Some awesome new audio technology was released this week at CES 2012. The Etymotic GunSport Pro GSP-1’s are the top of the line in-ear buds that you have been looking for, so to speak of course. Essentially these are the ear buds destined to fix any of the past problems that have stopped potential customers from investing in ear buds. Most of the reasons that people stray away from in-ear phones are the lack of peripheral sound and therefore a lack of awareness. Well, the GunSport Pro’s claim to solve these problems and offer sound reduction for the loud and music ruining acoustics that are present in the city, while letting the quieter and softer sounds of human speech pass through unharmed. For this reason, the GunSport Pro’s might just overcome the boundaries of in-ear phones.
Now one of the most interesting parts of the ear buds are that they are in fact powered by a separate electronic system that is entirely devoted to the sound system. There is a switch on the outer perimeter of the ear buds that turns on the supposed ‘enhanced hearing’ function; a new innovation that seems oddly similar to noise reduction. Basically the ear buds will increase the quietest sounds in the music and audio that is traveling through the wires but will shut off most of the annoying background noise that passively travels into your ears. The idea of having one of those tiny watch batteries fit into each ear bud is rather annoying we need to point out and can lead to complications down the road if you aren’t careful turning the system on and off. They use an indicator switch to change the power modes on the ear buds, when the battery door is opened and then shut again the device will turn of or off, respectively. The battery, due to its tiny nature, tends to fall out when we attempt this and unless you are on a clean flat surface don’t expect to find that thing if it leaves your hands.
Let’s take a moment to review one of the main purchasing points of the ear buds, the enhanced hearing feature. Now normally we would shy away from a gimmicky feature that seems to be a marketing point but in this case the ear buds really deliver. It feels similar to how you would expect a spy eavesdrops on a conversation from across the room. Basically it amplifies the typical human talking range of audio that makes it so you don’t have to remove the ear buds from your head to talk to someone. This is a great feature and seems to be specifically targeted at business users who cannot miss that important phone call or hesitate when a boss is coming down for an important conversation. All around these are some of the most advanced ear buds we have seen, and they surely correct the main issues behind in-ear headphones while adding in some super-cool new features, but at $449 we find ourselves very hard pressed to recommend them versus their cheaper competitors.
Mark Karnes, Managing Director, Etymotic, January 19, 2012
Dear Brandon, I am sorry to have to break this to you, but you have the Gun Sport Pro Series an Electronic Hearing Protection and Enhancement product confused with our Awareness! Series earphone line. I have plenty of materials availble on our website that can help you get this straighten out. The Awareness! Series of high accuracy noise isolating earphones is available in both Apple iOS and Android iOS models. The Awareness! Series provides programmable noise isolation technology so you always have the right amount of situational awareness for your workouts, commutes, and communication at home or work. The Apple models are in 3 levels of performance. the Ety Kids 3 a safe listening earphone for children ($79), the mc-3 the value priced high performance earphone with Accu Chamber technology ($99) and the hf-3 ($179) the audio enthusiast best in class model with an Accu Driver for the world’s best accuracy under $300! The Gun Sport Series was developed for hunters & gun sportsman and provides instant blast protection + hearing enhancement (5X). This in ear electronic hearing protection devices was developed for the US. Military and is a CES Design and Engineering award winning solution. The series is available in two models the Gun Sport 1 ($449) and the Gun Sport 15 ($499). The Gun Sport 15 adds a unique feature called adaptive attenuation that provides a transparent and automatic attenuation capability up o 15dB and is ideal when you operating in a high noise environment like a tractor, ATV, Sport Truck or a Humvee. I hope that helps, Best Regards, Mark Karnes, Managing Director Etymotic Research, Inc.