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Best IEM's in terms of sound:price ratio - Page 4

post #46 of 51
4/27/07 at 11:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Iriver View Post
Well the ER4 highs and mids are not that great either. Its as if the sound was manipulated to give the illusion of more detail, and more clarity. All it really has, however, is one of the worst decays in any IEMs at any price range, to give extra sharpness to the sound which makes people go like, omg its so clear. To me that is not even close to a 90% accuracy. Also the bass is rolled off, and there is almost no impact. The superfi pro, although not exactly the clearest of phones i have head, has a much more natural sound than the etymotics, but their technology is not enough yet to show both true accurate clarity, which is a sound that begins to be heard on the triple driver iems.

I dont think it is necessary, but just in case, as it is after all a forum where people express opinions and ideas...but just in case its all IMO.
sometimes i wonder if we're listening to the same phone. er-4 is detailed. it's not fake detail. it can't have less decay than in the recording, and it also can't have a sharper attack than the recording, so in all senses of that, it's realistic. to the recording. u think it sounds unnatural because it's inaccurate to the performance. probably. to the recording, no. fake detail is where it tries to overcome the limitations of the source to sound like the performance. eg, sf5 sounds like just u left a concert. no iem's have bass impact, and er-4 is the least rolled off in bass i've heard and the impact is about the same as um2.

but i can't say that ur wrong. sound is all synergy. er-4 is in fact a very detailed and revealing phone, but u have to provide it the right equipment for it to sound natural. i wouldn't be writing all these comments of praise if i didn't use the er-4 with supermicro iv, which boosted the sound stage and added impact, to the point it sounds very natural. um2's on the same setup just didn't cut it. maybe if they made an amp which gave it more detail and intimacy.
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post #47 of 51
4/28/07 at 3:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bellsprout View Post
sometimes i wonder if we're listening to the same phone. er-4 is detailed. it's not fake detail. it can't have less decay than in the recording, and it also can't have a sharper attack than the recording, so in all senses of that, it's realistic. to the recording. u think it sounds unnatural because it's inaccurate to the performance. probably. to the recording, no. fake detail is where it tries to overcome the limitations of the source to sound like the performance. eg, sf5 sounds like just u left a concert. no iem's have bass impact, and er-4 is the least rolled off in bass i've heard and the impact is about the same as um2.

but i can't say that ur wrong. sound is all synergy. er-4 is in fact a very detailed and revealing phone, but u have to provide it the right equipment for it to sound natural. i wouldn't be writing all these comments of praise if i didn't use the er-4 with supermicro iv, which boosted the sound stage and added impact, to the point it sounds very natural. um2's on the same setup just didn't cut it. maybe if they made an amp which gave it more detail and intimacy.
I have used them with the supermacro IV. I still find the decay and timbre highly innacurate, in pretty much every recording. I think they are worth the money as their sound is very unique. I personally dislike their innacurate sound, but its different from other headphones that for some people it might be a must. No other headphone has the decay like the ER4. THat in itself shows that the ER4 is innacurate. Even headphones like the omega 2s, which are IMO the worlds best, have a much longer decay, yet truly have enough resolution to show amounts of detail, with all that decay.
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post #48 of 51
4/28/07 at 4:26am
i just went to a meet with various iem's and headphones. most of agreed only er-4s's stood up to the full size phones.

look for a full writeup in the meets section later
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post #49 of 51
4/28/07 at 9:30am
The best, IMO, for SQ/price is the ER4p. Though it has it faults just like many others. I believe Mr Iriver is correct. The decay is an issue. It can be fatiguing for many people. Some mistakenly say it is too much detail. It is shortening the decay and missing some of the trailing sounds and not rounding off the notes that well. The brain is working more filling in what is missing and this can lead to listening fatigue for some people. Some don't mind it. It is like looking at a bunch of geometric shapes with a side missing. Your brain has little problem perceiving what should be there but it is working harder and will tire sooner. The brain fills in the missing decay in the same way. I never listened to it for long stretches so I'm not even sure that I would be one that it really would have bothered. But, of course, the 4p is definetly more analytical than most. I feel that the phone can sound very natural except for the decay which is neither very natural or very accurate.

My issue is that other phones/earphones can be as fast and have as much detail without as short a decay. Why does the Ety need to do it?
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post #50 of 51
4/28/07 at 9:46am
I don't think it's actually possible for the decay of the sound from the driver to be shorter than the signal that's going in the cord. Longer, yes, if the driver is hard to drive, then it responds slowly to the signal. Shorter, no. I think of the driver like a DC motor. Typical control system. No.

Even if u build the most technically perfect IEM, the sound u hear is the same as the electric signal from the source's output. It's the source that should be resolving such things as timbral accuracy anyway.
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post #51 of 51
4/28/07 at 9:52pm
marshmallows.
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