Any stereo headset will work, however be careful if you want to have Mic or control buttons, most 3rd party ones target Iphone where the writing of gnd and Mic are reversed.

Thats one good thing about Bluetooth, its compatible with all the phones, for wired headsets, you can buy a connector that fixes the issue of non compatibility with nokia phones.

Any opinions on the Nokia BH-214 and BH-221?

I use an old Nokia AD-54 that came with my Nokia 5800: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=NOKIA+AD-54&tbs=li:1

It's survived this long, controls calls and music, and lets me plug my own earphones in. And you can get it for next to nothing on ebay.

The Nokia BH-214 works very well with N900 and N9.

Guys, thanks a lot for the bunch of recommendations and opinions - I have a lot of material to go through, and after seeing some of your proposals I am even reconsidering my requirement of the earpiece to be wired.

Some of my first findings are related to the WH-205 and WH-701, which seem to have a good reputation when it comes to sound quality, but at least most of the reviews complain about extreme fragility, which makes me think they may not be suitable for running or sports in general.

The AD-54 is a very cool little thing. The few reviews (Amazon) I have read praise it extensively and it is inexpensive enough to give it a go.

Next I'll dig into the bluetooth suggestions. The bluetooth has the plus of not having problem with the custom Nokia pin setup - also some of the models you guys have brought up look really nice.

If you're still shopping around, I highly recommend the BH505 headset. It pairs with the N9 through NFC, and the bass reproduction is really quite good for a wrap-around in-ear headset.

Yes, that came out from my research, but apparently despite being advertised as "water and sweat resistent", they seem to break almost immediately after contact with the two above:

http://discussions.nokia.com/t5/Acce...em/td-p/711437

Definitely a no-no for me, as I need a headset to use also while running.

I have been also looking into Jabra's products. The Jabra sport wired and Jabra sport bluetooth are compatible with N9 (the wired version comes with an adapter to fix the inverted pin issue) - pity they are not for people with glasses like me. The Jabra active (the black version) instead seems to be perfect, but I want to check a few reviews before purchase.

I know, I was aware of that issue too before I got mine, but if you dig around a little deeper, you'll find that the water problem was only with the first batch (the one that came out in 2010). The current batch, which I think was available from late 2011 or 2012, doesn't have that problem.

Where I live they sell both types, which look identical but can be differentiated by the packaging.

I also use mine when I'm on the treadmill or out walking to work when it's been drizzling, and I've had no problems in the five months I've had it.

Hmm, this is interesting. Some of the reports from the thread that I linked above are from 2012 and 2013... It could be that those guys got some of the older batch, but it is difficult to say. I could have a trip to the local nokia store and see what is they say about the product.

BTW, which one is the old package between this two?