Etymotic hf2 with custom moulds (ACS) for UK launch

[RobA19]

Looks like the hf2 is coming to the UK with the option of a custom mould set from ACS. Price range from £170 (quoted in article) to £189.

Etymotic launches custom iPod earphones | News | TechRadar UK

What do folks think? I've been thinking of getting a set of ACS custom moulds for my SE530s - should I go that route or go for the Ety's??

[Sinocelt]

Those look like they may not make the HF2 protrude overmuch. I hope they sell the molds separately, because I've just ordered the HF5. Though the price of those molds would be about twice what I paid for the HF5 -- and that's without counting the visit to the audiologist.

[Edit:] Oh, and to answer your question: yes, yes, you really should order a pair... and let me know if you think them worth the investment.

[zeroibis]

Review from bit-tech.net:

bit-tech.net | Review - Etymotic hF2 Custom Fit Earphones

A bit more detail on the sound would have been nice though but they said it was apparently the same as the one they previously reviewed.

[thechungster]

I saw this earlier as well. I'm actually going to buy some custom tips, but included for free is just pretty awesome.

[Sinocelt]

Originally Posted by zeroibis

Review from bit-tech.net:

bit-tech.net | Review - Etymotic hF2 Custom Fit Earphones

A bit more detail on the sound would have been nice though but they said it was apparently the same as the one they previously reviewed.

Thanks for the link! Actually, they do think the sound is better (if not radically better) with custom tips. On the other hand, the photos in this article show tips that would protrude a lot more than the tips showed on the ad. Oh well, I'm not in the UK anyway.

Originally Posted by thechungster

I saw this earlier as well. I'm actually going to buy some custom tips, but included for free is just pretty awesome.

Included for free? They bump the price £90 ($135).

Originally Posted by Sinocelt

Though the price of those molds would be about twice what I paid for the HF5 -- and that's without counting the visit to the audiologist.

I was, in that regard, mistaken: "the cost of the impressions is included with the voucher."

[mark2410]

no reason you couldnt do what others on here have done and just contact acs directly, as people have been doing for the IE8. you have to get your own impressions and there is the cost of shipping too but its doable if you really wanted them

[thechungster]

Originally Posted by Sinocelt

Included for free? They bump the price £90 ($135).

Hm.. Engadget didn't say that, and they said "Bundled" so I assumed it was for free

[episiarch]

They have the packages in the stores now. The price is £99 including the custom eartips. [UPDATE: wrong, wrong, wrong . . . see below]

As near as I can tell from the outside of the packaging, the package is basically a stock HF2 plus a coupon (or something similar) entitling you to the ACS service at any of a pretty large number of hearing/earmould practitioners.

They are holding custom HF2 events at several of the UK Apple stores over the next week or two (go to Apple Retail Store (United Kingdom) to look up the event schedule at your local store). If I make it to one (hopefully Regent Street on Thursday, else White City two days later) I will report back whatever else I learn.

[Sinocelt]

Originally Posted by episiarch

They have the packages in the stores now. The price is £99 including the custom eartips.

Really?? Wow, that's a GREAT price. And very different from what Bit-Tech announced. I quote:

• UK Price (as reviewed): £99.95 (inc. VAT) plus £90 for ear tips
• £99 for a set of hF2 earphones, and then £90 for the custom tips

[episiarch]

That's so completely different to what I saw that I can't really reconcile the two. Maybe I was wrong (though it didn't seem like it at the time). I'll report back after my next trip to an Apple store in a few days.

UPDATE: you're right, I'm wrong. The package looked as if it were HF2-plus-custom-earmoulds for £99, but what it really is is HF2-plus-optional-custom-earmoulds for £99 plus £90 if you actually want the earmoulds. (see http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TV...mco=MzE2OTkyOQ)

Sorry for my mistake.

The £90 price for the customs is in my experience neither particularly good nor particularly bad for customs. Overall it is probably a fairly decent deal, but no longer a really exciting deal.

[Sinocelt]

£90 is on the cheap side, since here it includes the audiologist's fee. But yeah, not as good a deal as "free."

Something that does worry me, though, is the difference between the ad photos and the photos taken by Bit-Tech. On the ad photos, the earphones barely protrude from the molds; but on the Bit-Tech pictures, they protrude a lot more, which means they certainly stick out like Frankenstein plugs.

[walkingman]

What a silly 'bundle'... It is not even a decent deal. In fact it is a rip-off.

Just go to Amazon UK:

Black hf2: Etymotic Research HF2 iPhone and iPod Headset with: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Red hf2: Etymotic Research HF2 iPhone and iPod Headset with: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Buy now for £85 inc. delivery

Then have a look here at ACS's website:

Advanced Communication Solutions - Custom Earphone Sleeves

And here for a list of dealers/audiologists:

Advanced Communication Solutions - Dealer Locator

Call them, book the audiologist appointment and pay them £88 (yes, £88 - not £90!). Apparently with David Ormerod (Boots), you do not have to pay them as the cost of impression is already included (source: another head-fi'er - use the search!).

Total: £173

Not a whole lot cheaper, but you'll still have £17 change to purchase music and whatever.

[episiarch]

I went to Ety's demo hours at Apple Regent Street London today, and met with a couple gentlemen from Etymotic and one from ACS. It was great to talk with some of the people behind these great products.

The hf2 (or hf5, same thing from an audio perspective) sounds really good. I was much more impressed than I expected to be. It is a huge step up from the ER-6i, and gets surprisingly close to ER-6 accuracy while being substantially more sensitive and easier to drive from an unamped portable source. What it comes down to is that an hf2/hf5 unamped from a 2G iPod Touch sounds better than an ER-6 from that same (nice-sounding but fairly weak) source, and lots better than an ER-6i. It's a real win.

What about hf2/hf5 compared to ER-4P? Well I personally don't quite get along with the ER-4P sound (I'm an ER-4S guy through and through and the 4P is just wrong enough to bug me), so for me the hf2/hf5 beats the ER-4P. But mine is not a normal reaction to the ER-4P. The Ety guys, and I think most people, consider the hf2/hf5 to be not quite at the ER-4P's sonic level, but they are quite pleased with how close it comes, at a lower price point.

The hf2/hf5 is therefore my choice for best unamped Ety (regardless of price point) but won't be everybody's. It is, however, pretty clearly the best unamped Ety in its price range.

Amped, the hf2/hf5 improves nicely. Amped it is basically at the same subjective quality level as the ER-6 (that is, quite a bit closer to the ER-4S than you'd expect at this price), with the preference between the two coming down to signature - a little warmer for the hf, a little leaner for the ER-6.

To summarize so far:
- Unamped win.
- Amped win.

But wait, there's more. With the hf2/hf5, Etymotic has brought the ER-4 nozzle design down into its lower price range. The smaller-diameter nozzle allows a more comfortable fit than the slightly larger ER-6i and even larger ER-6 nozzles (they tested this, and their test group overwhelmingly preferred the smaller nozzle).

- Comfort win.

A happy side effect of this is that if you get the hf2 customs, your hf2 customs will also fit your ER-4 if you upgrade later. I tested this to my satisfaction by going the other way, putting my (Westone) ER-4 custom tips onto an hf2 and an hf5. A perfect fit.

- Custom eartip upward-compatibility win.

Right now the hf5 comes in black, red and blue, and the hf2 comes in black and red. But a blue hf2 is coming: it ships this week or next week in the USA, and will be shipped to the UK in about two weeks. The blue hf2, however, is not expected to include the ACS voucher.

I also spent a while talking to ACS Managing Director Andy Shiach, a great guy who is really into this stuff. While the Ety/ACS package is currently only being rolled out in the UK, ACS is establishing a footprint in the USA and I think you can expect an Ety/ACS package in the USA in time (in how much time, I don't know). Andy is a dedicated audiophile, and spent a lot of time getting the ACS custom eartips for the Etys just right. We looked at his customs compared to my Westone ones. The Westones are, and always have been, a little bit clunky: the Etys don't nest into them as far as they could, so they have a very long bore and the Etys themselves stick further out of your ears than they need to. The ACS tips are built to let the Etys go much deeper into your ear, and have a shorter bore as a result. I haven't heard them, but I expect this to be a sonic win since the shorter sound channel is closer to what the Etys were designed for. Andy also showed me that the ACS sound bore is smaller, really the same size as the Ety nozzle hole and most eartip holes, while the Westone bore is larger. Again, this puts the ACS product closer to what the Etys were designed for than the Westone product, and I'm hopeful it'll be a sonic improvement over the Westone customs. (I will post again after I have the ACS customs and can do a fair comparison)

I'm waiting for the blue hf2 to arrive in the UK, then I'm pushing the button on those. I like these things a lot. And since the blue hf2 isn't part of the ACS bundle, I'll probably make arrangement for my earmolds now, without waiting for the blue hf2. Both the hf2/hf5 and the ACS customs look like terrific products to me.

[Sinocelt]

Originally Posted by episiarch

I'm waiting for the blue hf2 to arrive in the UK, then I'm pushing the button on those. I like these things a lot. And since the blue hf2 isn't part of the ACS bundle

Even if it were, walkingman has demonstrated that the bundle doesn't qualify as a real deal. But thank you for your review! Your comparative comments have made me even more eager to receive my HF5.

I'm also very interested by what you said about the ACS custom molds allowing for the HF2 to go deep into the ears. It's what the ad pictures seem to promise, yet the pictures posted by Bit-Tech and Pocket-lint seem to indicate otherwise. :-/

[episiarch]

None of the 3 personal sets (3 different owners) I saw yesterday looked like the ones in that photoset. They all looked like the ad pictures.

It was clear to me that the ACS tips would let the transducer deeper into the ears than my Westone custom tips. But I don't think I'll get as low a profile as with universal-fit tips.