If you still love Etymotic ER4, this is the thread for you... - Page 66

 

Nice! Do you wear the earphone straight down? From the photo it seems that the memory wire is not bent at all around your ears. I have been thinking if I want to get the adapter and get the ES cable onto it but am afraid of ergonomic issues. Also, I am unsure of the impact in sound if I were to wear the ER4PT vertically inverted.

Thanks everyone. I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to the ODAC because I wanted the setup to fit in my jacket pockets. I can probably make room for it but thats three devices instead of just two. We'll see.

Yes, I wear the cable downwards. I dont have an issue with comfort or ergonomics. The earphones do stick out a bit so it does look a little weird. Microphonics isn't too bad. I only hear it when the wire rubs against my jacket zipper. I'll post some pictures later.



Edited by Meloncoly - 2/22/13 at 8:18am

 

Hi,

 

I would be very interested to see the channel matching certificate that came with your ER-4PT. Any chance you might be able to scan it and post it (you can remove the serial numbers of course).

 

Thanks

I got my ER-4P -> 4S adapter a few minutes ago. It does make a noticeable improvement in clarity and tonal balance. It sounds more accurate now and it takes my headphone amplifier more power to drive my ER-4PT/S to the same volume level. It's clearer and the music is focused more sharply. There's greater contrast in dynamic range and there's more resolution and detail retrieval. Bass tightened up and it's punchier with greater low frequency extension. It's definitely appreciated. I'll be keeping this combination for many years.

I've been listening to my Etymotic ER-4PT/S for a few hours now and I have been listening to Spotify premium at 320 Kbps. I also have a few tens of gigabytes worth of high resolution 24 bit 192 kHz FLAC loss less files from HD Tracks and Chesky among others. I have been listening to my music library of LAME 3.9.9 --preset-insane 320 Kbps MP3 songs. The 4P -> 4S adapter really makes them ruler flat in terms of accuracy and neutrality. Now, my ER-4PT/S sounds more transparent with greater resolution and detail retrieval especially low level sounds. The dynamic range is a bit wider with greater contrast, but it is not by a large margin. The treble is airy and well extended. The overall sound is more coherent with better tonal balance.

 

I feel like I am a recording engineer or a producer. I can listen to my music from a trustworthy perspective and I can still spot the deficiencies in the different songs regarding mastering quality. Well mastered albums have an uneven keel in terms of quality from track to track depending upon where they source the music.

 

I can understand why these get passed up for something shinier or newer. There is not much to the design or the technology by today's standards. They're considered to be ancient, but they are timeless classics. The ER-4S lets the music through with the fewest coloration possible. It brings you closer to the music with the fewest possible distortions. It's not for everybody. If you have a lot of standard resolution 16 bit 44.1 kHz music in loss less format like FLAC or WAV or AIFF, then the ER-4S will reveal everything about your tracks with merciless scrutiny and precision. You will wind up analyzing your audio system rig and your music while you listen to your favorite tracks. After a while, this can get tiring unless you are a freak about stuff like this.

 

I can't say that they outperform custom IEMs that cost several hundreds or thousands of dollars more. However, they hold their own if you require extraordinarily high passive sound isolation and extreme accuracy and sound fidelity. If you want to know which audio codec, format, bit rate, resolution, and other options you should rip, encode, compress, or transcode your music files, get the ER-4S to determine the results with superb accuracy. You'll need a top of the line audio rig to make it worth your time and effort.

 

It's going to cost several orders of magnitude more money to match or surpass the ER-4S by going the custom multi-driver balanced armature or dynamic driver IEM route and you won't get it all unless you spend thousands for a top of the line custom personalized model. If you are looking for a full sized headphone, it will cost you even more money to beat the ER-4S and it won't outperform in all categories. I have the Ultimate Ears Ue-18 PRO and I am auditioning the Sennheiser HD-800 with the Cardas Clear headphone cable and these products cost thousands of dollars more than the ER-4S and they do some things better while other areas need improvements.

 

 

Here's my home audio rig:

 

Meridian 808v5 CD player

HeadRoom Ultra desktop amp with DAC and desktop power supply

Ultimate Ears Ue-18 pro

Etymotic ER-4PT with 4S adapter

Monster Signature Series Pro Power 5100 Power Center UHC

Cardas Clear power, RCA interconnects, USB cabling

LaCie 4Big Quadra 10 TB USB 3.0 external HDD

Western Digital My Passport 2 TB USB 3.0 Portable external HDD

System76 Leopard Extreme desktop PC

System76 Lemur Ultra Thin notebook PC

Verizon FiOS Quantum

ASUS Blu-Ray USB 3.0 12X external CD/DVD/Blu-Ray burner

CrashPlan+ family plan for 3 years

 

yes, it's true.

 

Here's my PCs:

 

 

I don't see the point in transcoding to the latest and greatest audio codec and format of the day just because it's popular. With my large library, it just takes too much damn time even though I have a System76 Leopard Extreme:

 

2nd Generation Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition 3.50 GHz L2 15 MB - 6 Cores with Hyperthreading

64 GB - 8 x 8 GB - Crucial Elite Quad Channel DDR3 - 1333 MHz

4 GB nVidia GeForce GTX 690 with 3072 CUDA Cores

960 GB: LSI Hardware RAID 0 - 2 x 480 GB Intel 520 Series SATA III 6 Gb/s Solid State Disk Drive

CD-RW / DVD-RW Dual Layer [two of them]

Internal SD, Memory Stick, Compact Flash Card Reader

 Internal PCI Express 802.11 bgn

27" Full HD SuperThin Widescreen LED Display (1920 x 1080)

Logitech Wireless Illuminated Keyboard and Performance Mouse

3 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 3 Yr. Technical Support

Asus 12X Blu-Ray USB 3.0 burner

LaCie 4Big Quad 10 TB USB 3.0 HDD

Western Digital My Passport 2 TB USB 3.0 Portable HDD

 

System76 Lemur Ultra Thin (lemu4):

 

Intel Core i5-3210M

Corsair Vengeance 2 X 8 [16 GB] 1,600 MHz RAM

Crucial M4 SATA-III 6 GB/s 128 GB SSD

Intel Advanced-N 6230 802.11 BGN

14.1" 1366 X 768 LED

Gigabit Ethernet

2 USB 3.0

1 USB 2.0

SDXC memory card slot

8X DVD burner

4.5 pounds

 

yes, it's true.

 

I'm keeping my Etymotic ER-4PT/S forever until they break. They'll last many years. To my ears, these are the best high end universal IEMs if passive sound isolation and accuracy are your top priorities like mine.

I get the feeling that Etymotic doesn't have or care to have the marketing that Shure, et al. employs; otherwise, I think they'd be more recognized in the market.

Well shures a huge company, their name is in every mike on the world it seems, so not surprising given their budget.

For me, as a ER4P user, I can see how the musicians and sound professionals would prefer the ER4 to the multis and dynamics due to FR, but for enjoyment I like the deeper and more palpable bass of the multis as long as the FR is mostly flat.

Meloncoly, can you take the custom tips off easily? Say If you want to listen to them in bed, you couldn't ..

Only way you could....  if you be able to  change back to a normal tip.

Even then,  Ety's are not the most comfy lying down sideways... ears on the pillow...

 

Yep. It goes on and off just like a normal tip. The custom tips are recessed, so you would just stick it in more. I wouldn't lay in bed with the Etys if I were to lay sideways. Don't see how it could work no matter what tip you use. Even them UM1 that I had ages ago, I could never get comfortable with laying sideways...but I have small ears.

Edited by Meloncoly - 2/24/13 at 2:03am

Pics or it didn't happen!

Thanks for that, good to know the Ctips can be taken off. I have slept many times with the ETY's in my ears, very deeply inserted can get uncomfortable but bearable.

How deep is "very deep"? I boggles my mind to think how ER4 can go deeper than it has been to me.

 

I've had three sets of what were supposed to be among 'the best' multi-driver customs and still use my ER4S over them.

Deep enough to not being overly uncomfortable or sticking out. This Is achieved by using the mod to the tri flange cutting the top one off leaving 2 only....