In my experience there are basically two types of earbuds wearers in the world; open-fitters and sealed-uppers. It's merely a matter of priorities. If comfort is of utmost importance to you, you'll be more likely to choose an open fit. However, if your main focus is sound quality at all costs, you'll be after a nice, snug, in-ear option.

That is not to say there aren't comfy in-ear buds out there, or that an earbud with a stem will always come up short in terms of hi-fidelity. Far from it. I've tried a lot of earbuds over the years - probably more earbuds than any other single product category - and although I'm generally more inclined to go for the most sealed, concealed, in-ear option I can find, I have, on several occasions, been quite taken aback at how clever audio engineers can be when it comes to generating genuine bass response and effective noise-cancellation from a more open-fit design.

And then there are the hybrids, of course; the best (or perhaps worst?) of both worlds - a sealed tip combined with a stem. Some of these have been some of the best buds I've used.

So while I have my preferences, I still feel obliged to try something new whenever possible. After all, you never know when a really well-designed device might change your mind.

JBL's new Live TWS 3 series offers an option for everyone; the Live Buds TWS 3 comes in my preferred, in-ear, sealed, buds-only form-factor. The Live Beam TWS 3 is the bit-of-both offering I was just describing; stemmed but still with soft tips for a sealed fit.

Then there's the Live Flex TWS 3 we're focussing on today. Stems. Open fit. No seal.

What all three options have in common is the smart charging case, the latest version of the innovation JBL launched last year. The case charges via USB-C or wirelessly and features a 1.45-inch touch display. The idea here is you can control and adjust certain settings on your buds without having to open the JBL Headphones app on your phone.

This includes EQs, spatial effects for music, video or gaming, noise control and more.

It's a nice idea, especially given the extended range these earbuds offer thanks to the Bluetooth 5.3 codec. Because of this, I often find myself several rooms away from my source device, yet if I still have the case in my pocket, I can pause/play or adjust the volume using the touch screen.

In some ways this seems a bit redundant as of course, there are some on-board touch controls on the Live Flex 3 buds themselves. Frustratingly though, these controls are not quite as customisable as I'd like. Each bud can be set to control volume, playback or noise control... but not a mixture of all three. This is infuriating because I'd prefer to use long presses to increase or lower volume on right and left buds respectively, while reserving single taps for playback and perhaps double-taps to toggle ANC - but there's no option to set it up that way.

The full-colour LCD screen on the case also has a selection of wallpapers to choose from and lights up bright white to be used as an emergency torch or you can send an audio alert to find your earbuds if you've put them down somewhere.

The really good news here is this year's smart charging case is really quite compact, despite all its added-on functionality. It's pretty much as pocketable as any other case.

AS for the Live Flex 3 buds themselves... I guess I gave my overall verdict away in the title; not for me.

It's not because of the touch-control limitation - I can live with that. It's all to do with the fit. They don't.

As comfortable as it is to have buds like these just sitting lightly on your ears, rather than burrowing their way deep into your ear canals and hermetically sealing out all exterior distractions, I've spent way too much time readjusting them for a more secure fit and even worse, catching them as they bobble out and worse still, scrabbling on the floor (or ground) for them.

The Live Flex 3 carry an IP54 water resistance rating, which should protect them from rain and sweat but the chances of keeping them in if you're doing something physical enough to break a sweat are pretty low, so I think we can safely say they're not a good option for exercise.

Noise cancellation is another factor. An open fit like this means you're not getting much in the way of passive cancellation so any Active Noise Cancelling has to be pretty damn active indeed. I prefer to keep out sounds like traffic when I'm walking and I don't want aircon noise or other machinery intruding when I'm wearing my buds inside. The Live Flex 3 just don't deliver and in many environments I struggled to hear much difference between having ANC on or off.

Instead, the effect is more like getting your music or podcast through to you despite any external noise. Let me explain. One of my big tests for any earbuds is to wear them while I'm mowing the lawns. Ideally, I won't hear my line-trimmer or mower and will only hear my preferred playlist instead. When wearing the Live Flex 3 buds, noise cancelling didn't do much to reduce the sound of my power tools at all and yet I could still hear my podcasts totally clearly.

This might be partly due to JBL's Personi-Fi 3.0 feature. Using the Headphones app, you can take a guided hearing test to come up with a bespoke Personi-Fi profile that will boost or reduce certain frequencies to provide the fullest sound possible. This feature seems to work very well - I could definitely notice the difference when I toggled it on or off, especially because it creates a unique soundscape for each ear. Pretty clever.

And I can't deny the overall sound performance from these buds is quite excellent.

As expected, because of the lack of a good seal, bass response is a little lacklustre compared to the usual JBL experience. You can remedy this by choosing the Extreme Bass EQ and then you get a pretty nice, punchy result - whether it's on Kimbra's electronic dream, "Everlovin' Ya" or Amos Lee's much more acoustic, "Hang On, Hang On."

I suspect there's no EQ setting that will suit every artist or song universally though. "Perfect Pair" by kiwi band, the Dead Flowers is a jangly, pop/rock affair but on the Live Flex 3 buds it kind of sounds just jangly. And yet, a similar, guitar-driven track, Thirsty Merc's "My Completeness," actually comes across quite powerfully and doesn't top out at all.

It might be just as well you can access EQ controls on the smart charging case, you'll probably want to tweak things pretty regularly depending on what you're listening to.

Please don't get the wrong idea; these are not bad buds, they're just not right for what I use earbuds for. For example, I don't make or take a lot of calls but when I tested the way the Live Flex 3 handled them, I was quite impressed. I could hear who I was talking to and they could hear me in total clarity with no delay or distortion.

I just can't deal with my buds dropping in the dirt when I'm leaning over to change my line-trimmer line. Not ideal.