Thank you, Etymotic for taking a step backwards in innovation. As a lot of you know, Etymotic is the Mercedes (or BMW) of earphones, and understandably so, they cost a ton. The ety8s, for instance, cost $299 and $199 with and without the packaged iPod adapter. Knowing these earphones deserve their highly exclusive price tag, I’m not a bit shocked about the price. But they look downright ugly, especially with that adapter on.

They are your typical earphones that can be connected to the iPod with an additional adapter that costs $100 alone, or it can be connected to a Bluetooth device without the adapter. They actively cancel extraneous noise, output good audio quality and so forth and so on. However, after seeing the adapter, I hope you don’t connect it to the iPod. Even the geeks of geeks wouldn’t go anywhere near this pair. I don’t care how much of an audiophile you are, that’s just a sad attempt at listening to music.

They are available immediately, just in case you want to check them out.

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