We all know how expensive the ety's are new (270$), but has anyone ever wondered how minute the money it takes them to make these little earphones is? I mean how much money do you need to possibly spend to make something that small out of plastic? I believe it is hand made but still....

Any opinions?

a lot of times
smaller parts = more money

a pda costs more for the power than a computer does, right?

I'm guessing that they're charging that much money to pay for the R&D costs, as well as the fact that not many people will know about them, thus not as many sales, and thus they're not able to make enough copies before they can decrease the cost/unit manufacturing price.

All just speculation though. To be honest with you, I have absolutely no official idea why the price is that high, although it's actually not that bad when compared to the E5C's price.

interesting but I'm still skeptical... but considering how good they allegedly sound, I wouldn't think anyone would care ?

With such a small consumer base for this product I can understand why they cost so much. My wife **** when I told her how much these were, so I had to explain the significant difference in sound between these and the earbuds. I guess this applies to most high-end audio components: small consumer base + advanced technology + small company (in most cases) = high prices.

Yup, I can't imagine they are selling very many and the economies of scale just aren't there. There just aren't that many people who have sound quality as a priority. I would imagine that they are probably barely profitable, but that's purely a wild-eyed guess. But I must say I'm very happy with my 4S, even at $270.00.

Simple economics: because enough schmucks around head-fi are willing to pay enough for 'em that Ety makes a profit

They are worth it, unless you don't like things stuck in your ears (like me!)

--Chris

(If you think Etys are expensive, wait 'til you're 80+ and need hearing aids -- can you say $900 *per ear*?)

The profit margin on Etys is actually fairly slim. There was a post a while ago from Don Wilson of Etymotic Research where he explained that one of the "mistakes" they made when pricing them was not leaving enough of a dealer markup, so it's been hard to get dealers to stock them. Also, you'll notice that the numbers on each of the your Etymotic earpieces are probably different. That's because they measure each driver after it's been manufactured and painstakingly match it to another driver. This is a time-consuming process, and one reason why the ER-4 is more expensive than the ER-6.

I paid $269 for my Etys at Headroom.com about 18 months ago. I don't think they were exensive at all. As a matter of fact I think they were downright cheap. Far and away the best $270 I have ever spent.

MJ

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Can you exlain this a bit more - the matching of drivers and also the ER-4 v ER-6 thing?

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If you think about the consistency and quality of electrical components, no two components are going to be exactly the same due to inpurities in the material and imperceptible flaws in the building process. While mechanization of the assembly process reduces the chances for human error, this still does not eliminate the slight electrical differences inherent in any manufactuing process.

In order to maintain a level of consitency, components (such as the tubes in tube amps) are matched in terms of impedance and other electrical properties that would affect the sound or tone quality of the final product. While I'm not into the details of such testing procedures, I realize the importance of matches/balanced components.

As for the ER-4/ER-6 situation, I agree with Wodgy. One of the major factors that could contribute to a difference in price could conceiveably come from the painstaking matching process. However, I also believe that lower quality materials and cheaper manufacturing processes are another significant factor.

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If you checked out the Etymotic website, they also produce transducers and electrical equipment for the hearing impaired. Thus, it is understandable that some of its higher-end (and more expensive I might add) technology has ended up in its ER line of canalphones.

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It's pretty sad because my family members usually are at the point of beating with a stick for spending 200$+ for a pair of earbuds/canal phones. They don't accept that I love high quality music, not the crap that comes out of stock headphones. Damn I'll never be able to justify these purchases to them.

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Keep working on them, eventually they will give in

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Your post reminded me of my young neices responses to seeing my new ultra small laptop. They assumed it would be cheap because it was small, when really its usually the opposite.

Btw I spent £280 (about $420) on mine because I was struggling to get hold of some in the UK and they were still worth every penny.

Especially so given i've just recieved them back from etymotic today. I had to return them because of a fault in the cable (worn out?) and not only did they replace it free of charge but they tested the tranducers and replaced both of those too! I can imagine lots of companies wouldnt have bothered doing that.

Fantastic service, fantastic product... not "little bits of plastic"

i'm gonna try to refrain from repeating what everyone said already, but IMO, Ety's are the only phones that I have used that I feel are honestly worth their cost. [of course i wish they cost far less, but hey, they've got to make money too]

The products themselves are amazing, the customer service backing those products is equally stellar (they have repaired damaged phones for no cost! - maybe not in all cases, but at least for one headfier i know...), and they have an especially tiny niche in the audio market (hifi headphones is small enough a market, but isolating canal phones...come on now!!!). R&D, little demand (relative to the entire audio market), and the fact that consumers will pay $270 for Ety 4s's justify the price, to me.

Now, I probably sound like a sheer fanatic or Ety employee, but despite things like microphonic cords, their products never cease to give me joy.