[Desire HD General] pizzaman79:
That's good to hear. Of course S-LCD it not some feature and in the end it's the quality that matters

You, sir, are mixing things up. Engineering is not the same as branded. Engineering are pre-production units used for testing. As you can see it does have all the HTC, SRS, etc logos, so it's a near-production unit, probably in the hands of a journalist. But i think you mean branded. Branded phones are production units modified to the desires of an operator (pun intended), usually with operator logos on both the software and hardware and your finest selection of bloatware.

Your name is zo verschrikkelijk kazig (so terribly Dutch)

Yes they do / see below

I have a Touch HD and after a discussion i couldn't make up my mind and bought two headsets: the Etymotic hf2 and the Shure SE110 with the MPA-3C Music + Mobile phone adapter. For whoever cares, i'll give a short review and comparison of both.

Both are far far superior to the headset that comes with a phone. Both also have a one-button remote, of which i don't know what it'll do in Android. Both are also more sensitive than the stock headphones, so you'll have to turn the volume very low (as in one stripe is sometimes too loud). I had to hack my phone to fine tune the volume between off and the first bar (at 7% it was about ok). To add to this, both are great at blocking sound, so you'll hear the music / caller even louder. Both also come with multiple earbuds/extensions of different sizes and types, so you can use the one you like. It's very convenient that they don't use bluetooth: that way they're always ready to use. No charging required and just plug them in and they work. I also tweaked my phone to accept both voice dialing and common voice commands, but that's all winmo.

Etymotic hf2

The earbuds i use (triple plastic seal) seal the ear so waterticht that you need to pop them out every now and then to let the transpiration escape. When walking around, sounds from the wires scratching against my clothes are very clearly transmitted. The solution is to hang the wires over my ears, but they're not made for that, so it feels a bit weird and the mic/remote hangs a bit high. They are very small, so it's not like "check me out with my headkandy units", but a refined eye will notice that they're much smaller than cheapo earbuds can get. The mic/remote thing is very thin, so as a whole they are very small and light to carry. They fit easily in a classy small pouch. I ordered it from the *cough* apple store *cough cough*. Perhaps that would also make a good shipping option to places like Malta. The sound is awesome for the price, especially the high tones. They are actually a pair of $300 earbuds that didn't pass the impossible quality control for having less than one db volume difference on any frequency, rebranded and with an added mic/remote. Nuff said.

Shure SE110 with the MPA-3C

Radio reception is fine, but a little less good than with the hf2, i think that's because of the extension cord. Mind that the cable attached to the earbuds is very short and then connected to an extension cord. I replaced the extension cord with the mpa-3c which adds a mic and a one-button remote. But without an extension, the cord is to short even to guide it to a phone in your breast pocket. That connection is, like the earbuds much more... American: bulky but solid. The sound is imho slightly less good than the hf2's, especially in the high ranges, but it's still awesome. The mic is however slightly better, but it has a false advantage in that it's positioned much lower, so i can hide it from the wind underneath my clothes. This headset has the advantage that it's cheaper, easier to come by and it's made for the wires to be worn around the ear to dampen movement noise. If you want to use it as a headset, you also need to buy the mpa-3c, which can be harder to come by and which raises the price. The earbuds i prefer on this one are a tad to big and can become painful after a few hours. But, of course that's very personal. Note that some of the extra earbuds you can order from Etymotic and Shure are interchangeable. I will cross-check any of the earbuds i have on request.

All in all, these are two of the greatest alternatives around. Even more expensive headsets are no match for the audio even a good phone produces. Also they would probably be no match for my ears. But of course, there are headsets at a cheaper price point that will be much better than the htc ones. Hope this helps some of you :-)

Edit: one more point: both have a way of managing ear fat/cerumen. In the Etymotics you find replaceable filters, the Shures provide a small device to remove it. Both work fine for me.