[Larethio]

Despite going through many variations of iems over the years, from simple dynamics to the 12 driver Roxanne, i always come back to the Etymotic ER-4S for its accurate tonality and detail that i crave. Even though the ER-4 is a household name when it comes to accurate tonality, is there any balanced armature in ear monitor in the ER-4SR price range that supersedes the legendary ER-4S when it comes to overall tonal corectness? This question is coming from one who would describe himself as an "audiophile purist" when it comes to frequency range, tonality, and overall faithfulness to the original recording. I know that to truly achieve that level of accuracy one must invest in transducers that delve well above the $1000 range and over, but i have a modest budget. One that cant exceed $350. I also very much prefer balanced armature technology due to how they can extract more detail from the recording even though some people might state the dynamic driver sound is more "natural". Thank you for reading this and i hope you can help me with this.

 

[kimvictor]

Probably not. The ER4 series likely have the best flatness regardless of price. There are lots of higher end CIEM offerings that are flat and IMO sounds better, but those are still not as flat as the ER4. For me, UERM and Jomo 6R are both on the flat side, with the 6R being a bit closer to ER4, but both cost around $999-1500 USD.