Does anyone here think the er-6 cord and plug look really cheap? I think it kind of looks like my mx500 plug. The price is low for Etymotics but would be the most expensive pair of phones I own if I buy them!

The sound is probably worth the $117, but does it look and feel like it is worth that much?

Anyone else have problems with the tips getting stuck in your ears?

And when does the even length cord come out if it is?

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The moment I heard them, I felt they were worth the $117.....and more! They sounded so close to the ER4S it was scary. As for build quality and looks, no, they don't look like they are worth the $117. The 4 series doesn't look like it's worth $269, either. But then, with Etys, I'm not paying for looks.
You know, I purchased a Fender Stratacoustic guitar for my son for Christmas. Beautiful mahogany, fiberglass, steel strings. 5 band equalizer. The thing is absolutely beautiful and looks to be very well constructed. Cost: $269. I got it the same day my new Ety 4S arrived from Headroom......Cost? $269. When I looked at the two objects side by side, I thought, "How the Hell is that little headphone worth the same as that guitar?" Then I put them in my ears, and my questions disappeared in some of the most fabulous sounds imaginable. Worth it? To me they are!

joelongwood, do u think my MD have a 5mW headphone out can easily drive the Ety ER-6? or does it need a portable amp to sound good?

btw, do u think that the Ety ER-6 is great for techno.electronic music (deep bass)?

I use a radioshack PCDP that supposably has a lot of power according to gluegun, but I dunno for sure. At least 10watts I hope... To me they drive the ER6s great although I'm sure an amp will make it significantly cleaner and better overall. I tried them on my friend's mini system and they didn't sound nearly defined...

Speaking of my friends, a few have tried my Etys and few have been really impressed. My explanation for this is that they think they're getting a good seal/putting them in right, but I believe it's almost impossible to put the ety's in right for the first, second, or tenth time. About 5 days after constant use I was always finding better ways to put them in and how to position them, how they should feel etc for the best sound. So... if they sound impressive now, just wait.

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To answer your question, panoz777, I just hooked up the ER6s to the headphone out of a Sony MD portable with 5mw per channel. PLENTY of volume........drives them fine. I just LOVE the sound of these things!

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This is not the genre of music that I listen to, but I will tell you that Ety bass is an acquired taste. As has been posted many times before.........you hear Ety bass, you don't feel it in the traditional sense. Some people say they are bass shy because they are expecting the kind of bass put out by full-size headphones such as the Sony V6s or Grados. With a good seal, I'm very pleased with the bass of the Etys. Right now I'm listening to Eric Clapton/BB King "Riding With The King." The bass that I hear is very deep and very tight. I am hopelessly addicted to the sound of these things.

I have a theory. Etymotic Research is not a mass market company. It caters to a niche market, and as such, it won't be able to deliver the design of, say, a Sony F-1.

The advantage is, a big proportion of your money goes towards sound quality, whilst you pay for design and brand name when you buy something from companies like Sony

I guess I was just kind of bothered by the generic plug the er-6 uses. The er-4s seem to use a lower profile plug. I was hoping the er-6 would have that.

BTW, Sony probably has enough money to research higher sound quality and design. In fact, I bet they spend more than Etymotic does. It just doesn't work for them all the time. But then again, I don't know.

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Then why do they put out so many turkeys?

Etymotic knows it has to sell these headphones, because they can't make up losses on their high-end line by selling cheap, bad sounding, high profit cans (read: EX70). So, they have to sound good, or they go out of business.

I think the Etymotic question and the Grado RA-1 question can be compared. I have read some ugly threads where the build quality of the RA-1 was bashed severely as being cheap, but virtually no one questioned the sound quality of the amp, or that is sounds at least as good or better than other amps at its price point.

I hope we can eventually get over the debate about "cheap looking" and focus on sound. The Koss headphones look cheap to me, but I wouldn't give up my KSC-50 Frankenstein monster for anything.

cajunchrist

Every year, Sony probably makes more money with the EX70
than Etymotic research has ever made.

And if ER sold one ER4 for every tenth V600 Sony sells, they would be partying all the time.

Who makes the better phones? No doubt about this,
but who has the larger market? the good phones or the crappy ones?

That's why Sony is quite happy producing bad sounding cans, and so are their share holders...
And I'm happy I don't have to buy their crap and that there are alternatives like ER...


Bye

Redwoood

It's quite simple, actually...

1) Sony has the money and the marketing clout. They spend millions in advertising.

2) Sony can't advertise ugly looking products. So they spend millions in design.

3) Sony can't sell a product for more than a defined ammount if it is to compete with other "biggies" (Aiwa, Kenwood, whatever). So they have to skip on sound quality. After all, who will complain about sound quality when all they've heard are other crappy headphones?

So, we are stuck with pretty, nicely packaged, very hyped headphones.

OTOH, what do you think Ety does? I bet they simply try to create the best product they can for the money, they don't spend huge amounts of money in advertising, rather relying on word of mouth comments. Then they package it in a convenient way.

The point is, your money is better spent in Etymotic products just because those guys know what they are doing, and they really don't have the huge overhead Sony has. Even if the engineers in both companies were of equal talents, Sony has to spend less money in R&D just to mantain a competitive (by advertising) advantage.

And lets not get into what Bose does...

"Better sounding ads through research"!

How are the ER-6s with regards to microphonics and how well do they stay in your ears? I am looking to replace my Sony MDR-A30Gs with something at least as comfortable, offers sound isolation, and much better sound experience. I am very tempted by the ER-4P, but I do not want to pay that much yet, and I would like something that allows me to be a bit more active without "thumping" too much. The ER-6s look great, but will they stay in my ears, and will they drive me crazy with thumpings?

I can wear my A30Gs anywhere, but I have become anti-Sony and desire something much higher in acoustic quality. Etys look to be the cat's meow, and the 6s may be the way to go. I am not a very active person, but I do want something that will accomodate my moods (includes rare bouts of jogging and dancing) while being more immersive than my Sonys. Thanks guys!

PS I hope that the 20 Hz to 16 kHz frequency range will be enough for this former sonar tech. I love to pick out sounds from the background and that is what attracted me to Etys. Losing 4kHz from the high end bothers me a bit, but the immersive music write-ups I have seen posted call out to me!

Edit: I plan to pair these with an Iriver2 SlimX (Imp-350) CD/MP3 player.

Edit #2: I just went ahead and bit the bullet. I ordered the 4Ps from Headphone.com and am re-encoding my mp3s at 320kbps VBR with LAME. Can't wait until Iriver has a firmware upgrade for Ogg Vorbis and Monkey's Audio so I can delete my self-made mp3s.

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I think they might drive you crazy with their thumping, but I guess it'd be a matter of taste.

Most importantly, Ety should be commended for their 20-16 frequency rating. They are so brutally honest, they might lose many people who think the "10-35" frequency response of many lesser phones are better.

Etymotic research says the measurement of the frequency response in ear of their phones is not that easy to do, so they won't quote the frequency response >16Khz. But believe me, you won't notice a note missing with this phones.

I second that - ignore measurements - they sound stunning - both the 4P and 4S.

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Francisco, it's "Better sales through marketing"

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Mac, is your avatar robot an "Angry Robot"?