Absurd Singularity

Since I last wrote about my earphones back in June, I've sold off both the Etymotic ER-6i and V-Moda Vibe in favor of the bit more pricey Etymotic ER-4p which I really like. To me it's a pretty perfect blend of clear highs, mids, bass and outside noise suppression. Its cord is of a much thicker and heavier quality which also helps cut down on microphonics and occlusion. The only faults I have with it are that it only comes with triple-flanged and foam earbuds and the connector is L-shaped. The cheaper ER-6i had two different-sized double-flanged earbuds included as well which I liked because I found using a double-flange with my right ear worked best. As for the connector, I tend to prefer ones that stick straight out.

Now, the one major problem I have with the ER-4p is really no fault of its own. It's Apple's fault that they made such an annoyingly non-conforming earphone jack for their iPhone. Because of the ER-4p's L-shaped connector, it won't fit without an adapter. I first tried the Belkin adapter (because it was the first to be released). Utter crap. Granted, it did what it was supposed to do but it looked absolutely horrible doing it. You basically had like 2 inches of stiff plastic sticking out the top of the iPhone. A few weeks ago I accidentally purchased the Monster headphone adapter. Accidentally because I didn't pay close enough attention to its design and thought that there was a flexible cord connecting the connector and adapter. There wasn't. Like the Belkin, it's flexible stiff plastic and while it's thinner than the Belkin, it sticks out even more! So that was returned as well.

And finally I tried the newly released Shure Music Phone Adapter for iPhone. I had high hopes for this one because it also had a built-in microphone and control button. Sounded good, but reality was much different. For one, the plastic housing containing the microphone and button was relatively large and just felt cheap although the plastic construction made it quite light. The button, while a good length and rubbery, needed what I felt was stronger than required presses to function (especially if you wound up pressing by the edges). And lastly, because the adapter already comes with a good 2-3 feet or so of cord, when used with any regular earphone (besides Shure's own), you wind up with an extremely unwieldy Franken-earphone. Very disappointing. So this got returned as well.

Luckily, by this time, V-Moda had just launched the second iteration of their Vibe Duo earphones for the iPhone. The first model came out rather quickly after the iPhone's introduction and while it had a built-in microphone, it didn't have a control button to go with it so you'd still have to yank out your iPhone from wherever it was stashed to answer calls or switch songs and such. Their new model fixes that shortcoming so I picked one up quick. Like it's Vibe predecessor, it's a very good set of earphones and I believe V-Moda was even able to get more bass out of this one cause the Vibe Duo's bass was good enough to even impress my bass-happy coworker with the Ultimate Ears. Obviously the thumpier bass takes its toll on the mids and highs but that's to be expected with single-driver earphones. The microphone/button housing on it is much smaller compared to the Shure adapter but the button is a tad too small as you usually have to fumble around with the housing for a bit before you figure out where it is. But otherwise, it works really well and has replaced the stock iPhone headset for me.

So what about my ER-4p? For now it's relegated to at home duty, plugged in to one computer or another. I ordered this 3" audio extension cable from RadTech but unfortunately it's backordered till mid-November. Hopefully I'll be able to get it in before our trip to Taiwan where I'll use it with the iPhone on the plane since it'll just function as a music player while we're out there. Griffin, along with some other no-name brands have also released adapters based on the same premise but they're usually about an inch longer and in this case, shorter is better. If only Etymotic would come out with an iPhone-specific set of earphones...