@soundstige: Ah, so your estimate is that it's most like my second bullet point: those manufacturers who make products with mics just aren't at the level of some of the higher sound quality manufacturers who don't offer mic'd versions. I could definitely see that, as I ran into this as a newbie...

@Rayzilla: Good point. Happy to report that things shipped and delivery is estimated by Fedex tracking for tomorrow morning! Seems like mp4nation really stepped their game up. In searching the forums for shipping times, there were lots of posts from ~2010 (+/-) that cited numerous weeks all the...

@soundstige: as in these top-tier IEMs have both mic and non-mic versions and the non-mic version is superior? Or did you mean something else?

@ktan3142: Thanks for the mp4nation deal post. Bought two Brainwavz M5's (with mic) for my wife and I.   There's also a 5% code to apply at checkout: fb2012fiver   With the buy one get one and 5% off, I got two M5's for $47.02. A bit bummed that it hasn't shipped yet. Maybe I'm too used...

Mods: noticed that there is a sound science sub-forum. Perhaps this would fit better there? Sorry for the inconvenience.

First post here... I've been wanting to get some new IEMs, and part of the justification (wife involved!) is that it'd be great to have ones with a built-in mic for phone calls, and particularly Skype/Google Talk, as the sound is horrible when the built-in phone/computer mic can hear the speaker...