[d_wilson]

The ER-4's are tested on an occluded ear simulator. The Zwislocki (DB-100) coupler simulates the dimensions and impedances of a human ear. The impedance above 15kHz drops off significantly. Much of this can be attributed to canceling due to the wavelength and the diameter of the simulated ear canal.

The DB-100 is an ANSI standard ear simulator, and has a nearly identical response to the IEC711 coupler (international standard coupler). They are very close to studies of real people with measurements taken with a probe microphone at the eardrum.

The modeling of the ear gets very tricky above 15kHz. Small differences in sound source position and physical differences between people become significant.

We also only publish curves to 20Hz because that is the limit of human hearing. The ER-4 response still looks very good at that point.

We have measurements of other headphones such as the Senn HD 600, and Orpheus on the whole system with the DB100 fitted into the KEMAR mannequin. I will try to locate those curves if you want to look at how they roll off.

Don Wilson
Etymotic Research

 

[BDA_ABAT]

Just a suggestion... you seem intrigued by the Etys. You've heard (mostly) positive feedback from many folks at this site. You've checked into the specs. You've heard discussions about the merits of frequency-response graphs. But you REALLY know the only way to find out for sure if they will work for you is to TRY THEM!

Click me for Etys!

If you order from HeadRoom, you can evaluate them for 30 days. If you don't like them, back to HeadRoom they go with only the loss of shipping charges (which is a fairly modest cost in the grand scheme of things).

From your profile, it looks like you have mainly gear for at-home listening. If you are going to listen solely from a home based amp, would make sense to get the ER4S. If you at all are interested in using these portably, would make sense to get the ER4P AND the adapter cable.

Unfortunately, I went through a fair number of headphones before finally breaking down and buying the Etys. In the previous headphones I'd tried, there was always a feeling that there was something MORE available... like better quality sound was available from something else. Ety's were the cure for my headphone upgraditis. I would have a VERY difficult time trying to do without them. That's just me, YMMV.

Who knows? You may not be able to tolerate having something shoved into your ear and these cans won't work for you no matter how good they sound. But you won't be able to tell unless you try.

Good luck!
Bruce

 

[Sovkiller]

Yes Mr. Wilson please whatever you can provide me, it will be very usefull, to satisfy my curiosity and my knowledge, I'm very interested in the theme now I begin with that, if you can provide me some info curves etc.. especially with the HD600, or Sony CD3000 etc or better, or just rediret me to a website who contains thme it will be real great for me please!!!!

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by zowie I know a lot of you guys disagree with me about the bass. But I've logged a lot of hours with these and I don't think I'm going to come around on this aspect. Overall, I do like them very much.

My point wasn't to convince you that you should like them

It was just to point out that empirically, Etys don't have rolled-off bass, and that the reason many people say they lack bass is because they either aren't getting a good seal, or they don't like the lack of *visceral* bass. The former is correctable, the latter is a matter of taste

 

[Sovkiller]

Hi Bruce... to be honest this was my first intention but later on I realize two or three things, first, that headroom prices are not the best on the market to take the risk of damaging anything in the package, or them during shipping, or even during the tests and the have to keep them, on the other side, and I don't believe is an honest procedure neither, to order them through headroom knowing positively that I will return them later, by sure, cause if I like them, I can get better prices, and if I don't like I will return them anyway....

 

[darkclouds]

I doubt that you would return them. I've noticed that you've been around long enough, and have heard enough quality cans to recognize the value of the ER-4x. Don't bother with the er6 though (they kept me away from etys for awhile).

In short, grab a pair and enjoy.