When I went to bed that night, I played the Brave New World album from end to end. WOW!
And I *thought* I knew this album from end to end... I'd listened to this in bed before, with the EX70EQ and Porta Corda amp... (I'm still listening to the 4P straight out of the pcdp. But then again, from what you hear on the forum these days this might be the best configuration for the 4P anyway... will try plugging into the PC with 120 ohm adapter later on.)
To describe the increase in detail, let's just say it sounded like the mixing engineer and the band spent an extra 10 hours adding more effects and sounds into the mix
I heard cymbals where I never heard cymbals before. I heard voices where I never heard voices before. I heard extra guitars where I never heard extra guitars before. I heard tuneful bass lines where I heard rhythmic thumps before.
(from frequency sweeps I had always known that the EX70 suffered from One-Note-Bass disease to some extent. How much it suffered from this in actual music I never knew until yesterday
)
Some examples:
In track 6, when the music changed from the main 'dream in black and white' theme to the twisting, surreal 'lost' theme, I felt like my head was going into the blender with the time-space anomaly created by the music
In track 7, instrumental interlude at around 3:00, there's two parts, one single electric guitar and another guitar playing in unison with drums. In the past I'd always thought that they played in turns. Last night I realized that the first electric guitar player never stopped playing when the drums+guitar came up.
In track 8, 'the Nomad', there's a whiny high pitch sound going with the guitars at the start of the track. With the EX70, I picked it up only after several listens and thought it was something to do with how they plucked the electronic guitar; with the ER4, I realised it's a separate instrument entirely.
In track 9, I'd always known that at times there were more than one voice singing, but that's all I knew. Last night I could clearly pick out the voices one by one, when each voice joined in and went out, and I swear I could have counted how many voices there were at all times (2 or 3) if only I'd known what the mixing engineer did to them pre-production.
There were new discoveries at every turn, but that's all I can remember, but you get the idea
And all this, out of the pcdp phones out. I layed in stunned silence when the music finally stopped.
A few seconds later I pulled out the plugs and realized that I was actually lying in stunned deafening air-conditioner noise
Etymotics ER4. Go buy one already!