So my Etymotic ER4-P are here! (Review and UM2 and E4 comparation)

[countach]

It's here!, it's here! The box is here! (One month waiting)












Tachan !!!





Oh, the box !





So there are:













I will try to write all my first out of the box impressions just while they are happening. Remember this is written in that uplifting state you know about...

Hybrid - Dogstar
Bass lines not as powerful as in the UM2 but I just inserted them and trying to find the correct way.
It's hard. I', using the triflanges.
Uhm.. not.
Oh, yes. Ah, the song finished!


Pet Shop Boys - After all
Delicate sound in all range. Amazing. Who said Etys had no bass?? Liquids highs as in the midrange.


Nicolay - We can fly (From The Trip II compilation Album)
Mother of God, where were this sounds hidden before???!!! A lot of new highs arrangements... simply amazing!

Y used to say UM2 had a fantastic detail but only in certain songs and with certain rig. WITH THIS ONES THERE ARE ALWAYS DETAIL!

They sound dryer than UM2, uhmm...


Melanie C - Reason
Piano layer has lots or harmonics !!! I've listened this tune hundreds of times and never noticed that..
Oh, had to remove them and now I can't find the position I had them before...
Ok, so they have to be released a bit after deep them... LOL, in the Shure was that way, I just forgot it, that wasn't needed with the UM2.
Wow, the voice of Melanie is so clear...


Paul Oakenfold - Hypnotised
Bad recording, amazing sound. Hearing new details !


Propaganda - Duel
Ok, I gonna change the tips to the black foam ones.
This eighties tunes sounds thinner and as they don have so much detail in its mix UM2 are better for that ones.

Foam tips doesn't have a 'trick point' to fit them, but doesn't sound as well. I can hear some sibilance and low richness.

Maybe I have small ear canals. I can´t insert too much, I've send pictures where people had the ER4 deeper inserted than me.



Jordano - No gravity,
Djuma Soundsystem - Les Djinns (From BALANCE 010 compilation)
Wow, this is how electrohouse have to be listened.


Hybrid - True to form
For a multilayered and complex mixed tunes band as Hybrid is, the Etys are 'the phones'.


Jamiroquai - (Don't) Give hate a chance
It's a joy listening to the hi-hats and percussion festival this song has. Now I've disovered a couple of layers more.
The mids in this song are better resolved in the Shure E4...



Vector 13 - Isis (original Mix)
This is a trancy song that was my reference of sound with the Shure E3. Its combination of mid lows and mid was simply mesmerizing and I never hearded that again, even with the UM2, in which ones the song sounded bigger but fuzzier. In the Shure E4 sounded almost like in the E3.
...
In the ER4P clear than in the Shures but lacks that 'who knows' in the midlow section and maybe to much highs.
Ok, 'Isis from Vector 13', the song made for the E3s... LOL
Weird mastering for sure.



Robbie Williams - Rudebox
This a very complex-sounding song. No problemo. You can pick almost each layer with your hand. This is detail, men. Is like listening in color.


Rest of Robbie Williams songs
Extremely detailed. Far better than with the UM2.


Agh, black foams are painful. Return to the triflanges. I'll try with a modded bi-flanges I have in home.
Removing the tips are very hard and difficult, too.


Madonna - Confessions album
Amazing. Highs have to be lowered a bit.





Conclusion of the firsts minutes:

Etymotic ER4-P are far better than UM2. As Etymotic people says, two drivers doesn't have to be better than one.
This Etys doesn't have the constant super bass extension of the Westones but they don't need it at all. The ER4P have perfect bass IMHO, very tight and extended.
About the midrange, it's always liquid and sweet. This never -ever- happened in the UM2, which midrange is veiled and fuzzy. But this ER4P midrange is not as perfect as the Shure E4 is.
About the highs, what can I say? Hands down and open mouth, or whatever it is said in English. The detail is always there. As I said before, UM2 sometimes had a fantastic detail, but not always, and some treeble boost was needed to.

The drawback of the Etys is the extreme difficulty of putting them correctly using the triflanges. (Compared with the UM2)

Someone will ask: Do you feel you wasted a year owning the UM2? Not at all. UM2 sound is powerful and amazing. For musicians and people on stage they are the perfect earphones. I am a sound technician not musician and that's why I like the Etys the most. Anyway, if I didn't had the UM2, I would be always wonder how will they sound and for sure I would be buying them anyway...

[nl2134]

have you tried anything other than the triflanges?

sweet pictures too. thanks...

[LaBreaHead]

The Lamborghini was a nice way to personalize your photos.

Thanks for the opinions -- and congratulations on your new earphones. If Comply foams fit the ER4's, you might try those -- the short Comply's made my ER6i's very comfortable and easy to insert and take out.

I've moved only as far up as the ER6i's in the IEM 'food chain," but I would add to your comment that the Ety's sound thin on your 80's music -- I find that on non-"hot" or non-saturated recordings (i.e., most non-remastered music from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's), my Etys can sound relatively thin. But for the ER6i's and probably for the ER4's, "modern" recordings should sound quite "full" on Etymotics products.

[Sean.Perrin]

A month!!! NOOOOO!!! I ordered mine Nov. 23rd... I guess I've still got some time to kill.... and I'm in Canada, it could be six weeks!

[apnk]

Is it just me or the triflanges now gray?

[Sean.Perrin]

Originally Posted by apnk

Is it just me or the triflanges now gray?

Didn't this happen when they changed the look of the headphones like a year ago?

[countach]

For sure they are gray! Gray as the background colour of this text area.

BTW, I would prefer the red and blue model...

Sean.Perrin:
I bought them in Spain via expansys.com. The package came from France.

LaBreaHead:
Yep, is like you say.

nl2134:
I tried the black foams, the UM2 modded tri-flanges and the Shure grey flex tips. Now I'm using again the gray-like-this-text-area ety triflanges.



I'm listening in a compulsive way all my all time favourites songs. I did not act this way when the UM2 came... I didn't expected so much excellence from this veteran thingies !!

I am simply A-TO-NI-SHED

[Sean.Perrin]

Originally Posted by countach

Sean.Perrin:
I bought them in Spain via expansys.com. The package came from France.

Hmmm.. I wonder if they come from France in north america? I assume it would ship from the states somewhere... or even Toronto!

I'm glad you are enjoying them... it makes me that much more excited!!

[BlueMan]

I just got some myself(ordered them from Amazon 3 pm on a Wednesday, got 'em 11 am the next day with 2 day shipping. That was too easy. Price was right too) Am pleasantly surprised so far- I thought the in ear style would be difficult for me to wear, but I'm quickly getting used to them. It remains to be seen how much noise comes into the phones when I'm running, hiking, etc.; slow walking introduces enough to be quite noticeable but not objectionable.
I like the build quality; they seem durable. I think the sound experience for the in ear style is so different from other headphone styles I initially didn't know what to think- these things are supposed to sound great- where's that great sound? Oh it's there all right with the proper fit and seal of the headphones. My first few test songs were some of my favorite Pat Metheny Group recordings- complex, multilayered guitars, percussion, piano, etc., what I considered a good test for a pair of headphones' resolution. I was hearing plenty of detail plus a little more- although the soundstage doesn't seem as "broad" as a pair of closed ear style of cans. The Etys seem to have a somewhat pronounced midrange, not not objectionable; bass, mid, and treble work together well for an overall initial good impression.
Question: does this type of headphone need to be broken in like the other styles?

[EFN]

This is killing me.....I will only receive my ER4P next week!

[Spyro]

Originally Posted by BlueMan

Question: does this type of headphone need to be broken in like the other styles?

No not at all. All components are too minature to make any noticeable difference. More likely what will happen is that you will like them even more over time which may lead you to "think" the sound has improved.

[milkpowder]

See? ER4P >> UM2

On a serious note, I agree with you on all accounts:

Originally Posted by countach

Conclusion of the firsts minutes:

Etymotic ER4-P are far better than UM2. As Etymotic people says, two drivers doesn't have to be better than one.
This Etys doesn't have the constant super bass extension of the Westones but they don't need it at all. The ER4P have perfect bass IMHO, very tight and extended.
About the midrange, it's always liquid and sweet. This never -ever- happened in the UM2, which midrange is veiled and fuzzy. But this ER4P midrange is not as perfect as the Shure E4 is.
About the highs, what can I say? Hands down and open mouth, or whatever it is said in English. The detail is always there. As I said before, UM2 sometimes had a fantastic detail, but not always, and some treeble boost was needed to.

The drawback of the Etys is the extreme difficulty of putting them correctly using the triflanges. (Compared with the UM2)

Someone will ask: Do you feel you wasted a year owning the UM2? Not at all. UM2 sound is powerful and amazing. For musicians and people on stage they are the perfect earphones. I am a sound technician not musician and that's why I like the Etys the most. Anyway, if I didn't had the UM2, I would be always wonder how will they sound and for sure I would be buying them anyway...

That's pretty much UM2 vs E4c vs ER4P in a nutshell.

[catscratch]

Rather different than what I heard, and I owned all three at the same time, more or less.

The UM2 was rather recessed in the treble, and masked detail a lot. It actually had that detail, but you had to crank up the treble and tone down the midbass to hear it. When you did that, it became very sibilant when there was sibilance to be had on the recording. It did have better bass extension than the other two, and picked up bass sounds that they missed.

The ER-4P had a very sharp sound with a very big lower treble peak. The treble needed to be toned town for a lot of material to be listenable at a louder volume. The transients on the ER-4P were very short, which made everything very dry sounding and definitely more than a bit unnatural. On certain recordings, the ER-4P would sound fabulous, however. I did think that it had good bass, though not very extended.

The E4 was a bit lusher and more liquid than the ER-4P, but it was more recessed in the upper treble, and almost as peaky in the lower treble, which was not a good combination. I honestly liked it least out of these three.

The UM2 was the most comfortable by a good margin, and the ER-4P isolated the best. I liked the look of the E4 the most.

That's a pretty negative take on all 3 I guess, but I'm talking objectively here, not evaluating their performance as a canalphone. You don't get freebies in my book for being small!

Still, it's nice to have conflicting accounts, since we all have different ears. Canalphones bypass HRTF's basically completely, while our heads have been conditioned to take HRTF's into account when perceiving sound, so we're bound to hear very different things out of the same canalphones.

[EFN]

Originally Posted by catscratch

Rather different than what I heard, and I owned all three at the same time, more or less.

The UM2 was rather recessed in the treble, and masked detail a lot. It actually had that detail, but you had to crank up the treble and tone down the midbass to hear it. When you did that, it became very sibilant when there was sibilance to be had on the recording. It did have better bass extension than the other two, and picked up bass sounds that they missed.

The ER-4P had a very sharp sound with a very big lower treble peak. The treble needed to be toned town for a lot of material to be listenable at a louder volume. The transients on the ER-4P were very short, which made everything very dry sounding and definitely more than a bit unnatural. On certain recordings, the ER-4P would sound fabulous, however. I did think that it had good bass, though not very extended.

The E4 was a bit lusher and more liquid than the ER-4P, but it was more recessed in the upper treble, and almost as peaky in the lower treble, which was not a good combination. I honestly liked it least out of these three.

The UM2 was the most comfortable by a good margin, and the ER-4P isolated the best. I liked the look of the E4 the most.

That's a pretty negative take on all 3 I guess, but I'm talking objectively here, not evaluating their performance as a canalphone. You don't get freebies in my book for being small!

Still, it's nice to have conflicting accounts, since we all have different ears. Canalphones bypass HRTF's basically completely, while our heads have been conditioned to take HRTF's into account when perceiving sound, so we're bound to hear very different things out of the same canalphones.

LOL! how we wish we have 6 ears! no worries with choices then

[Zanth]

Congrats on your new phones! HAving owned 4P/S's for 4 years now...I totally love them and can't wait for mine to get fixed up right with their new cord. The UM2's have their place and I enjoy many of the sonic attributes, but the Ety's are still key in the detail department!