Etymotic mc3 Headphones Review
Feb. 13, 2015
Dear Editor of Canadian Audiologist,
I write this letter to you after having started to listen on a new pair of Etymotic mc3 headphones. I got a pair recently as a gift from one of our software development partners and I thought "hey these are interesting and unusual."
For years I have used the ear buds that come with an iPhone or some other portable electronic device, thinking "Man, these don't fit or sound very good at all." Being an amateur musician, I really love to hear high quality recordings but most ear buds and even most headphones do very little to provide a high quality experience. I understand even the high end headphones sold in most electronic stores simply pump up the bass with some hardware to make them sound "better."
With the mc3 headphones I noticed I get could a custom ear mold for my ears, as these headphones were designed very differently. Instead of the usual "bud" at the end these had a pointy tip, and they came with a variety of attachable buds of various sizes, shapes and materials. I could tell these are not ordinary headphones.
Thank goodness, I have never had a problem hearing, but it was good to know that my hearing is still in pretty good shape even after years of drummers and tympani players banging away behind me – you see I play trumpet and we usually sit in the back of a band right in front of the percussion section. I visited the Marshall Chasin's audiology office and got my first hearing exam of my life as well as a mold fitted to get a pair of custom tips for the headphones.
A week later, I got to try on my first pair of custom fitted, high-end headphones and boy do they make a difference. It was explained that the MC series from Etymotic Research are dynamic. This typically means that there is a slightly poorer high frequency response. I really could not tell, but I would say that they noise cancelled better than anything I have tried before. I could use them while blowing snow and they stay in very well. Dr. Chasin tells me musicians like Shania Twain and Bono from U2 prefer the dynamic series of transducers used in the mc series, so if is good enough for them, it most definitely is good enough for me.
I recommend the mc3 headphones highly with a custom ear mold! Listening to voice, music and phone conversations is a joy!
Alex Sirota
1st Trumpet - Resa's Pieces - www.resaspieces.org