Pepzhez
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2002
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My Ety Saga continues (kind of long) ...
First things first. My Ety ER-4P's arrived this afternoon. All in all, 24 hours between placing the web order and me plugging these phones in. Amazing. I had read a few negative comments at this forum concerning HeadRoom's service, but I have to say I am impressed. This was my first (and definitely not the last) dealing with HeadRoom. So they definitely pass with flying colors and will get my future business. Score one for HeadRoom.
This is also the first pair of Ety's I've ever owned. I never cared much for either portable audio or headphones, to be honest about it. For the work I do in the recording studio and in film sound, I tend to regard the use of phones as a necessary evil above all else. For music listening, I'm more than happy with my Krell amp and B&W speaker setup at home. The other (home use)headphones I've owned were unacceptable to me: AKG K280's were too imposing (both physically and sonically) and far too fatiguing to listen to for more than 10 minutes. The Grado SR-60's I bought for portable use sound too harsh and are so damn uncomfortable that they've done nothing but sit in the drawer for a year. (And, yes, I did try the "comfy pads". They're not.)
So what about the Ety's? I had been curious about them for over a year now, based on what I had read. The clincher for me came a few months ago. I was on a flight from London and the woman sitting next to me had a MD player and a pair of Ety ER-6's. This was the first time I had actually seen a pair of Ety's in the flesh, and she graciously allowed me to listen to them. From that moment on, I knew I would have to buy some Ety's.
In previous posts over the last week or two, I was trying to decide between the 4S and the 4P. I finally decided on the 4P for maximum versatility: unamped portable use mostly for long flights; soon I will buy a headphone amp and 4P > 4S adapter cable for home use (perhaps I will consider a portable headphone amp too, we'll see). (Again, thanks to everyone at Head-Fi for answering my questions and helping me decide.)
So here are my initial impressions of the Ety 4P's.
It will take a bit of practice to learn how to insert and seal properly, but that obviously comes with time. My initial tests seem to indicate that the black foam tips seal easier, but this is probably due to my inexperience with using Ety's (we're talking one afternoon!)
As for the sonics, wow! I'm testing on my two portables (Sony J-E721 pcdp and Sharp MD SR50), the headphone out from my MD deck (Sony ES-555), headphone out from my pro MD recorder (HHB MDP500), and - for the hell of it, because they're there - headphone out from my two computers (Apple Macintosh G4 tower and iMac G3). What was so surprising to me is that I was not expecting to be impressed at all using any headphone unamped, direct from the headphone jacks from the two portables. Was I wrong! The bass extension is impossibly deep (it goes without saying that any and all "mega bass" extensions are permanently turned OFF) and the highs are soaring, if a tad - and I mean a tiny tad - too bright at times (burn-in will take care of that, I'm certain).
But it's the midrange that is truly breathtaking, a FULL-dimensioned presence which gives even my B&W speakers a good run for their money. Unbelievable, but true. (When I was allowed to hear the Ety ER-6's, the mids, though impressive, were nothing like they are on the ER-4. This must be the essential difference between the two Ety lines, I am sure.)
Now keep in mind that I am talking about listening to cheap portables with no external headphone amp! I can't imagine how these would sound with a decent portable headphone amp. (But hope to find out soon.)
The biggest surprise, so far, was the quality of sound from the Apple computers. I've never bothered to plug in a pair of phones into the stock Apple jacks, figuring they'd be a compromised piece of crap, ala PC's. Very wrong assumption! I can assure you that Apple provides a more than decent headphone out on their machines (far surpassing that of mid-priced portable electronics). A surprise to me, anyway. Not sure that I'll ever have much use for this feature, but it's nice to know it's there.
But to really open up the Ety sound, I went to my Sony ES MD deck and the HHB MD recorder. The HHB, which I use for location film sound recording and occasional music recording, is really too large and hefty to be considered a portable player (weighing in around 3 lbs.). But it does have a very beefy and high quality headphone amp - putting out 15mW. I don't have the specs at hand for the Sony ES deck, but I would guess its headphone amp is of similar quality. Here the Ety's sound amazingly transparent and, well, just gorgeous! There is zero discoloration that I can identify anywhere in the sound spectrum; the mids are so lifelike it's almost eerie. I do wonder if the ER-4S is better suited to these machines, but I'll be getting the adapter cable soon enough in order to find out.
The Ety's are comfortable and non-fatiguing, something I was convinced was not really possible for headphones, period. These phones are something that I am going to make tremendous use out of for a long while to come.
OK, a rather long and hopefully not too boring initial assessment. As an overworked/underpaid grad student, the Ety's did set me back a bit, but it was well worth it. And I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of sound I am getting from all of my sources, which makes me very happy in that I do not feel that I have a compelling need to shell out money that I don't have at the moment for a headphone amp. Yes, that will come in time, but for the moment, I am EXTREMELY pleased with the situation.
Once again, amazingly prompt service from HeadRoom and very informative and helpful advice from Head-Fi. Thanks all!
First things first. My Ety ER-4P's arrived this afternoon. All in all, 24 hours between placing the web order and me plugging these phones in. Amazing. I had read a few negative comments at this forum concerning HeadRoom's service, but I have to say I am impressed. This was my first (and definitely not the last) dealing with HeadRoom. So they definitely pass with flying colors and will get my future business. Score one for HeadRoom.
This is also the first pair of Ety's I've ever owned. I never cared much for either portable audio or headphones, to be honest about it. For the work I do in the recording studio and in film sound, I tend to regard the use of phones as a necessary evil above all else. For music listening, I'm more than happy with my Krell amp and B&W speaker setup at home. The other (home use)headphones I've owned were unacceptable to me: AKG K280's were too imposing (both physically and sonically) and far too fatiguing to listen to for more than 10 minutes. The Grado SR-60's I bought for portable use sound too harsh and are so damn uncomfortable that they've done nothing but sit in the drawer for a year. (And, yes, I did try the "comfy pads". They're not.)
So what about the Ety's? I had been curious about them for over a year now, based on what I had read. The clincher for me came a few months ago. I was on a flight from London and the woman sitting next to me had a MD player and a pair of Ety ER-6's. This was the first time I had actually seen a pair of Ety's in the flesh, and she graciously allowed me to listen to them. From that moment on, I knew I would have to buy some Ety's.
In previous posts over the last week or two, I was trying to decide between the 4S and the 4P. I finally decided on the 4P for maximum versatility: unamped portable use mostly for long flights; soon I will buy a headphone amp and 4P > 4S adapter cable for home use (perhaps I will consider a portable headphone amp too, we'll see). (Again, thanks to everyone at Head-Fi for answering my questions and helping me decide.)
So here are my initial impressions of the Ety 4P's.
It will take a bit of practice to learn how to insert and seal properly, but that obviously comes with time. My initial tests seem to indicate that the black foam tips seal easier, but this is probably due to my inexperience with using Ety's (we're talking one afternoon!)
As for the sonics, wow! I'm testing on my two portables (Sony J-E721 pcdp and Sharp MD SR50), the headphone out from my MD deck (Sony ES-555), headphone out from my pro MD recorder (HHB MDP500), and - for the hell of it, because they're there - headphone out from my two computers (Apple Macintosh G4 tower and iMac G3). What was so surprising to me is that I was not expecting to be impressed at all using any headphone unamped, direct from the headphone jacks from the two portables. Was I wrong! The bass extension is impossibly deep (it goes without saying that any and all "mega bass" extensions are permanently turned OFF) and the highs are soaring, if a tad - and I mean a tiny tad - too bright at times (burn-in will take care of that, I'm certain).
But it's the midrange that is truly breathtaking, a FULL-dimensioned presence which gives even my B&W speakers a good run for their money. Unbelievable, but true. (When I was allowed to hear the Ety ER-6's, the mids, though impressive, were nothing like they are on the ER-4. This must be the essential difference between the two Ety lines, I am sure.)
Now keep in mind that I am talking about listening to cheap portables with no external headphone amp! I can't imagine how these would sound with a decent portable headphone amp. (But hope to find out soon.)
The biggest surprise, so far, was the quality of sound from the Apple computers. I've never bothered to plug in a pair of phones into the stock Apple jacks, figuring they'd be a compromised piece of crap, ala PC's. Very wrong assumption! I can assure you that Apple provides a more than decent headphone out on their machines (far surpassing that of mid-priced portable electronics). A surprise to me, anyway. Not sure that I'll ever have much use for this feature, but it's nice to know it's there.
But to really open up the Ety sound, I went to my Sony ES MD deck and the HHB MD recorder. The HHB, which I use for location film sound recording and occasional music recording, is really too large and hefty to be considered a portable player (weighing in around 3 lbs.). But it does have a very beefy and high quality headphone amp - putting out 15mW. I don't have the specs at hand for the Sony ES deck, but I would guess its headphone amp is of similar quality. Here the Ety's sound amazingly transparent and, well, just gorgeous! There is zero discoloration that I can identify anywhere in the sound spectrum; the mids are so lifelike it's almost eerie. I do wonder if the ER-4S is better suited to these machines, but I'll be getting the adapter cable soon enough in order to find out.
The Ety's are comfortable and non-fatiguing, something I was convinced was not really possible for headphones, period. These phones are something that I am going to make tremendous use out of for a long while to come.
OK, a rather long and hopefully not too boring initial assessment. As an overworked/underpaid grad student, the Ety's did set me back a bit, but it was well worth it. And I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of sound I am getting from all of my sources, which makes me very happy in that I do not feel that I have a compelling need to shell out money that I don't have at the moment for a headphone amp. Yes, that will come in time, but for the moment, I am EXTREMELY pleased with the situation.
Once again, amazingly prompt service from HeadRoom and very informative and helpful advice from Head-Fi. Thanks all!
