The only negative I would say with the Etymotic's is the join from the cable to to the earbud is very prone to fraying back to an exposed wire.

I got mine replaced twice under warranty (the first after 11 months, the second about 18 months) before finally deciding that it was a design fault and the store generously gave me full credit credit which I used to buy the Bose QC20is.

Or, you can go for the best of both worlds.

(I have no affiliation with this company, I just drool at the concept

http://www.averysound.com/as.bose.html

After the outbound leg, I agree with WilcoRoger. Awareness is kinda cool but I was bothered by the scratching noise when I toggled the pause/play buttons and the mic was turned on by the app.

The Ety's were much more comfortable than the Nokia over-the-ear NR phones for a 9+ hour flight. The Ety's, when fully inserted, are a little difficult to remove, tho. SQ was quite good, and much better than the Nokia's under noisy in-air conditions. Haven't really evaluated in a normal ambient sound environment. Sure couldn't hear the FA's: had to rely on memory and cues like seeing the food or bev cart to reply to them. No way I can hear the announcements when not plugged into the media system.

The biggest downside also is found on most in-ear buds: cable noise. When you touch the cables above the sliding retaining clip a loud scratching noise is generated. Wonder if active in-ear would fix that?

I found it best to insert only far enough so that you can grab the ends and not the wires to get them out. There seemed to be a range of insertion depth that worked well.

Some more segments coming up and will post again later this week.

Landed at home port yesterday after another about 18 h from hotel to home. The Etymotic earbuds were great--wore them all the way in-air and for part of the time traipsing through terminals.

My ears are a little asymmetric: the left ear leaks a little more noise and requires more attention to seating the buds. This would be a good reason to go to custom tips...

I think these are not so great for jogging/running since I hear a loud thud with each footfall (or could that be my heavy feet...) when walking around. Anyway, I will leave the over-the-ear phones at home next time.

A comment about sound quality: very good for earbuds, abou t the best I've heard, but not up to reference phones (no surprises here). The response sounds fairly flat to me--the best overall performance was obtained with the source (iPhone 5 in this case) equalization set to "flat" or just off. Bass is clear and crisp without any hot spots or booming effects. Mids are strong, and highs are present but not shrill.

The quality is best, of course, with low ambient noise but on the plane it is still very good, just turn it up a little. The highs are clear enough that I was reminded that I wanted to re-rip a bunch of my CDs into a lossless (flac or something) codec instead of MP3, which I used years ago when first moving my collection off of discs: I can really hear the typical high-frequency distortion from high-compression codecs but the few lossless tracks I do have are like hearing the fog lift.

Anyway, enough said about this. I'm switching to the buds until something better comes along that can combine comfort with acceptable or better sound.

Good that you like the ety's! I'm a convert (though on flights I alternate with the QC15). For daily use - unbeatable. The plastics flangs provide the best noise isolation while the rubber-foam tip is the most comfy (I use 3rd party foamies)