gixxerwimp
100+ Head-Fier
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I've had the EQ turned off in Viper4Android on my Samsung Note 3 and S3 since I got the red and orange filters from Knowles Taiwan (thanks, Nicole!). Also went for a long planar magnetic listening session at pincha.com.tw and Earzone in Taipei last night, so I think I've cleared my head in preparation for the filter swap.
Since this filter removal/replacement procedure was new to me, and I haven't seen an illustrated tutorial yet, I thought I'd do one while I'm at it. Skip on ahead if this is old hat for you.
I've only recently bought my ER•4Ps, so this was my first time removing the filters. Taking luisdent's advice, I twisted the removal tool in only as deep as required to remove the filter. It took a few tries to determine how deep this was, but I easily got them both out relatively unscathed.
Next, I took a closer look at the Knowles reds. As opposed to the screen being in the middle of the filter as they are on the stock greens, it's almost flush to one end of the metal tube on the Knowles.
To begin inserting the filter, I stood it on end with the screen side facing up, carefully aligned the nozzle over the tube, then gently pushed down until the filter began to enter the nozzle. (The nozzle is not vertically aligned in the photo because I was concentrating on focusing the camera while I was holding it.)
After pushing the filter against the table to insert it the rest of the way, we're ready to go.
Now for the nut rattlin' listening!
This is the Viper4Android EQ setting I've been using with the ER•4Ps to bring the bass up to where I like it. I used the Golden Ears perceived response curve as a guide for where I should start the bass boost.
I went through the track list I've been using for my recent listening tests and found that with the red filters, the bass felt adequate for pretty much all of them. I was doing some dishes when Fleetwood Mac's The Chain came up and had me bumping and grinding with my sleeves rolled up at the sink. My wife got pissed off because while I was busy dancing with the dishes, she realized she'd been talking to herself the whole time (I know, not directly related to the Knowles reds, but I thought it was hilarious).
My goto bass tracks (Benga's Pour Your Love, The Knife's Silent Shout and Aphex Twin's Ageispolis) all had plenty of low end intensity and punch. The bass response sounds similar to what I got with the EQ, and maybe a bit punchier. The lowest notes might need a bit more boost (see reference to gnarlsagan's post below). Need more listening time.
In addition to the enhanced bass, the sound signature seems to have been tweaked ever so slightly up high. Not sure if this is because I've just been listening to a bunch of over-ear planar magnetics and forgotten how clear and present the Etys sound up high, or I'm detecting actual frequency response differences in the filter. In any case, they still sound great and any differences to the mids/highs aren't significant to my ears.
I thought I might get to the orange this weekend, but I'm liking the red and want to listen to it for a while longer. I'm afraid that I'll damage them if I take them out, and if I find the orange to be too much, I won't have any reds to go back to (I only got 2 of each from Knowles).
I have the 4P-to-4S adapter, but haven't really spent any time listening with it. IIRC the 4S has less bass response than the 4P, but has more forward highs according to gnarlsagan, who also uses the reds, but with "a small eq boost for below 60Hz (credit luisdent)."
Since this filter removal/replacement procedure was new to me, and I haven't seen an illustrated tutorial yet, I thought I'd do one while I'm at it. Skip on ahead if this is old hat for you.
I've only recently bought my ER•4Ps, so this was my first time removing the filters. Taking luisdent's advice, I twisted the removal tool in only as deep as required to remove the filter. It took a few tries to determine how deep this was, but I easily got them both out relatively unscathed.
Next, I took a closer look at the Knowles reds. As opposed to the screen being in the middle of the filter as they are on the stock greens, it's almost flush to one end of the metal tube on the Knowles.
To begin inserting the filter, I stood it on end with the screen side facing up, carefully aligned the nozzle over the tube, then gently pushed down until the filter began to enter the nozzle. (The nozzle is not vertically aligned in the photo because I was concentrating on focusing the camera while I was holding it.)
After pushing the filter against the table to insert it the rest of the way, we're ready to go.
Now for the nut rattlin' listening!
This is the Viper4Android EQ setting I've been using with the ER•4Ps to bring the bass up to where I like it. I used the Golden Ears perceived response curve as a guide for where I should start the bass boost.
I went through the track list I've been using for my recent listening tests and found that with the red filters, the bass felt adequate for pretty much all of them. I was doing some dishes when Fleetwood Mac's The Chain came up and had me bumping and grinding with my sleeves rolled up at the sink. My wife got pissed off because while I was busy dancing with the dishes, she realized she'd been talking to herself the whole time (I know, not directly related to the Knowles reds, but I thought it was hilarious).
My goto bass tracks (Benga's Pour Your Love, The Knife's Silent Shout and Aphex Twin's Ageispolis) all had plenty of low end intensity and punch. The bass response sounds similar to what I got with the EQ, and maybe a bit punchier. The lowest notes might need a bit more boost (see reference to gnarlsagan's post below). Need more listening time.
In addition to the enhanced bass, the sound signature seems to have been tweaked ever so slightly up high. Not sure if this is because I've just been listening to a bunch of over-ear planar magnetics and forgotten how clear and present the Etys sound up high, or I'm detecting actual frequency response differences in the filter. In any case, they still sound great and any differences to the mids/highs aren't significant to my ears.
I thought I might get to the orange this weekend, but I'm liking the red and want to listen to it for a while longer. I'm afraid that I'll damage them if I take them out, and if I find the orange to be too much, I won't have any reds to go back to (I only got 2 of each from Knowles).
I have the 4P-to-4S adapter, but haven't really spent any time listening with it. IIRC the 4S has less bass response than the 4P, but has more forward highs according to gnarlsagan, who also uses the reds, but with "a small eq boost for below 60Hz (credit luisdent)."
