New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

etymotic HF5...hidden gems

post #1 of 14
12/12/08 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
I must sing the praises of the relatively new etymotic HF5....they sound terrific,I used to use the er-4p and these in my opinion match them at half the cost....in addition ,they seem to have a bit more bass and are more efficient....also,they isolate like nothing else out there and to me that is a huge plus...I know this is going to come as sacrilege to a lot of people here....I also own the new westone 3 and many times i choose the etymotic first....yes,they are that good to my ears and i have owned and tried just about everything....
Reply
post #2 of 14
12/12/08 at 8:24pm
I'm pretty sure the HF5 are supposed to use the same drivers as the ER4. But they're not really half the cost are they? On Amazon, the ER4P is $165, while the HF5 is $150.
Reply
post #3 of 14
12/12/08 at 8:37pm
Thread Starter 
i just bought a pair for 99 dollars on amazon...they had only the red ones for that price..i do not know why?...in my opnion there is nothing as good for the money...and as i said,they are a bit more efficient than the er-4p's ..in any event to my ears they are outstanding...
Reply
post #4 of 14
12/12/08 at 8:42pm
Wow what a great deal, I think I'm going to order them, but there really isn't much information on them.

If possible, could you take a picture of how far out these stick from your ears?
Reply
post #5 of 14
12/12/08 at 9:33pm
Thread Starter 
actually,the HF5 are an improved version of the er-4p in many ways...the cables are better so there is little if any cable noise...they do not stick out of your ears much at all due to a different design..they are a brought up to date etymotic design and as i said,are outstanding and i am a tough critic
Reply
post #6 of 14
12/12/08 at 11:47pm
I've heard Ety's have very "dry" mids. How do the mids sound to you? While I'm not looking for very colored mids, I don't want them to have no feeling in them.
Reply
post #7 of 14
12/13/08 at 12:41am
I've looked around and some say these are equal to the ER4P and others say they aren't. Some others say they have slightly diminished highs in favor of slightly more bass than the ER4P.

=/ It'd be nice to know more about these. $99 seems like a steal.
Reply
post #8 of 14
12/13/08 at 1:39am
Intriguing.... Though I barely paid more than that for my ER4p...

Response curve of the HF5 is "85%" and the ER4P is "86%" ========> compared that to 92% with ER4s

Different design, doesn't stick out as much, better cable, straight plug
Reply
post #9 of 14
12/13/08 at 12:46pm
Yes, i went from ER4-P to HF2 (whicj I assume is the same as HF5 just with microphone and control button added) and am very pleased with them. I will admit that they are not as good as the ER4-P I got rid of but that was an APS recabled version so no surprise there.
Reply
post #10 of 14
12/13/08 at 1:04pm
Could you elaborate further on those differences?

Wanna sell me your APS cable?
Reply
post #11 of 14
12/13/08 at 1:58pm
the 5 version is not supposed to have the same quality control on the drivers themselves. so where as they might share similar drivers, they are not matched professionally like the er4s or p. basically, ety do one thing other companies do not or at least that i know of do not: they make sure the pair are exact matches of spec so that you get the best possible sound. the 5 version do not: it is like buying from ue or westone or shure or at.
Reply
post #12 of 14
12/13/08 at 2:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shigzeo View Post
the 5 version is not supposed to have the same quality control on the drivers themselves. so where as they might share similar drivers, they are not matched professionally like the er4s or p. basically, ety do one thing other companies do not or at least that i know of do not: they make sure the pair are exact matches of spec so that you get the best possible sound. the 5 version do not: it is like buying from ue or westone or shure or at.
Regarding this statement, can anyone check if the drivers of the HF5 are serial numbered, like on the ER-4?
Reply
post #13 of 14
12/14/08 at 6:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldschool View Post
Regarding this statement, can anyone check if the drivers of the HF5 are serial numbered, like on the ER-4?
They are not serial numbered (at least not my HF2). As you can see the drivers are very similar, at least from the outside, and the sound sig is also clearly the same. I emailed Etymotics and got told the same thing about the drivers being basically the same but not matching as with the ER4 so basically it is ER4 drivers that are just picked 2 at a time.

Reply
post #14 of 14
12/14/08 at 6:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZoNtO View Post
Could you elaborate further on those differences?

Wanna sell me your APS cable?
I find that the HF2 lack the overall control and refinement that the P APS cable brought to the ER4-P. The bass of the HF2 is somewhere between the stock ER4-P and APS ER4-P as is the sparkling treble (the APS dampened that a bit). However used with the iPhone 3G in normal transport background noice the difference is very small.

I can't sell you the cable as antonyfirst bought the complete phone and love them, it is actually the longest I think he has had any single set of phones.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home