It’s time for another UnBox here at MyMac Magazine! If you read our first UnBox, the premise is simple: What’s in the box? I write this blog post as I take pictures of the package, and we discover what’s inside together. I LOVE opening packages, it’s like Christmas morning!
Now, I sent out a bunch of emails to the companies that MyMac.com has worked with in the past, either reviewing their products or past advertisers. And, of course, companies that send us press releases.
Today, the package is from Etymotic Research, Inc.
Ah, I love the smell of fresh cardboard and bubblewrap in the morning!
Now, before I even open the package, I am going to go out on a limb and guess that there are earphones in the box. Psychic? No. But i have heard from Nemo how good their products are, and earphones is what they make. So let’s grab our trusty package opening devise (knife) and see what we can see!
Ah-ha! Bubble Wrap! You know, I really have to post the video from last week when I was finished with the UnBox Episode 1 post, and my five-year old spent ten minutes jumping up and down on the bubble wrap, making huge popping sounds. What made it funny is the ten-month old, who just laughed and laughed at her jumping and popping. Really cracked me up.
Okay, let’s pull the bubble wrap and see what we can see!
Hey, hey, hey! Not one product, but THREE! A pair of hf2 headphones and two pair of ETY Plugs! Let’s start with the plugs and work our way to the headphones, shall we?
So what are these and why do you need them? The plugs are meant to do two things: reduce outside noise while you are listening to your headphones, and provide comfort to the listener.
Why are there two different types here? One is the standard plugs, and the BabyBlues is for people with smaller ear canals. Not everyone has the same size ears, we are all built differently. And for those people, like my wife, who has a smaller inner ear than I do (but, funny enough, can usually hear things better than I do!) Etymotic Research makes the BabyBlues. This is smart, and I wish more companies took differences in people into consideration when producing products. (A Mouse is a good example: most computer mice are build or made for right-handed people, like me, but there are left-handed computer users, and they are largely forgotten.) So a hearty "Well Done" to Etymotic Research for that!
Did I just hear a collective "Ahhh-ooohhh!"? I hope so, because the above picture is the package for the hf2 Etymotic Research earphones! The hf2 are High-Fidelity, Hands-Free, and noise-isolating headset! They retail for $179, and won awards from iLounge, Macworld, Mac|Life, and PC Magazine for their sound quality and usability.
You can also read John Nemo’s review of the hf2’s here. Nemo swears by them, saying they sound fantastic! I can honestly say they look very well-made, with an air of quality about them. The attention to detail is exquisite.
But these are more than just simple earphones. They are also handsfree, meaning there is also a small inline powered control box which lets you pause your music, skip to the next track, go back a track, and also has a built-in microphone. Yes, you can finally ditch the crappy iPhone headphones that Apple ships. These sound, Nemo says, SO much better!
A few things about Etymotic Research, Inc. First, the name is pronounced "et-im-OH-tik."It means "True to the ear" and were founded in 1983. And in a really crazy "small world" side-note, President and Founder of Etymotic Research, Dr. Mead Killion, graduated from the same high school, Battle Creek Central, that I did, in 1957. (I graduated in 1989) How cool is that?
And that wraps up another fun episode of the UnBox at MyMac.com! If your company wants to have their product featured on the UnBox, drop Tim Robertson an email at the link below!
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