Etymotic Ety 8 Blue Tooth Wireless

BlueTooth sound quality is not yet quite up to the demanding standards of serious audiophiles but the Etymotic Ety-8 earphones are amongst the first wireless ear canal headphones (ECHs) we can confidently rate as remotely approaching a high-fidelity listening experience. Simply connect the included wireless transmitter to the bottom pin-port of an iPod or pair up the Ety-8 with your other Bluetooth-enabled device and off you go free-roaming wherever your tunes decide to take you. To be picky, the overall tonal signature is maybe a bit crunchy with a slightly compressed-sounding dynamic range -- even with quality 'LossLess' digital files -- but that's the small sonic trade-off you'll make for that footloose wire-free life. Expect about 8-10 hours of operation per Ety-8 recharge via any computer USB connection.

The Etymotic Ety-8 left/right earpieces are joined together by a loose braided black cable you can loop under the chin or behind the neck. The included silicon-rubber eartip sleeves provide a good amount of ambient noise isolation; Etymotic suggests listeners can actually trim the sleeves for a more personalized fit. The right earpiece of the Ety-8 contains all the centralized controls for dialing in your Bluetooth device, player rewind/fast forward, & volume adjustments. We found that by very carefully following the BlueTooth recognition steps outlined in the Etymotic user guide, we were able to pair up the Ety-8 with an iPod in a painless & mostly cuss-free process. The Etymotic Ety-8 packaging includes the balanced armature earpieces, the 8-Mate BlueTooth adapter for iPods, a dedicated USB charging cable, a selection of silicon flanged eartip sleeves, a set of earpiece nozzle replacement filters, and the essential filter changing tool. A leather case neatly contains all the accessories for travel.

The Etymotic Ety-8 will work with iPod Nano 1st/ 2nd generation; iPod Mini 1st generation (4 & 6 GB); iPod Color Display / Standard 4th-generation; iPod Video 5th generation; and with most BlueTooth-enabled PDAs and audio devices supporting BlueTooth specification 1.1 and higher. Also supports A2DP and AVRCP profiles for stereo listening.