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Why not a Dual BA from Etymotic? - Page 8

post #106 of 143
8/10/12 at 7:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ianmedium View Post

Out of interest what do you listen to them with? Do you amp them and if so what amp? I ask as I listen to mine through an amp and there most certainly is sound stage.
Again a request for anyone commenting, please, take a moment and list your rig in your signature. It gives us a chance then to see without having to ask what sort of equipment your listening to and basing your opinions upon.
After all, if one is listening through a bad source with compressed music one is going to have a different experience than someone who listens through something that can really give a fair quality playback.
I think it is why I have gone back over the past few months to reading HiFi magazines to base my purchases as at least most of them are listing their equipment so the reader has a fair idea.
Likewise, give some examples of the music you listen to as that helps as well.
I was reading a review here the other day and then saw a picture of the reviewers player. I could see they were listsening to Adele so it changed my feeling for the whole review as that album is terribly made and suffers from really bad compression. There is a reason why a lot of magazines listen to jazz, it's because most of it is superbly recorded so they can get a much truer picture of what the equipment is capable of.
This is not aimed purely at the poster quoted but everyone. If we don't have this kind of info then the opinions are all but useless!

I have a sig... And i listen to a very wide variety of genres, also a lot of well recorded jazz. Nothing weird about the soundstage of er4, it is just very small, almost monitor-like.
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post #107 of 143
8/10/12 at 7:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by librarian View Post

I have a sig... And i listen to a very wide variety of genres, also a lot of well recorded jazz. Nothing weird about the soundstage of er4, it is just very small, almost monitor-like.

Ahh, thanks very much, when I wrote that it was on my iPad and for some reason did not see your signature. As I said it was not about you so much as about the other stuff and seeing your signature really helps, thank you, you have some great equipment so I can trust your thoughts much more than some others.
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post #108 of 143
8/10/12 at 11:13am
That's ok :-)

Back on topic: maybe I am just imagening things, but I do think that single driver iems has some special quality to them. Both the er4 and the x10, which I also use, has a very crisp signature all over the frequency range. Something about them just sounds right to me. Although the two are very different, they share some magic. I prefer them to other multidriver iems, that I have had - among them the westone4- which I found to be polite and uninvolving in some way. The er4 and the x10 presents the music in a more coherent way. I like the x10 better than westone 4 although the latter is clearly superior in many ways. Is it because of the single driver design, I wonder.........
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post #109 of 143
8/10/12 at 3:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by robm321 View Post


I was stating that lightheartedly but after re-reading my post, it sounded like I was being an ass. So sorry if I came off that way.
I would say the hf3/5 is more musical while the er4s is more analytical but noticeably more detailed. If you are going to use an amp, get the er4s. If you are going to use your phone only, keep the hf5.

 

Right now I have an Fiio e7, which isn't the greatest of amps but have been serving me well, but in the future I would plan getting something better as a portable amp, in this case, would it be worth and ER4S?

 

Also, in this case, where are they to be sold? They are gone from amazon(there is only the ER4PT there), and the only place that I promptly found them was in etymotic own webstore.

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post #110 of 143
8/10/12 at 3:45pm

I would say it is worth it with the Fiio e7 and will scale if you upgrade amps down the road as long as you enjoy accuracy over warmth. I don't want to set your expectations too high, but the difference is very noticeable when the ER4S is amped. They expose more detail, so make sure you go the lossless or FLAC, WAV, etc route and make sure you don't use compressed mp3s. If you are using mp3s, the HF-3/5s would be better. The ER4s will expose what's there for good and bad.

 

That being said, for anyone happy with the HF-3/5, there's no need to feel like your missing something or to be disappointed with them. They are very good in their own right.

 

As far as where to buy them, others might be more helpful with that. I bought mine years ago and am out of the loop on where to acquire.


Edited by robm321 - 8/10/12 at 3:47pm
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post #111 of 143
8/10/12 at 6:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by robm321 View Post

I would say it is worth it with the Fiio e7 and will scale if you upgrade amps down the road as long as you enjoy accuracy over warmth. I don't want to set your expectations too high, but the difference is very noticeable when the ER4S is amped. They expose more detail, so make sure you go the lossless or FLAC, WAV, etc route and make sure you don't use compressed mp3s. If you are using mp3s, the HF-3/5s would be better. The ER4s will expose what's there for good and bad.

 

That being said, for anyone happy with the HF-3/5, there's no need to feel like your missing something or to be disappointed with them. They are very good in their own right.

 

As far as where to buy them, others might be more helpful with that. I bought mine years ago and am out of the loop on where to acquire.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

That's something to think about, I ideed love detailing and accuracy, maybe not always, but most of the time.

Most of my ripped music is FLAC right now (~ 60 GB and growing), and I still have lots of CDs that I listen directly and haven't had the time or will to rip it. Not everything is perfect, so I do have ~ 8 GB of mp3 that is basicaly what friends passed me along the way and I still haven't bought the CD to rip it properly.

 

One thing that I love with the HF5 is the noise insulation, there is no way I'm going to be without it in the case of need, I may acquire other in-ears but if not for anything else I'll keep a set from etymotic for their isolation.

 

That said, I do like the sound of my HF5's very much, and surprisingly, I'm more impressed now that I purchased the W4R with them than before. Having something to compare with have showed me some, in my opinion, weakness of the headphone, but also made more clear some of the qualities that I didn't have perceived before, and have brought my atention back to etymotic, which I thought would be missed after I had my W4R(but I still consider the later better, and I wouldn't go back on my purchase ^^)

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post #112 of 143
8/10/12 at 7:14pm

After getting my HF5's back and liking the way they sound from my Fuze & E6 I went ahead and ordered the E11 because I think it will work better then the E6 with all my IEM's so I'm looking forward to getting them next week.

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post #113 of 143
8/10/12 at 7:14pm

For those saying there is something very simplistic and complete about the sound of a single driver.  And for those that think they can hear a dis-function with a multi-driver (my ears aren't that good), the dual drivers are not that complicated.

Original post talks about Ety doing a dual driver.  Crossover is not really an issue and you are providing 50% for efficiency on frequency response for each driver.  Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

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post #114 of 143
8/10/12 at 7:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spyro View Post

For those saying there is something very simplistic and complete about the sound of a single driver.  And for those that think they can hear a dis-function with a multi-driver (my ears aren't that good), the dual drivers are not that complicated.

Original post talks about Ety doing a dual driver.  Crossover is not really an issue and you are providing 50% for efficiency on frequency response for each driver.  Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

 

Half of my BA's are dual drivers (R-50, W2, SE424, Aurvana IE3) and of the multi driver BA's I think the dual drivers are some of the most cohesive because of what you stated about the 50/50 split.  My TF10's don't really sound cluttered or muddy and whether they have 1 driver or 4 if it sounds good thats all that matters.

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post #115 of 143
8/10/12 at 8:04pm

I am the only person on Head-Fi that believes the TF10 midrange is "cloudy" rather than recessed.  It drives me crazy.

 

UM2 is my first choice for a dual driver, period.  Owned it twice for total listening time for about 8 months.  Only W3 "bests" it in a universal IMHO. (but GR10 vocals are = to +$1000 customs)

 

Vocals:  UM2 and GR10 are the best.

 

Overall Package:  W3 by a pretty wide margin.  Yes it is 5 years old and many of you new to HF probably don't realize what a benchmark W3 was when it came out in 2007.  Took 4 years to make and well worth the wait.  If you can get the right fit with the right tips it rivals +$1000 customs. at 1/3 the cost.

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post #116 of 143
8/10/12 at 8:11pm

Anyway...sorry to get off topic.  Take ER4 and W4.  W4 designed for neutrality and balance.\\

 

Anybody own both??  Both are very balanced and intended that way. 

 

Comments?  (I've had both and while I personally don't even care for W4....as far as performance I'd say W4 beats ER4 like a red-headed stepchild in every area except treble)

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post #117 of 143
8/10/12 at 9:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spyro View Post

I am the only person on Head-Fi that believes the TF10 midrange is "cloudy" rather than recessed.  It drives me crazy.

UM2 is my first choice for a dual driver, period.  Owned it twice for total listening time for about 8 months.  Only W3 "bests" it in a universal IMHO. (but GR10 vocals are = to +$1000 customs)

Vocals:  UM2 and GR10 are the best.

Overall Package:  W3 by a pretty wide margin.  Yes it is 5 years old and many of you new to HF probably don't realize what a benchmark W3 was when it came out in 2007.  Took 4 years to make and well worth the wait.  If you can get the right fit with the right tips it rivals +$1000 customs. at 1/3 the cost.

I actually think in comparison to something like the ER4 the TF10 is a muddled incomprehensible mess, everything is smeared in comparison to the ER4's or heaven S's in my experience. Had I not owned better I would probably have gone along in blissful ignorance thinking they were good!
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post #118 of 143
8/10/12 at 9:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spyro View Post

I am the only person on Head-Fi that believes the TF10 midrange is "cloudy" rather than recessed.  It drives me crazy.

 

UM2 is my first choice for a dual driver, period.  Owned it twice for total listening time for about 8 months.  Only W3 "bests" it in a universal IMHO. (but GR10 vocals are = to +$1000 customs)

 

Vocals:  UM2 and GR10 are the best.

 

Overall Package:  W3 by a pretty wide margin.  Yes it is 5 years old and many of you new to HF probably don't realize what a benchmark W3 was when it came out in 2007.  Took 4 years to make and well worth the wait.  If you can get the right fit with the right tips it rivals +$1000 customs. at 1/3 the cost.

 

Sorry for nitpicking, Spyro, but the W3 was released 3 years and 8 months ago (end Nov 2008), not 5 years ago.


Edited by music_4321 - 8/10/12 at 9:23pm
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post #119 of 143
8/11/12 at 2:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spyro View Post

For those saying there is something very simplistic and complete about the sound of a single driver.  And for those that think they can hear a dis-function with a multi-driver (my ears aren't that good), the dual drivers are not that complicated.

Original post talks about Ety doing a dual driver.  Crossover is not really an issue and you are providing 50% for efficiency on frequency response for each driver.  Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

 

This ^.  Many dual BA's seem to be fairly absent this problem and the CK10 I believe is crossoverless.  Can't recall any coherence issues anybody had w/ it.  Once you go to three or more drivers though, things get much more problematic.

 

Back when I found a certain resource more valuable they wrote some impressions about this.

 

http://www.headfonia.com/dual-drivers-q-jays-dba-02-ue700-westone-2-sf5pro-and-jh5pro/

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post #120 of 143
8/11/12 at 4:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spyro View Post

I am the only person on Head-Fi that believes the TF10 midrange is "cloudy" rather than recessed.  It drives me crazy.

 

UM2 is my first choice for a dual driver, period.  Owned it twice for total listening time for about 8 months.  Only W3 "bests" it in a universal IMHO. (but GR10 vocals are = to +$1000 customs)

 

Vocals:  UM2 and GR10 are the best.

 

 

Agreed on UM2 and GR10. However for dual drivers, the PFE232 won my heart over the UM2. A bit different sound signature, but at the moment one of my all time favorite universals. I would keep going to my headphone shop over and over again just to listen to the GR10s... There was just something magical about those IEMs.

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