I’m *really* excited to get my new purchase. The Etymotic Research etyBLU Dual-Mode Noise-Isolating Headset.

I love etymotics - the ER6is have served me really well over the past few years, and my latest was a pair hacked with the iPhone cord to include the mic. Unfortunately, I dropped those headphones at a grocery store a few days ago, and they were instantly disappeared: Sadzies, and now dangerous/ticket-worthy since CA went mandatory hands-free July 1.

Anyway, why do I love the etymotics? The deep ear flange buds, which provide outstanding poor-man’s noise cancellation, and they stay put. And I sort of loved my iPhone mic hacked version as well, though hands-free is relative since I had to hold the iPhone cord close to my mouth for clear(er) output - particularly while driving.

I’ve tried several other BT headsets with zero satisfaction. All were terrible at either canceling ambient sound from the mic, or placing the speaker too far away, requiring me to crank the volume (which only made it loud *and* noisy).

My fantasy earpiece appears to be exactly what the etyBLU promises: bluetooth + deep ear bud + boom mic. A bit call-center looking, but given the quality of the ER6is, I’m reasonably confident this headset will be l33t. And of course if it’s not, I’ll snark about it.

Fair warning: A lot of folks, including one dork who gave a semi-negative review on amazon, don’t like the deep-ear fit. Fair enough. Don’t like, don’t buy. That’s pretty much etymotic’s one (awesome) trick pony. I’m personally in the “Apple’s on-or-around your approximate ear area buds suck” camp, so do your research and step off.

I’ll post my review in a few days after unboxing.