[bangraman]

It probably comes down to relative experience. I have things I like but also various issues with every headphone I own/have owned... Whis is a list that doesn't fit into my profile, even if I limited it to phones over $50 and just compressed every phone name into commonly used abbreviations without punctuation or manufacturer names

These haven't been 'meet tryouts', I've actually owned and played with them for a while. Given that relative experience, I frequently find issue with people proclaiming X as the best phone... And I also take issues about people taking issues with me proclaiming X as a very good phone for the same reason

Looking at buying patterns, many people seem to make the 'leap of faith' from relatively bad phones to the Etys as their first big purchase and proclaim them the best phones they've heard... So they must be the best, right? Well... that's not that good a point of reference, don't you think?


One of the things preventing me from giving the E5 the total thumbs up is that I'm still not convinced of the whole in-ear concept. I think it's cumbersome and inconvenient for general portable use. Fine on planes or long trips, pretty hopeless anywhere else. There's also problems with the tips which I might or might not be able to cure.


Procuring and comparing the Etys will be interesting even if only for the sake of curiousity. If I can be guaranteed a pass-on buyer in the UK should I decide to sell it, I can certainly compare the two in a controlled environment.

 

[AdamZuf]

Quote:

Originally posted by bangraman One of the things preventing me from giving the E5 the total thumbs up is that I'm still not convinced of the whole in-ear concept. I think it's cumbersome and inconvenient for general portable use. Fine on planes or long trips, pretty hopeless anywhere else. There's also problems with the tips which I might or might not be able to cure.

i wouldn't want to walk in a dangerous neighborhood with phones that stand up to the quality of the ety's..
and you get absoloutly no looks from other people, that's great.
you're not disturbing anyone that seats next to you in the bus..

well..my er-4p ain't here yet...maybe i'll change my mind later

 

[king896]

In my opinion as one of the few and relatively new owners of the E5's are that they are more geared to sound as speakers then headphone. This might sound a little strange but I have used my $500 Klipsch 5.1 speaker system for around 2 years, and the E5's compare to them more then the other inear phones I have used such as the E1's and E2's. Imo the ety's are more of a headphone designed to give the user a extremely detailed and intimate relationship to the music, while the E5's try to capture the feel of a stereo system. While to price of the E5's are extremely high, you can go on to eBay and see numerous sales adds the have prices in the 300$ instead of the retail price of 500$.

I am not saying the E5 is better then the ety's, but in my opinion they are trying to accomplish different things.

Ps. The fact that the ety’s use the triple flanged tip, does not give it any advantages to the E5’s because you can just buy one from the shure store for 10 bucks.

Pss. haha post count doesn't matter, i have been a memeber for almost a year, and been a lerker for almost 2 years

 

[maler23]

I had a question about the silicone tips for the ety's. Are they totally squishable? As in, if i wanted to, could i reshape them into a starfish or are they just firm rubber tips? I only ask because my only experience with silicone earplugs were these little balls of silicone that could be smooshed into any shape. They were quite comfortable. I liked the fact that you could mush them against your ear and the seal created was more the entire opening of the ear canal being blocked rather than having to mash foam plugs deep into my ear canal.(not sure if that made sense) Visually, it ended up looking like a hearing aid more than a piece of foam stuffed into my ears.(not sure if that helps either)

Anyways...

If that were the case, I might actually reconsider the ety's.

 

[usc goose]

Quote:

Originally posted by maler23 I had a question about the silicone tips for the ety's. Are they totally squishable? As in, if i wanted to, could i reshape them into a starfish or are they just firm rubber tips?

not squishable at all actually. the silicone tips are kind of like that material that suction cups are made out of. bendable but not shapable. the other tips are foam like those ear plug type things you were talking about. you could always get custom earpieces made though which kind of sounds like your cup of tea.

 

[D-EJ915]

My dad just picked up some Game Informers from the library, and on page 136 of the July issue, I see: Etymotic ER-6 'phones, I'm like WOW, haha, I thought it was cool.

 

[troublemaker]

i would say they probably are............

 

[pingles]

I bought some Etymotic ER4-P earphones about a week or so ago now (arrived the day of the London blackout.. had to wait extra long to get home and try them out!)

I've been using them on my commute into and out of town every day since, as well as a few hours throughout the day in the office. I've been very impressed, although some have criticised lack of bass, I'd say that it provides accurate levels of bass. On certain recordings (I've got some old Jazz and 'nu-jazz' stuff on there) the bass is there, it just doesn't make your head-shake

The thing I was most impressed with was just the overall clarity, and separation. You can actually distinguish between separate instruments, even to the point of hearing the strings touched before they vibrate and provide the sound. That was cool.

I was also considering buying the Shure E5 earphones. I'm now getting itchy and really wanna give them a go to see how they compare. Maybe it's just me wanting to buy stuff

Incidentally, they're being powered by my 30gig iPod. I was a little concerned that the E5s wouldn't power my volume capped iPod successfully. Since then I've found a way of upping the volume (XPlay... essential piece of software).

 

[Vertigo-1]

Quote:

Originally posted by MadDog There's no reason for me to belittle ety or e5 just because I no longer have them. I still do believe er-4s is a greatest soudning phone with absolulte clarity/accuracy but to me there's no punch. I enjoy listening to techno, trance, hip-hop, rap, down tempo and other genre needing tremandous low-freq bass response with a substantial impact during the workout, but I felt I was missing out on those with ety. SUBJECTIVELY, that was the most critical drawback of ety which I have failed to overcome (much more serious than microphonics and ergonomic).

I agree that Etys tend to lack bass decay, or the extended "thruuuummmm" that you can hear or feel in full sized headphones. You can improve the punch somewhat through the use of a more beefy amp, or by inserting them more deeply in the ear. While quite uncomfortable, I do tend to get the best bass response when the Etys are really deep in my ears, using the rubber tips.

 

[pingles]

Definitely. I started using the silicon things, but for comfort decided that I'd try the foam ones -- it was quite painful inserting and removing all the time, once they were in it was fine though. In the end, I found they didn't have to go in so far to sound good.

About a day or two ago I found that I could put the foamies in further and I swear they sound better as a result. I'm quite tempted to buy the Xin Mini amp with a built-in ER4P-S converter to leave on my desk here at work. Only down-side is that I'd have to get a new iPod dock to use the line-out. Arse.

So a portable amp and E5's, that's what I wanna buy next

 

[bangraman]

pingles,

The E5 would be ear-blastingly loud even with the European limited iPod. I'm powering the E5 off a device which outputs only 5mw into 16 ohms, and the volume is usually at about 40%. I have serious doubts about the listener retaining any sense of hearing at all with a de-restricted iPod, especially if he unsuspectingly had the volume set high and pressed play.


If you have clean ears, disinfect your silicon tips and can spare a disposable foam tip for your Etys, I can return the favour with the E5 and we can meet up in central London somewhere. If you're interested, best to leave it until I've had a chance to buy a Koss Plug to make more of the squidgy tips.

 

[lindrone]

The concern with E5 not being "powered" enough is really not the loudness... anything past 50% to 60% volume even on an iPod will likely blow your eardrums off to oblivion (remember to use that 'hold' button when it's in your pocket).

However, when the E5 isn't getting enough power, it doesn't reach its complete dynamic range. It will still produce killer sound, but think of it like having a HD-580 in the size of a canal phone.. HD-580 with an inadequate source and amp sounds like crap

E5 doesn't sound like crap, but it certainly doesn't sound much better than the Ety's without proper source. The $500 that E5 costs gives you the potential to reach higher level sound with the proper equipment, whether or not you can get there with a single portable source is another matter.

While using a Sony D-25S in combination with a super mini amp... the sound quality of the E5 quickly approaches a HD-580 or a SR225 paired up with the Gilmore V2... Not quite there, but it gets close. Yes, I've tried all those personally. The HD-580 and SR225 will still give you a better tonal range, more expanded bass, and much bigger soundstage... but for a canalphone, this is as good as it gets.

I agree with the previous statement.. Ety's seemed to be made for an intimate headphone environment.. while E5 is trying to reproduce the same sound that much bigger headphones, or even speakers can produce. The design of the E5 definitely has a different goal in mind...

It's not an efficient headphone by any means... but it doesn't sound any worse than any of the Ety's when it's not being powered properly... And it has the potential to be much better.

When it comes down to it, it's like picking between a SR225 and a HD-580... a matter of preference and aesthetics... (oh yeah, and price....).

 

[Orpheus]

there are also these 2 in-ear's that cost 3x more than the ety's:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...light=etymotic

 

[durang]

I've had the Etymotic ER-4S for about 4 years. Previously I've had everything from Grados to Stax Lambdas.

For me the ER-4S is my favorite because:

-the sound is excellent
-the noise isolation is excellent
-I don't bother people around me (at work or while travelling)
-they are the most comfortable phones I've ever had

Earlier this year one of the stems broke off and Etymotic replaced it VERY promptly and at no charge.

To be honest I don't use headphones at home very often so I'm only talking about "portable" use.

If you don't want extreme noise isolation or your ears are just not a good match for canal phones then the Etys are not a good choice for you. Otherwise I recommend them very highly.

 

[Vitalstatistix]

The etys really put the music into your head.