[flipper]

I went on a buying binge and ended up with a pair o Ety er-4ps, the Sony EX70s, and the Senn MX500s. I plug one in, listen, unuplug, plug in the next, and listen again, hoping to hear differences. Trouble is, by the time #2 is in my ears, I've forgotten what the freak #1 sounded like. Some pickle, hey?
By now I've listened to my favorite song -- Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun -- so many times with the three headphones that I'm beginning to hate it. Bummer.
So, how do you do it? Right now, I'm favoring the Senns over the Ety, if only because I think the bass is better. But I do like the Ety -- though I'm trying to figure out whether I like it enuf to keep it, instead of sending it back to headroom for a refund.
Suggestions, anyone?

 

[erikiksaz]

If it's your first time using the Etys, make sure you're getting a good seal. Otherwise, i usually listen to a song for a good 2-3 mins before i switch headphones. And test out one headphone at a time! Do AB tests, not ABC tests

I think that if you listen to the mx500/ex70 first, then switch to the Etys, you should notice a huge difference. In comparison, i thought the mx500's were crap compared to my Etys. If you can't discern between the three, maybe the problem is your source or your music.

 

[AIM9x]

kind of hard to do an A/B using the etys... gotta get the seal right and all that other fun stuff.

 

[Tim D]

ABing is a poor way to evaluate Ety's due to insertion and removals. You will however learn one downside of the Ety's this way doing this which is in fact the tendency to have poor seals the more you fiddle with insertion and removal. Of course you would only recognize a poor seal by having a good one.

Also Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun is nice and all, but a recording that only stresses a few qualities. One of Ety's strength is how they handle a large variety of music, which of course isn't going to be recognized by ABing one song over and over either.

Finally there is acclimation time with Ety's, and again you're ruining it everytime you are swapping. Try listening to each phone on a long-term basis.

ABing also has a lot of flawed assumptions. The belief that you are hearing only the differences of the phones by thinking you are keeping all other variables the same. This is ignorant as music is dynamic and time is an often ignored variable and the fact that not only is music a dynamic entity, but so are you. Your ears aren't a recording machine, and the 10th time you've listened to something may not sound like the 1st time you've listened to it. Instead try evaluating over long term and you get a wider selection of recordings and an indication of how the phones would perform under regular listening behavior.

I've grown to be quite discriminating of things...I find ABing was something I used to do when I wasn't as experienced in discriminating.