the case of the latter, it took some guesswork as to where we were actually supposed to put them, as there were no clues on the earphones themselves and the mini printed instruction book was of no help. Working on a process of elimination, there were only a few places the batteries could go, so it wasn't a major hassle. It felt a bit slipshod, though.

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Interestingly, the headphones have a 3.5-inch audio jack built in, so if you want to use them as non-powered wired ‘phones, that's no problem. And it's a good job in our case, too. When we tried to get wireless output, we hit a brick wall.

The theory is that you turn on the transmitter (assuming it's hooked up to the appropriate sound source; the provided wires and adapters allow you to easily attach it to a PC or television audio output) and switch everything to wireless headphones. Then, on the headphones themselves, you hit reset and then scan. This, in theory, is supposed to pick up the audio that's been transmitted to them.

Only it didn't. No matter how many times we tried, and how hard we pushed them, nothing happened. In fact, when we hit Scan again, we picked up some crystal-clear FM radio stations, as the headphones have a receiver built in. For that purpose, we found them fine.

However, a further fly soon hits the proverbial ointment, as the SW059s also devour batteries at some speed. Thus, while the sound quality from them isn't too bad, some fundamental problems make them of little use for anything really, other than listening to the radio.

We soon came to the conclusion that, while their street price of £18 may be attractive, there is such a thing as a false economy. The SW059s, sadly, fit that description quite comfortably, especially once you've powered your way through a pack or two of batteries...

A product that struggles to do what it says on the box. But it eats lots of batteries trying.