Another Home Run For Etymotic Research: Bluetooth Headphones

At Best Stuff we have long been fans of Etymotic Research. The company is headed by Mead Killion, a brilliant master of the science of hearing. Killion first worked on perfecting hearing aids and, as a part of his continuing research, found a need for truly high performing headphones. He advanced the headphone concept, developing extremely accurate tiny headphones that fit in the ear, not on the ear---very much unlike the cheap and ubiquitous ear buds that ship with most portable music devices, or the big, bulky earphones that fit completely over your ears, like earmuffs.

After years of "underground" success with the finest recording artists and engineers using the new Etymotics (and those were among the few that could afford to pay the premium prices these devices originally commanded) Killion and his team turned to develop similar, less costly products for the "rest of us" who don't have $500 to spend on earphones.

The success of Killion's products did not go unnoticed by competitors and over the last few years many large earphone companies have slavishly copied Killion's original designs. Meanwhile, the Etymotic line continued to grow and now includes a number of products; one of the newest is perhaps the finest cell phone headset. Etymotic's latest baby is the ety8, a wireless bluetooth headphone that fits in the ear. This tiny device is extremely comfortable and accurate, and was designed to use with the iPods. The ety8 even lets you control your iPod remotely. The iPod can be in your pocket, or even in your purse or briefcase, and you can control it remotely by using the Bluetooth technology developed by Etymotic. As a very valuable side benefit-- as with Etymotic's other in-ear phones-- the ety8 effectively reduces ambient noise by a magnitude greater that those large, over-the-ear "active noise-canceling" earphones that are so popular.

The earphones are the smallest stereo Bluetooth earphones available, able to fit easily in a pocket or purse. Each earphone weighs less than half an ounce; one contains the battery and the other the circuit antenna and controls. The ety8 earphones are supported completely by the ear canal – with no external support required – for comfortable long-term use. A large selection of ear tips is supplied to accommodate different ear sizes.

As the first wireless in-the-ear earphones, the ety8 Bluetooth earphones give you much more freedom of movement and flexibility in how you listen to your iPod. Now you can listen to music wirelessly and privately while exercising or moving about, without having to untangle wires between your iPod and its earphones.

In particular, Etymotic took advantage of the following technologies:

• The earphones use a low-power, full-bandwidth Broadcom BCM-2037 chip set, which represents a major advance in Bluetooth technology. The small size and low current drain of the Broadcom chip set helped Etymotic to reduce the size of its stereo Bluetooth earphones and minimize power consumption
  
• Etymotic was able to make its in-the-ear wireless earphones extremely small – without sacrificing efficiency – thanks to its patent-pending antenna design that folds to fit into the tiny earphone case without losing efficiency. Existing Bluetooth devices require much longer antennas and thus significantly larger packages.
  
• The battery in the ety8 earphones offers very high efficiency and lasts seven to 10 hours per charge.

The Etymotic iPod adapter, which provides two-way communication with iPod players (first- and second-generation Nano and fifth-generation iPod players). This first-of-its-kind Bluetooth adapter wirelessly connects the iPod to the earphones and lets users control the sound volume, track selection, play/pause and previous/next functions from both the earphone and the iPod.

The patent-pending iPod adapter represents a sophisticated enhancement to current accessories (both docking speakers and wireless earphones) that connect to the iPod, which require the volume to be controlled at the receiving end, not at the iPod. In contrast, the made for iPod adapter ensures that the iPod display shows the correct volume or track setting, regardless of which control location is used.

“We invented in-the-ear technology in 1984 as an outgrowth of our work in the hearing aid industry, specifically the design of products that measure, improve and protect hearing,” explained Killion. “Our in-the-ear Bluetooth earphones – which arose from this same innovative line of research – reproduce the original sound more accurately than any other wireless earphone technology available today.”

The ety8 Bluetooth earphones also provide users with the highest fidelity Bluetooth listening experience, sampling the sound at 44.1 kHz sampling rate, 16 bit resolution.

Price and Availability
The ety8 Bluetooth earphones are available now and are sold through Etymotic’s usual retail, distribution and reseller channels, including Amazon.com, J&R Music and Etymotic.com. The retail price is $299 for iPod versions that include the iPod adapter and $199 for the earphones alone. Both versions are supplied with an assortment of earphone tips, extra filters and a pocket-size leather carrying case.

For more information, visit www.etymotic.com or call 888.389.6684.

Jay Petter

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