Also carefully bend the headband to loosen the fit. This will reduce isolation somewhat, but bass output as well.

Wild guess: on Poweramp, while I haven't had the distortion issue, I have had seemingly random volume reductions when pausing and resuming play; unchecking the "direct volume control" setting seems to fix this. Maybe it has something to do with the distortion problem as well?

Quote: Unfortunately I get only half that before Virgin would throttle me to dialup-like speeds, so it's wifi or bust for me. But that's why I have a 32 GB SD card in my phone!

I've done this too. It takes days to upload a large library even with a good wifi connection, but the result is worth the wait. The 20,000 track limit- with no cap on actual amount of data- is extremely generous, and the quality of the streamed audio is indistinguishable from the stuff that's...

Quote:   Try looking up what Virgin Mobile is. (Hint: no contracts.) I paid $179 for a very decent Android phone up front, then $35 a month with no commitment beyond one month at a time. Apple is ripping off its iPod customers, it's as simple as that.

My Virgin Mobile HTC One V Android phone- which with Poweramp makes a very fine music player (and of course does so much else besides)- plus a 32 GB micro SD card cost me a total of $225. In that perspective $150 for a 16 GB iPod Nano is highway robbery. And the inability to add storage rubs...

On my HTC One V I'm having excellent results and no problems with Poweramp, nor with Google Play Music when I stream the music I've uploaded to the Google cloud.

Rest assured that the HFs really do sound enough better than the MCs to be worth the money. More extended, more transparent top and cleaner, tighter bass.

Hf5s really are wonderful. I can't think of a single thing to complain about. They give me pretty much 100% the sound I want. YMMV but for amazingly uncolored, realistic reproduction of good classical recordings, they're a steal even at $150, and highway robbery at the $100 they can often be...

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but the hard plastic vertical bits from which the strain reliefs emerge broke off from the barrels on mine. (Easily fixed with superglue, though; functionally good as new, though glue job a bit sloppy.) Probably my fault though because I was cramming them...

Quote:   Not with a TWFK they wouldn't. None of the TWFK-based IEMs for which FR curves are available would do very well on Ety's accuracy score. Again, to be clear, that's not to say they're worse (or better), which is a matter of taste;  just that that driver would not accomplish...

Quote:   I did. The question has  been (speculatively, but plausibly) answered many times over already. And I'm not an ER4 owner so why would I think only ER4 owners should comment in this thread?   UERM (tuning tailored to the purchaser) represents a completely different design...

Quote:     I don't think the Ety engineers would regard that as an improvement. For better or worse according to one's taste, they don't seem to subscribe to the idea that a bass boost (relative to the flat low-frequency response that they in fact achieve- let's be clear, none of their...

Quote:     I know you did, which is why I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what you're on about.   The frequency response of the ER4S is quite different from the HF5's, and it's much less efficient- apples and oranges. The ER4P is quite close but not identical in...

I've seen quotes from him that come pretty close to saying that. Certainly he is more than skeptical about the claimed advantages of multi-BA designs.   Look, buy something else if it gives you sound more to your liking.

There is no universal definition of "sounds better". And I think if the Ety folks could make an IEM that more closely approaches their own ideal (which is the only possible practical meaning of "better" for something like this), they'd be selling it. But they won't do different just for the sake...

Quote: What I believe is that it's still the closest approach to their targeted frequency response that they know how to make. That doesn't translate to "perfect", because there's no such thing. There is not, and never has been, universal agreement among competent headphone designers on the...

Quote: The $100 price for a brand new, unopened, warrantied cobalt HF5 (that's the same deal I got) is back again on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XP8DJC/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00 The OP should act quickly.

Quote: Yeah, superglue is perfect for that kind of thing- it's quick, strong and the item will stay fixed. I used it to fix my Ety MC5 when the vertical black piece (from which the cord emerges) broke off from the rest of the body. Worked like a charm.

Did that myself recently; my Ety HF5 and iPod Nano went through washer and drier in my pants pocket, inside their hard-shell case. The case kept them dry but the iPod (probably the battery) was killed by the drier heat. The Etys fortunately were totally unaffected except that I had to replace...

Quote: It may well be that I never got them inserted properly and they would have sounded fine if I had. I certainly wouldn't want to discourage anybody from trying any and all tips until they find some that work for them.

Quote:   I thought the MC5 sounded like #$^% with them- midrangey to the point of being a bit honky. (I haven't bothered trying them on my HF5.)

Also, I don't have huge ear canals by any means and yet the small triflanges are just too small for me to get a seal (and the attempt to get one was downright painful)- don't assume that they'll work better just because they're smaller.   There's both a learning curve (for quick, correct...

Quote: I've examined the XBA-1 though I haven't listened to it. It's not even within a country mile of being as well made as the HF5 (strain reliefs? What strain reliefs?)

Quote: If you liked the MC5 you'll love the HF5. Go for it!