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[Riley Casey]

I've been using Etymotic earbuds for 15 years with my phone and occasional IEM mixing and they sound fine for lite listing to podcasts and workout music but I'm finally getting tired of cable management. Is there anything on the market with bluetooth connectivity that sounds as good as the Etymotics?

[Rob Timmerman]

I've been using Etymotic earbuds for 15 years with my phone and occasional IEM mixing and they sound fine for lite listing to podcasts and workout music but I'm finally getting tired of cable management. Is there anything on the market with bluetooth connectivity that sounds as good as the Etymotics?

Shure has the TW2 adapter that works with pretty much all of their IEM units (and is available kitted with some of them).  Not the cheapest things on the market, though.

[Brian Jojade]

Bluetooth will still have latency issues, especially for IEM use.  For mixing, it may be a non issue from FOH position, as the latency might match the distance to the stage.  However, it seems that it's somewhat variable on some devices, so you may have to tweak your delay continuously.

[Riley Casey]

TO clarify I'm looking for bluetooth earbuds for non-mixing use. Cable management is an issue doing a workout but a necessary evil when mixing.

Bluetooth will still have latency issues, especially for IEM use.  For mixing, it may be a non issue from FOH position, as the latency might match the distance to the stage.  However, it seems that it's somewhat variable on some devices, so you may have to tweak your delay continuously.

[John Schalk]

TO clarify I'm looking for bluetooth earbuds for non-mixing use. Cable management is an issue doing a workout but a necessary evil when mixing.

I have a pair of the Gen 3 Apple Airpods.  I went that route after trying on the pair that I bought for my girlfriend and finding that they were comfortable in my ears.  I've worn them for several hours while watching movies on my iPad with no complaints.  Sound quality is good, but I haven't done any objective testing.  I think voice call quality is definitely better with them over using the speakerphone in my Google Pixel.  And yes, they work fine on Android although you can't tell how much charge there is in the battery case.  I've worn them for walks and they stay in my ears just fine, but I have not worn them for any higher output activity.  I workout at home so I just play tunes over the basement stereo.

Previous to the Airpods I tried a pair of Bose SoundSport wireless earbuds.  They have a short cable linking the two ear pieces, but connect wirelessly.  I bought them primarily because I have a pair of Bose noise-cancelling earbuds (not wireless) that I use on airplanes that are also very comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.  However, the SoundSport earbuds turned out to be a bit bulky in my ears and there was also a slight balance issue that I could not adjust even in their app.  The Bose are gathering dust in their case on the shelf.

[Brian Bolly]

I've been using Etymotic earbuds for 15 years with my phone and occasional IEM mixing and they sound fine for lite listing to podcasts and workout music but I'm finally getting tired of cable management. Is there anything on the market with bluetooth connectivity that sounds as good as the Etymotics?

I've been relatively happy with the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3, which appears to have been replaced by the TW4.  It took me a long time to finally switch over to Bluetooth from hardwired, but these have done well.  They can connect to multiple devices, so switching from iPhone to iPad is (mostly) seamless.  The control app also helps with configuration and switching, and noise cancellation is relatively good.  I've found that if I seal them a little too well it restricts transmission to the microphone for calls, but have mostly gotten that figured out.  And the Apple earbuds never stayed in my ears, so I didn't bother with AirPods.

[John Chiara]

I've been using Etymotic earbuds for 15 years with my phone and occasional IEM mixing and they sound fine for lite listing to podcasts and workout music but I'm finally getting tired of cable management. Is there anything on the market with bluetooth connectivity that sounds as good as the Etymotics?

Status Audio Between Pro. 3-way, long battery life. Often on sale for $75 or less.

[Jon Dees]

If you're on an iPhone then they all use the AAC format for compression, so there isn't a tx/rx differentiating factor. On Android depending on the OEM, the phone can support AAC, the Qualcomm proprietary compressed formats (various adjectives in front of 'AptX') or the Samsung/Sony high bit rate formats. This can also depend on your source - Apple Music has high bit rate options, Spotify currently does not (although making noises about this).

Voicing among wireless earbuds is pretty dependent on fit. I would prioritize something that fits your ears better. I need wings to keep my Airpods Pro in my ears when I am walking/exercising. These go on a keychain thing attached to my airpods pro case. I keep on waiting for Beats/Apple to release an update to the Powerbeats Pro but it hasn't happened (I use and highly value 'transparency' modes when exercising outdoors). I am on the 2nd gen Airpods Pro after trying several others and have found many other products to not be better/have other oddball drawbacks when used with the iPhone.

I've been using Etymotic earbuds for 15 years with my phone and occasional IEM mixing and they sound fine for lite listing to podcasts and workout music but I'm finally getting tired of cable management. Is there anything on the market with bluetooth connectivity that sounds as good as the Etymotics?

[ProSoundWeb Community]