If you still love Etymotic ER4, this is the thread for you... - Page 69

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leslie Dorner 

The problem is that they're not comfortable to wear for long listening sessions. The ear tips don't feel comfortable to me. The AKG K 702 feels painful after one hour of listening because of the bumps in the leather head band.

 

comply foam tips man :) 

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniel_hokkaido 

comply foam tips man :) 

Comply kills the sound of the ER4....

I have recently gotten my hands on the Klipsch double flange as well as their oval eartips.

Soundwise the double flange from my TDK BA200 still pairs the best with the ER4. It doesn't color the sound and brings out the details, definition and imaging really well. In terms of comfort it is really good.

The double flange from Klispch smears the definition a little while the oval eartips from Klipsch boosts the lows and rolls off a little of the highs.

Phonak PFE 121 and the Fitear 111 are worth trying if you want a ER-4 but the ergonomics aren't working for you. The Phonaks  will be discontinued soon, but are worth a try really. I keep talking about other headphones in the ER4 thread, bad of me, but hard to say more about the ER-4 after so many years.

I read some of these posts. Let me share my experience with the ER4s. I have them for such a long time now and they never disappoint. I have always been curious to see how the other highend in-ear fare against it but by the very nature of things, it is difficult to experience in-ear monitors... unless you buy it. 

A couple of things about the ER4: I first bought the S, was kind of disappointed by the lack of bass and exchanged them for the ER4 P. Not in the same league. The P are far from being as refined and transparent as the S, that's unquestionable. So... I returned the P and got the S back. 

Now, this is true that the Etys are not the best when it comes to low end and this is probably the main reason why I always questioned whether an upgrade would be worthwhile. However they are transparent. That is what it all comes down to: transparency. liquid like, the closest thing to Er4 are probably electrostatic speakers, the beryllium tweeters from Focal or ribbon tweeters. they are a delight to listen to for long period of time. and the sound isolation makes you want to stay in the plane longer after it landed!

They have bass, but it is thin but they are so refined and delicate that you see this as a minor trade-off. Think of the vulgarity of a car stereo with its loudness on, treble and bass cranked up to their max: that is how the other in-ear I tried or the Beats sound to me. ER4 are precisely the opposite of that. neutral and transparent. 

They have other draw backs: they are not designed for active wear: its wires rub against the clothes and generate noise. But this is the case for all the other headphones with wires at the front. I guess the only way around that is to have the wire go around the ear and to the back. I wish the ER4 are like this. Also never wear them for sport. for the same reason and also cause the sweat will go too easily in the filters. 

I loved the ER4 so much I had a custom mould made for them. It improves the confort dramatically but I found that the sound isolation before was stronger as I could push the buds right inside my ear, closer to the eardrums. Now the distance between the monitors and the eardrums is fixed. However it is a lot more confortable once you know how to fit them quickly.

Also I found the Ety impedance to be a problem with Iphones. the Iphone does not play the Ety loud enough to my taste, especially the Iphone 5. They are rather hard to drive, just like electrostatics. 

Finally as someone else mentions, Etymotic service sets the standard: unbelievable. I returned them twice whilst they were out of warranty for years already... and they sent them back to me refurbished and almost as new... free of charge! I was speechless. Never had another experience like that with any other product.

So all in all, forget the loudness bass presentation that a lot of the others offer and go for this liquid and refined presentation that you can never get tired of.

Anyone found a pair of in-ear that clearly beat the Ety transparency and yet provide more bass?

I'd love to know....

Quote:

Originally Posted by uelover 

 

Comply kills the sound of the ER4....

 

Hmm I dont really know. But Tyll did a measurement of comply tips and reckoned the muffling is caused only when you dont pull back the tips 

when inserting

Quote:

Originally Posted by bba1973 

They're actually pretty close...with a little help. I've got the ER4S and the HF5. I used the HF5...

Maybe I should get them remolded into customs...

 

 

I got custom ACS eartips for my HF3 and was VERY disappointed. The were inferior to a simple pair of Comply's in EVERY way. The Comply's have better sound (maybe because they allow for deeper insertion), they have significantly better isolation, they are much less susceptible  to microphonics AND they are more comfortable. I think the buying the custom ACS tips was a complete waste of money and, IMO, there is nothing that they do that is an improvement over Comply's. 

Ps

I'm getting a good seal in both ears so the poor performance (in comparison to Comply's) is not due to poor fit. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pianist 

 

In my opinion, current multi driver balanced armature technologies are not good enough. Maybe the new FreQ Phase technology by JH Audio can finally make multi-driver BAs listenable, but the ones with the standard crossovers all suck to my ears - they all sound hopelessly out of phase. Sometimes, it is not apparent upon first listen, but I always heard the flaws after a while. Personally, I am done with multi driver BAs until the phase correction technologies make their way into fairly affordable (say, sub-$500) universal IEMs. Then, I'll give them another shot.

You think it's more of a phase problem than a linearity problem? I'm interested into listening for this but I'm not sure what to look for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ypoknons 

 

You think it's more of a phase problem than a linearity problem? I'm interested into listening for this but I'm not sure what to look for.

I could be wrong here, but the way I've understood phase accuracy is that the you are unable to pinpoint a place where an instrument comes from off the soundstage; the various instruments seem to be moving about.

No references to back this up, but this is what I recall from research many years ago on my behalf, and applied to speakers, not headphones or IEMs.

I had some correspondence with Don Wilson about custom molds. I'm sure he doesn't mind me reposting.

I lost myself for a good moment in music and that has not happened to me in a long while. In the last few months I ended up purchasing few other IEM and headphones and as a result I neglected using my ER4S. 

Recently I purchased the AK100 and I tried pairing it with few of my other IEM and I had some what negative pairing with most of them. AK100 has an output impedance of 22 Ohm. I realized all of a sudden that my highest rated impedance belongs to ER4S and decided to pair it with the AK100 and wow was I amazed. AK100 paired with ER4S while playing the album Dub Colossus gave me goosebumps.

I might be buying the ER4B and complete my love with etymotics once and for all.