OK, after a lot of experimenting, I can get a decent sound using the foam pads. It's still nowhere near as solid as most other phones I've tried, but the mid-range is certainly more detailed, so I'll go with this for the time being. I couldn't get anything reasonable using the rubber plugs...

Is this just a question of volume ? I've tried driving them from a hi-fi amp (OK, just a Rotel, but all other headphones are fine with it) and even cranked up the bass, but it's as if the ER6s just can't do anything with that bass.

I must be doing something wrong. I just bought the revered Etymotics ER6 phones, and the sound quality is just terrible, really tinny, lacking almost all bass, and possibly worse than any headphones I have heard from years. I know that insertion and positioning is important - I am following...