Etymotic Research HF2 iPhone and iPod Headset - Black

I got a set of these today in black, and let me say that they are damned fantastic.

Firstly, the quality. Audio reproduction is awesome. Mids, highs and lows are all beautifully reproduced - I really don't own another pair of in-ear headphones like them. You can easily spend double on another pair but I don't think that you'd be able to distinguish them easily.

Be aware that many people have complained about lack of bass. This simply isn't the case - you just need to ensure that you have a good, deep, seal in your ear canal. The product ships with several replacement tips, but I found the default three-flange ones to be great for me. Many prefer the foam buds, however. Once they're in, I can hear virtually nothing of the surroundings which is fantastic whilst sitting at work.

Quality of the actual product itself is very good. Cabling is nice and not too noisy when rubbing against clothing, although some noise is inevitable. Microphone is excellent, having tested it in calls today and asking people what they thought!

Overall, I don't think you'll find a better pair of headphones for the price.

I'm a lifelong, fully-confirmed, over-ear headphone wearer. I've moved away from closed back to open back, forgoing the comfort of fellow train users for the increased sound quality you get when you stop bouncing bass around a pair of fully sealed cans. And let's not even start on active noise cancellation. Ech. In addition, I've never enjoyed the experience of wearing in-ear headphones; prolonged use generally leads to discomfort and some mildly disturbing incidents involving 'waxy deposits'.

All that considered, the Etymotic Research HF2 headphones were not preordained to please but, after a good bedding-in, I'm happy to say they perform and impress on every level. All frequencies (including bass), are present, correct and perfectly turned out. Yes, you do need a good seal for them to work but, no, this is not painful or difficult to achieve if you follow the instructions. Prolonged usage, weirdly, does not lead to painful ear canals... though some of the (admittedly easy to clean) ear tips supplied are more prone to collecting ear funk than others.

The other plus is the mic and control button. This works incredibly well and I use it on my bike all the time to receive calls, skip tracks etc. Anybody on the other end of the line can here me fine even with background wind, so that's really quite impressive. If you are using these on a bike, you should only ever ride with one ear in as otherwise you will be totally oblivious to even the most monstrous of trucks bearing down on you from behind. You have been warned.

So, in summary, a great pair of phones at a very reasonable price. Be sure to give them at least a week's worth of listening to bed them in and get used to the sound before you pass judgment on them, especially if you've moved from a pair of artificially bass-enhancing headphones: you'll be very glad you did. Build quality is great and functionality is spot on, though a 'last number dialed' call option would be welcome if they could figure out how to do it. One final note, if your remote stops working (as mine did), but you can still hear music fine through the headphones, it's probably not because they've busted but because you've got some lint or dust in your iPhone headphone jack - definitely worth fishing around in there with a paperclip before you get on the phone to customer services.

Reading some of the negative reviews I've been inspired to add my own.

These etymotics are great but there are some issues you need to be aware of.

Firstly, you need a good quality bass boost or equalizer to compensate for the neutral bass; and that's assuming you've got a decent seal. The bass is very high quality (tight), but because these IEMs are designed to be totally neutral, the bass sounds weak to the layman ear. Good quality equalizers are difficult to find. The one on the Ipod is atrocious (perhaps also true of the iphone); it distorts almost immediately. Android needs 3rd party apps to get quality equalization. I can recommend the clip+ at £26 for the 2GB version: it has excellent equalization out of the box as well as hifi audio : [...] .

2nd, Earwax: when I first got them I had a painful and squelchy feeling in one of my ears. I thought my ears were etymotics incompatible but in fact though being quite young I had an ear wax issue, which apparently is quite common. the (slight) pain continued even after taking them out so I went to the doctor and eventually got it sorted out by the local nurse. Hot damn, my hearing majorly improved.

3rd, player issues: the electricals mean that some player designs cut corners and have high 'output impedance'. Read more on that here [[..] .To summarise: this is a serious issue for low impedance phones (typical of consumer earbuds etc) and even worse for balanced armatures like the HF2/3/5. It weakens bass and treble: you won't be getting the promised audio fidelity. The iphone 3GS,and 4 are fine. But many older ipods have high output impedance. The iphone 5 has increased the output impedance and will be affecting these etymotics. You could use the cheap-n-cheerful FIIO 5 headphone amp to correct this (it's near hifi).

Personally, I haven't had issues with my HF2s falling apart as some have, yet I've treated them quite roughly. I'm suspecting fakes out there. One of the reasons I went ahead and purchased these expensive phones is because of the 2 year warranty and reports from the US or etymotics being very good at honouring it even for wear and tear. However, another review here casts doubt on that. It would be good to hear of other people's experience of this.

So why not 4 stars? Because they have limited 'soundstage'. A wide soundstage really adds a lot. Nevertheless, for on-the-go hifi and isolation these phones are really good. And because they are near reference grade, they can help to sort out issues with other headphones or poor mixes/mastering by comparing.

I really recommend the Sansa clip+. It's hifi, with low output impedance and a good equalizer...and it's cheap. It's the perfect companion to these headphones.