Product Reviews

Wireless headphones are nothing new - you've been able to listen to music without getting in a tangle for some time now. Etymotic's new Ety8 earphones stand out for a couple of reasons, however. First they're Bluetooth, which means they'll work with a number of devices, and second they're small earphones, rather than huge headphones.

Open up the box and you'll be disappointed to see that the Ety8s aren't completely cable free - there's a short wire that runs between the two earphones. It's actually quite useful if you put it behind your head as you can temporarily remove them and leave them dangling round your neck, rather than having to find somewhere to keep them.

All communication with music devices is transmitted over Bluetooth. If you've got a mobile phone that supports the Bluetooth A2DP profile, then you just need to pair it with the earphones.

Since the iPod doesn't have Bluetooth built in, you'll need to clip the included dongle on to talk to the earphones. There's no need to pair the dongle with the earphones, as they'll automatically talk to each other.

With everything set up, you're ready to stick

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them in your ears and listen to some music. As the Ety8s are noise-isolating earphones, however, it's not simply a case of bunging them in and hitting the play button.

In order to work properly, they must form a seal between your ear canal and the outside world. As different people have different-sized ears, you'll find five adapters in the box.

With the correct-sized adapter in place, the audio quality is very good. Unlike normal tiny earphones that lack decent bass reproduction, the Ety8s are far superior. Also, as they block out nearly all background noise, you don't need to turn the volume up as high as you would with other earphones, which is better for your ears.

Before you know it, you'll be miles away, lost in music. Which is probably just as well, as you won't notice exactly how silly you look with two rectangular slabs of plastic sticking out of the sides of your head. Despite shrinking them down as far as possible, they're still pretty large for something that's meant to be in worn in the ear.

You'll also find a set of control buttons on the right-hand earphone, so you can change tracks and adjust the volume. However, you need to press the buttons with a fair bit of force to get them to respond, which can be a little uncomfortable.

Battery life is rated at between six and nine hours, which is reasonable, but there's no way of knowing how much charge is left. Charging is via USB, but not via a standard mini-USB cable.

With an asking price of nearly £200, the Ety8s are quite expensive. The audio quality is very good, but if you don't like isolator earphones that bore into your head or are concerned about looking a bit silly, then they're probably not for you.