14 DAY TRIAL // Etymotic Research have been around in the audio field, especially in what actually the hearing AND the ear are concerned as a whole, for more than 20 years now and it looks like this mature industrial age of the company will turn another hopefully happy page in tech history.
Not that they grew bored of manufacturing cool devices like the world's first in-ear Bluetooth headphone, the guys and girls at Etymotic Research feel like moving on a bit. And since there are so many directions such a company can take, they chose an industry which has continuously grown since its very first day: gaming!
I guess I don't have to tell you that ER will not develop games but headphones especially designed for gaming, pro and enthusiast alike. Since there are soundcard producers whose efforts are spent in such a large proportion towards making better gaming soundcards and audio gaming technology, why shouldn't there be people manufacturing gaming ear-pieces?
Now, it's obvious that Etymotic Research has a vast experience and much, strong expertise in the field of audio tech and it's almost natural that they want to exploit it even further. And since they want to make this step, they have also thought they should make it in style, thus announced the birth of a new division inside the company, a division called EDGE and which will work on this matter solely.
The declared goal of this new ER "child" is to be able to create headphones especially for the gaming and in-game environment and conditions; even more, ER states that EDGE will attempt to develop such gear as to be able to work efficiently with all the acoustic subtleties which game audio devs insert in their work.
The surround headphones have been invented already so I am really looking forward to seeing what EGDE will come forth with. Thinking about Etymoytic's noise-isolation expertise I dare say that one of the things they will put at work in the new headgear they are to develop will be exactly this thing.
Now, I am no serious gamer at all, but I use headphones for both gaming and sometimes even for my audio work, whether it's reviewing or editing. At work I use Sennheiser HD515 open headphones - they sound awesome for whatever purpose yet at lower volumes I can hear a conversation very well without removing them yet they keep my head pretty warm... I just think that closed headphones would feel even warmer - what about 10-hours gaming sessions?
Wishing the best to the newly-born Etymotic's EGDE, once more, I can hardly wait to see what will come out of this and whether it will be a groundbreaking release.