Hi all,

I am new to the forum, luckily I found you guys because I am about to make a big leap towards an IEM and, having little or no experience at all, I need your help!

First thing, I am about to choose an IEM for live, on-stage performance. Since I sing in an amateur musical group (we are planning to do a revised 'Notre Dame de Paris', just to let you understand the genre), I cannot afford to spend $500 for a custom molded in-ear system, at least not yet! So I am trying to find the best tradeoff between quality and price.

For an on-stage performace, I need an earphone which is possibly quite insulating from external noise, but at the same time it must provide the necessary clarity and sharpness to let me hear both the backing track and my voice clearly. I can also add that they must be very stable in the ear (for this I am thinking of using foam ear plugs, which seem to offer good insulation, stability and comfort...). During our last rehersal, I tried an ordinary in-ear (I do not know the brand) which sounded terrible: rumbling sounds, no definition... in a word, more noise than sound. Poor isolation, too.
I also tried a Shure IEM (I do not know the model, unfortunately) and things were a little better: improved clarity, volume and less confusion in the sounds. The ear muff was more rigid than usual, translucent white.

I have toured a few electronics shops around, and I have seen a lot of different consumer-grade IEMs and some of them, compared to expensive IEMs specifically designed for live performance and sold in musical instruments shops, appear to be better: I am referring to SPL and frequency response. Neverthless, since I am not too willing to rely on printed specs only, but I prefer direct experience, here is my question:

- has anyone of you a direct experience of consumer IEMs that can be proficiently used for on-stage perfomance? Which one could you suggest? Can good performance in music listening mean equally good performance on-stage?
I can add that, after reading quite a few threads discussing different IEMs, I have come to the conclusion that there is a range of potentially interesting products out there, like:

- Sennheiser CX300 (possibly CX500, but for some reason the CX300 still appears to be a little better);
- Etymotic (many models)
- UE super.fi 3 or 5
- Philips SHE9700 or 9850
- Shure SE110
- ER-6i

Of course this is just a rough list I compiled, more important is your experience, though; so please feel free to suggest any brand/model you have had good experience with.

Sorry I have been long... but is is my first post and I wanted to make it nice!

Thank you very much to you all!

Best regards,

Paolo.

The CX300 (probably the 500 too) might not have the clarity that you want. The SE110's might not either.

Have a look at http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/p...thread-405953/ and see if you want to add it to your list. They should have the clarity and sharpness that you desire, plus if you put foamies on them they will isolate pretty well.

And BTW - welcome

Sorry, don't really have any hints except for one: if the signal to your phones is also live coming from the controlled chaos of a stage and orchestra - seriously consider using a limiter late in the signal chain. This way, a mistake by a musician, engineer or just someone tripping over a cable will have lower chance for damaging your ears. Having some sort of compressor/limiter/maximizer will also probably enable you to have lower overall volume in the ears....

What about LiveWires? They're not as expensive as some other custom solutions.

Etymotic ER-4 has the clarity and isolation you're looking for, definitly.

Quote:



Ouch, I forgot one important piece of information... price range!

Let's say that I would like to stay below $150... also consider that, living in Italy, I might have a hard time finding some products... maybe not, but, should I order them directly from the US, more expenses to add...

Anyway, yes, the ER-4 has the kind of isolation that I would like...

I am also having a look at the Phonak... like 8xOverMsOctober suggested... by the way, thanks for the welcome!

Thank you very much so far, any further indications and opinions will be very appreciated!

Regards,

Paolo.

ER4P are great for this.

If you can shell out $250, Livewire customs are made for this.

The lower end CX series is a no go. There's no way those will be what you want. I would also recommend against the SE110. I have never used the 110, but its bigger brother the SE210 and they're very disappointing for the price.

I would say if accuracy is what you really want, the Ety HF5, ER4P and PFE's are your best bets.

The HF5's seem to be a really good choice for you right now at $100 from Amazon if that's an option.

The PFE's you can get without a mic for like $125 if you use a certain coupon. If you decide to buy them, I'm sure someone here will tell you the coupon as I don't know it off the top of my head.

The ER4P is probably the most accurate. It's also probably the coldest sounding so you will be able to pick out imperfections and experience more harshness but still the benchmark for accurate reproduction as far as I know. Seems to be the most expensive too.

I haven't tried the HF5 or the ER4P but seen plenty of comments on the ER4P and as I owned the ER6i I have a good feel for the Ety sound sig.

I think those 3 are your best options. All available for well under $200. The PFE and HF5 should be easily had for under your preference of $150.

Thank you very much Zalithian - very detailed and torough explanation!

One last thing I dare ask you: since you previously owned the E2C, I would like your opinion about them. It seems that they are the same product as the SCL2 and E2, and it also seems quite appreciated, being born as a real IEM for musicians. They don't go very much past 17.5 kHz, but that appears to be more than enough according to a couple of reviews I have read. Can you confirm that? They can be foud for less than $130 here in Italy, and, more importantly, they can be found! Which doesn't seem to be the case for the PFE, unfortunately...
Also the SCL3 are reasonably priced, I could consider them... is the difference in performance with respect to the SCL2 worth the difference in the price?

Thanks again!

Paolo.

Westone UM1 anyone?
They are the most used IEM around the world for gigging.

Sorry to re-hash an old thread, but I'm in a VERY similar boat here. Basically, I'm wanting to find some good IEMs, reasonably priced, and specifically suited for an on-stage / live enviroment. Not terribly loud stage volume, mind you, and even less so when we ditch our monitor wedges entirely.

So.... here's what I'm thinking are my constraints/requirements:
- VERY good isolation
- Good-to-Very Good sound
- Less than $100, preferably, or near to
- Ability to go "over ear", if possible, to be a bit more "hidden"

A good friend of mine loaned me his Shure E3 (now SCL3) in-ears, which are nice. It seems like those can be had for around $100 (Bing Shopping). I'm also very interested in some Klipsch S4 in-ears too, though I'm not sure how good the isolation is.

Any other thoughts for me here? What did you end up using, Paolo (author)?

Thanks!

Yip