The Etymotic etyBlu: a less ridiculous looking successor to the ety8?

If you want a pair of true, in-ear buds without the muss and fuss of wires, your options are limited and you need to be prepared to make some sacrifices. One such sacrifice that needs to be heavily weighed into the equation, for example, is your desire to appear as though there is a pair of black Duplo blocks hanging out of your ears. That's exactly the curse of Etymotic's ety8, a decent set of stereo Bluetooth 'phones (we've tried them, they're comfortable and sound great) that were irreparably damaged by the ugly stick somewhere during the course of their development. The high-end headphone outfit has another Bluetooth product in the works, though -- the ER-89 "etyBlu" just hit the FCC's wires, giving us hope that they heard our complaints loud and clear and have worked to make their kit just a little less embarrassing to wear in public. We couldn't find conclusive evidence in the documentation that we're looking at a stereo headset here; theoretically, it could just be a mono product for calls, but we're encouraged by a brief mention of listening to music (who wants to blast tunes into one ear?) and the fact that the ety8's model number is ER-88. Can anyone make out what's going on in this FCC label diagram here?

[MarioDuke @ Dec 23rd 2007 4:25PM]

Doesn't it look like a side view of a device like the Apple Bluetooth Headset?

[DarkLightConnection @ Dec 23rd 2007 4:44PM]

Ignorant people listens using just one earphone... my school's full of them...

One day I asked a guy why he only used only one, and he said "why use both if you only hear the same on both of them?"...

Non-geek youth is lost...

[Adam @ Dec 23rd 2007 5:07PM]

Alas it's not just 'ignorant' people that use one headphone, I mainly use one headphone knowing full well that it's better in stereo and whilst I know I dont own the best headphones in the world but I'm fairly particular about what I buy when I do come to purchase.

I use earbuds and more often just use one so I can a) still have a decent quality sound being pumped into me, especially the times when I do put both in, b) still hear people talking to me (obviously I'm not one of those idiots that will insist on weraing headphones during a proper conversation but there are still many times when, for example, I'm being asked quick questions and dont particularly fancy taking one of both phones out every few minutes) and c) walking to places and being able to hear the sounds and/or people around me...

[DarkLightConnection @ Dec 23rd 2007 6:43PM]

B and C are good points (specially B), but i'm talking about the people who permanently only use one earphone..

I was just wondering, what would that guy make with a 7.1 home theatre?.... lol maybe stack all the speakers over his TV and "look 'ma I have a home theatre"

[Haxxy @ Dec 23rd 2007 4:57PM]

Great, looks less like Duplo blocks and more like flash drives sticking out of your ears.

[mark @ Dec 23rd 2007 5:22PM]

@ChrisZ: "We couldn't find conclusive evidence in the documentation that we're looking at a stereo headset here; theoretically, it could just be a mono product for calls..."


I'm thinking it's mono... From the FCC Test Report:

"2.1 EUT Identification & Description
The Etymotic Research, Inc. ER89 Bluetooth Headset is a device used to pair to cell phones or other
Bluetooth devices and is used to transmit and receive analog signals such as voice or music between the
pair."

Like you say, a slight mention of "music", but "cell phones" were specifically called out and it's referred to as a "headset".

[Clinton @ Dec 23rd 2007 6:12PM]

this makes me laugh... *checks back in wireless earbud headphone technology in 1-2 years

[Nate the Prophet @ Dec 23rd 2007 6:20PM]

Etymotic makes AWESOME sounding products. Their headphones sound better than Shure or Bose in my opinion. I haven't tried their BT set, and yes it looks freakish, but maybe this new one will be better.

[digicatz @ Jan 1st 2008 4:32PM]

But maybe Square freakish blocks are the "new" round sleek, much like some old public relations report tried to claim that the color blue would become the "new" black, and "cool" people would wear blue to signify they were hip with and had Blue tooth. And they actually published this tom folery online no less.

[ELbarfo @ Dec 25th 2007 1:29AM]

I have a set of the Lubix LC-1 stereo bluetooth units and I love them. OLED display, good ergonomics, etc. They're not that big at about 1.5"x.5" and sound gerat! Work nicely with the Muziq phone.

[EFletcher @ Jan 15th 2008 3:01PM]

Just talked to Ety, it's a Bluetooth headset only, it is not stereo