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Good IEMs for on-stage / live use - Page 2

post #16 of 23
1/4/10 at 9:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by semisight View Post
I'm surprised no one has suggested this, but you should find a used pair of ety er4p. They have amazing isolation, better than the er6i, and great clarity. It will hit the upper end of your price range, but I doubt you'll feel the need to upgrade anytime soon.
That's a good option too, if you're willing to buy used (which really is an excellent way to go.)
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post #17 of 23
1/4/10 at 9:39pm
I'm another vote for the UM1. They go over your ear and sit very flush in your ear. They have a great neutral sound quality that is great for stage use. I used the triple flange tips trimmed to double flanges and did some monitor engineering with them and the isolation was definitely suitable.

Also, they are very very durable. They lasted me over four years of being tossed around and not very delicately handled. They are a great buy.
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post #18 of 23
1/4/10 at 9:41pm
Double post
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post #19 of 23
1/5/10 at 1:36am
i believe the OP already made a decision on the ety hf5
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post #20 of 23
1/5/10 at 10:12am
the only bad point for the ER-4 is that they stick out a lot, so if you won't look like E.T. on stage, you shouldn't go withe these...
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post #21 of 23
1/5/10 at 2:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by alex223 View Post
the only bad point for the ER-4 is that they stick out a lot, so if you won't look like E.T. on stage, you shouldn't go withe these...
Well, as Rawrster pointed out, I decided to settle on the Ety HF5s. They work just dandily over-the-ear (with limited visibility externally), produce very good highs/mids, and seal very well with the Shure Olives. In fact, the isolation with these and the Shure Olives is nothing short of amazing. At around $107 on Amazon (slightly cheaper if opting for the "ruby" color), I can also recommend these to others on my team.

Thanks for your input, folks.
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post #22 of 23
1/6/10 at 2:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by yipcanjo View Post
I'm trying to decide on some good IEMs for myself (and to recommend to others) for use on-stage / live use. Basically, we're going to ditch our monitor wedges for an in-ear system.

Thoughts for us? A good friend of mine let me borrow is Shure E3s (now SCL3), and they were quite good in my limited testing. Other than my Sennheiser CX300s and Zune Premium Headphones, though, I don't have much to compare with. I know that there are some much better IEMs out there.
You will probably find that each musician or performer has different preferences for monitoring. When we switched to an in-ear system at our church a few years ago, the company who put the system together just provided E2C's for everyone. I'd owned a pair previously and knew that while they would probably be ok for the vocalists, the musicians who need more bass were not going to get what they needed. Our drummer uses a set of full size cans now. I let the bass player borrow my UE SuperFi 5 Pros and he was amazed at the difference they made.

While its tempting to go for an all-purpose IEM that you can use for recreational listening as well, you might want to ask yourself a few questions:
- Is what you need to hear for monitoring the same as what you want when you're listening for enjoyment?
- Can you afford the additional wear and tear from 7 days a week use vs a dedicated set of IEMs for practice and performances?

I'm not not sure I'd get too hung up on the isolation either. A lot of our people had a hard time adjusting to not getting all the ambient room noise and audience feed back. We have an audience mic that they can feed back into their monitor mix, but a lot of them still do the one ear in / one ear out thing.

Just my thoughts.
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post #23 of 23
1/6/10 at 2:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by markheaps View Post
You will probably find that each musician or performer has different preferences for monitoring. When we switched to an in-ear system at our church a few years ago, the company who put the system together just provided E2C's for everyone. I'd owned a pair previously and knew that while they would probably be ok for the vocalists, the musicians who need more bass were not going to get what they needed. Our drummer uses a set of full size cans now. I let the bass player borrow my UE SuperFi 5 Pros and he was amazed at the difference they made.

While its tempting to go for an all-purpose IEM that you can use for recreational listening as well, you might want to ask yourself a few questions:
- Is what you need to hear for monitoring the same as what you want when you're listening for enjoyment?
- Can you afford the additional wear and tear from 7 days a week use vs a dedicated set of IEMs for practice and performances?

I'm not not sure I'd get too hung up on the isolation either. A lot of our people had a hard time adjusting to not getting all the ambient room noise and audience feed back. We have an audience mic that they can feed back into their monitor mix, but a lot of them still do the one ear in / one ear out thing.

Just my thoughts.
I really appreciate the insights, Markheaps, and you bring up some very valid points.

Truth is, I'm not going to *insist* that anyone wear a particular IEM. I did, however, want to be able to recommend a few IEMs at different price points. In our case, folks will be buying their own, so not everyone is going to want to plunk down $150, $250, or more. Hard to say. I fully expect, though, that we'll have different folks using different setups -- such as the drummer with full cans on. That makes sense.

I *will*, however, highly recommend NOT going one-in, one-out with the IEMs. That's just begging for increased volume in one ear, which is a bad thing. Better isolation should mean lower volume all-around. We'll also be mixing in some ambient volume to compensate for the "clinical" feel of in-ear monitors.

Thanks again. It is much appreciated.
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