[xnor]

Quote:

Hmm... Best compare it to their flagship I think. (Can you say bland, because the SE535 can! (Not that it was terrible, and I may like the odd sound if I got used to it, but it didn't click for neutrality for me, or for being musical and enjoyable... Oh, and it's like $300 ~$500.))

MC5 is about $50 on Amazon.
SE215 is about $100 on Amazon.
SE535 is aobut $450 on Amazon.
 
==> Best compare it to a similarly priced product.

 

[stevenswall]

^You are right. I was poking a bit of fun at the SE535.

 

[Spyro]

Quote:

Hmm... Best compare it to their flagship I think. (Can you say bland, because the SE535 can! (Not that it was terrible, and I may like the odd sound if I got used to it, but it didn't click for neutrality for me, or for being musical and enjoyable... Oh, and it's like $300 ~$500.))

It does seem like the chamber is doing smoothing though. The spikes are pretty mild.
 

 
Then why does MC5 sound so harsh?  Because you can't hear a chart I suppose.   SE535 mops the floor with ER4 let alone MC5.   This thread is a classic.  I'm guessing you have the MC5 about equal to JH13?

 

[xnor]

I guess because compared to the se535 it has quite a bit more energy in the very important 1 to 6 kHz area.

 

[OJNeg]

The Etymotics aren't as popular anymore because they don't have quite the bass punch that people these days like to hear. That's really the biggest complaint about them that I hear. For music (or a listener) that doesn't demand that sort of LF content, they're hard to beat.

 

[stevenswall]

Quote:

 
Then why does MC5 sound so harsh?  Because you can't hear a chart I suppose.   SE535 mops the floor with ER4 let alone MC5.   This thread is a classic.  I'm guessing you have the MC5 about equal to JH13?

 
It doesn't sound harsh to me, though compared to a warm or bass heavy sound, I can see how something that is fairly neutral would sound bright and harsh. I don't think FR charts are the last word in sound, but I do find that they often have valuable information. I'd actually say the Mc5 is about equal to a Westone UM1 that I owned for a few weeks, and that I like the sound of either one of those over the SE535 from what I can remember. The SE535 and the Ultrasone Edition 8 were the two worst things I heard at CanJam 2010. Most of the noise seemed to be blocked with the foam eartips I was using with the Shure SE535, but I suppose there could be some other factor affecting the test. I actually tried re-positioning them several times, listening to different tracks, etc., but just like the Edition 8, I was a bit shocked at the sound I was getting out of a company flagship.