[Max Choiral]

That may be true for some primarily Asian market focused models (an unnatural sounding, often exaggerated W-shape with thin upper mids seems to be preffered), but I would definitely not say that it's the general case - more of the opposite in my experience, with most manufacturers going for a much safer tuning in the upper mids that is a good bit milder and has got much less open ear gain compensation in the presence range/upper mids, resulting in a relaxed and inoffensive to even dark/somewhat lacking upper midrange.

Ah, seems like there is a little misunderstanding. What I meant was range which marked in your thread as "middle treble" & "upper treble".

 

[Ronion]

I don’t know if you’ve tried the dual flange, but they essentially disappear in my ear—sonically too.

 

[491838]

Isn't it the opposite? Most solutions have too much upper mid energy which makes sound of snare drum & cymbals piercing for me.
My conclusion leads to this. Asian market is primary target for premium iems and as far as I know, its audience loves tuning with upper mids emphasis.

Yeah, the Thieaudio Monarch that I owned for a while had an issue like that with a slightly peaky 8K region (which made it sound a bit more spacious compared to the ER4) but it was nowhere near piercing. It did sound fairly sterile because it had that 10K dip (minus 3-4 dB) and bass boost primarily focused on sub bass. The midrange tuning was nice, a lot like the ER3 which I think is the most correct sounding ER IEM except for the lack of treble.

The ER4 and ER2 sound a bit honky/shouty at 2K. The ER3 does not. At least not significantly. The mids actually remind me of Beyerdynamic mids but without the treble sharpness obviously.

 

[CK Moustache]

Ah, seems like there is a little misunderstanding. What I meant was range which marked in your thread as "middle treble" & "upper treble".

Ah, yeah, indeed, this area is elevated fairly often. While it does make sense in a way (equal loudness contour curve; loudness compensation) and while I don't mind that for recreational non-neutral music listening (as I listen at much lower volume level than most people anyway), it's true that it can be tricky to get the elevation high enough to avoid a metallic impact yet low enough to not make overtones appear too unnatural. In my experience, a narrow elevation around 8 kHz or 9 kHz is usually the sweet spot where the added brightness is only perceived as an accentuation without skewing the timbre. Problems can however occur when there are any other additional side-band elevations below or above that one. But if placed tastefully and not overdone, it can sound pleasant (and add significantly to the perceived soundstage size and perceived clarity (aside from actual micro detail resolution)).

 

[twiceboss]

haven't been this long waiting for May

 

[antdroid]

Thank you all for the Ety insertion tips, a bit x-rated and surprisingly nobody suggested k-y , but I might have to revisit it!

If anything, this just confirms how different our ear anatomy is. What works for some doesn't for everybody, thus, again, it is always great to have a choice when it comes to the shell design. Kuddos to Ety!

actually, oto-ease/oto-gel does help.

 

[candysound]

haven't been this long waiting for May

Feel ya ,We can do with some updates from etymotic now.

 

[AnyDave]

Feel ya ,We can do with some updates from etymotic now.

Still May.

 

[AnyDave]

haven't been this long waiting for May

Believe it or not, I'm getting a bit impatient, too. I can't wait to get them out there.

 

[miserybeforethemusic]

Believe it or not, I'm getting a bit impatient, too. I can't wait to get them out there.

We're eagerly awaiting with you. Can't wait to see how this all ended up coming together. Have to admit, it's been fun feeling like we're involved with the development from your updates. I really wish to see more of this happen here because I learn a ton.

Maybe I missed it earlier, but are you able to share what decisions were made regarding driver venting? I have some pairs here that, due to their DD vent location and my ear anatomy, usually end up with one vent coupled to free air and the other to my helix. Curious to see how that factors with the EVO, if at all.

 

[AnyDave]

We're eagerly awaiting with you. Can't wait to see how this all ended up coming together. Have to admit, it's been fun feeling like we're involved with the development from your updates. I really wish to see more of this happen here because I learn a ton.

Maybe I missed it earlier, but are you able to share what decisions were made regarding driver venting? I have some pairs here that, due to their DD vent location and my ear anatomy, usually end up with one vent coupled to free air and the other to my helix. Curious to see how that factors with the EVO, if at all.

The Evos aren't vented to the outside world, so you shouldn't run into that issue.

 

[Duplicitous]

Still May.

Awesome! Here's hoping.

Do you know if a frequency response graph will be available prior to launch?

 

[CK Moustache]

I have some pairs here that, due to their DD vent location and my ear anatomy, usually end up with one vent coupled to free air and the other to my helix.

Then you're also experiencing quite a bit of imbalance in the low frequencies on those IEMs, with the side the vent is blocked on outputting (sometimes much) more (sub-) bass than the other. In your case, I'd recommend blocking the vents (with tape or modelling clay) altogether.

On a personal note, I really don't like it when IEM manufacturers place the dynamic drivers' front cavity vents on the shells' inner halves as this will obviously lead to different people experiencing way different bass quantity due to whether the vents are naturally blocked when the IEMs are placed in their ears or not. Some manufacturers deal with that by relocating the front cavity vents either towards the sides or the faceplates (which is definitely not that trivial, but some have done it (e.g. Sennheiser on the IE 8/80/80S)) where one would usually expect the dynamic drivers' rear cavity vent.

 

[SXero]

Awesome! Here's hoping.

Do you know if a frequency response graph will be available prior to launch?

EtyDave mentioned earlier that such a FR graph will stay ER4-specific.

 

[sndp]

EtyDave mentioned earlier that such a FR graph will stay ER4-specific.

That was for the channel-matching compliance graph. I'm guessing @Duplicitous is asking about a preview of the EVO FR, to get a sense of what it might sound like.