Future Sonic "Ears" -- anyone try them?

[RuizWave]

If you guys are curious, I just received my pair of Future Sonics Ears. I'll be burning them in tonight. I'll do my best to describe what I hear, particularly in comparison to the etys. Time to see if I'm a pioneer or guinea pig

I'll also put in a 4th nomination for a MacDEF review

 

[williamgoody]

Make it a fifth for Macdef...........with feeling.

Warm.......color the sound ? No way.

 

[Robster1958]

glad to have ignited a little controversy....

thanks Roadogin for your comments: at least for me, "live" is what i'm after...as far as things like imaging and dynamics are concerned. i think in the mids to highs, we are dealing with subtleties and subjectivity (not to mention hearing acuity!) among better headphones. tonal/pitch accuracy per se is probaly not a problem. on the low end however, most tiny things roll off considerably....and the term "punch" is lacking...and forget about "slam".

at least for me Ruiz, i am anxiously awaiting your initial impressions.

i hate to sound redundant, but i'd also like to see MacDEF analyze these. i am more than happy to defer to him with Mr. Garcia's offer to me. (although you will probably not be allowed to disect them to get return privilege

 

[Robster1958]

RUIZ...........anything?????????

 

[RuizWave]

Sorry about the delay guys... trying to balance out homework/school/work/etc. I did just get them yesterday

Just quickly I'll say my initial impression was 'my god that's a lot of bass, and what happened to the treble.' Also the bass doesn't sound that clean. The etys definitely don't sound "warm" in comparison to these, quite the opposite. There is more to say, hopefully I'll get to adding something tomorrow night. I'll continue to burn them in just in case that makes a difference - however the verdict doesn't look good. Until tomorrow...

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I guess the difference could be because they are designed for on-stage monitoring, when you may have a kick drum behind you?

Also, I wonder how singers are supposed to monitor with these. Think about the occlusion effect

 

[roadogin]

Remember that in a live situation, you are "dialing in" what you want to hear(at least the monitor engineer is supposed to). The Ears provide great vocal sounds on stage - especially larger stages - where phase issues can be a problem. I have rolled off a touch of the low end but it is far better to have it there so that you don't have to "push" the volume for bottom when things get loud and those frequencies might cancel out. I think that is where some people try to push and hurt their ears. Some of that is lost when in a wireless world so it's great to have it. For what they are, they don't sound flat, they sound right. If you are trying these things, I might suggest using a live recording so that to some extent you get a more relative sampling. I love how sax players and drums (yea, that kick drum thing is great!) sound in these things. I have some DAT recordings off the board that sound incredible in these things if I do say so myself<g>.

I don't think that these are designed to be an audiophile piece but, when listening side-by-side to similar live products, I just love 'em. My ears aren't trashed either and I have always taken great care. I like to think that is why I get the work <g>.

I'm not here to defend them, I just like them and even more when I hear them after another similar type thing. If I'm jamming something in my head, this is going to be it until I hear something I like more.

I'm hoping to get to see these guys at the next trade show coming up. I'll post anything new I find out.
Aaron

 

[roadogin]

For singers the occlusion or rejection of peripheral sound can actually increase the self-awareness of the so called head voice. Maybe you've seen singer stick a finger in their own ear to hear better from lousy wedge monitors? Ambience in a "room" with several sources of sound at once can be a bad thing but is really subjective. I am working with a group now that likes more ambience but under their control so we actually fly a couple of mics for crowd feel. The more open internal products tend to sound awful and empty no matter what you dial in since frequencies can drop out or get lost from phase or when equal frequencies meet according to the bands.

Aaron

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Hmm, most interesting... but I'm still curious why you'd call etymotics 'warm' relative to the Ears... do you think the Ears have less midrange than the etys?

[quoteIn my opinion, Future Sonics has a response more designed for live use and has a cleaner separation and much more present low end without sounding like a speaker.
[/quote]

So you don't want your phones to sound like speakers? May I ask why? We all want our phones to sound like speakers

 

[balcar]

as roadogin points out:

Quote:

in a live situation, you are "dialing in" what you want to hear(at least the monitor engineer is supposed to). The Ears provide great vocal sounds on stage

I think that's the major difference between the Ears and the Etys.

I've owned Etymotic ER-4S for several years, and really LOVE them. I've looked curiously (and somewhat longingly) at the Future Sonics ads and wondered how good they were, but realized that they are designed for live performance monitoring, and probably were a different animal.

 

[Tim D]

I think this discussion has gone to an end...I mean it is basically the issue of reviewing the Ear's secondary usage as boasted by those ipod/Mac reviews. This is not very different from people buying DJ phones as listening phones and thinking they are great listening phones because they have not listened to much else (or they are still decent for a very small niche of music). I'm not questioning the Ear's price/performance within their primary usage...I am sure they are great in that regard.

If you compare a product with all its R&D as a listening phone for playing back your music, to a different product that clearly is for live stage use, than as I suspected there isn't going to be any contest. The Ety's have already established such high performance in their own product class, that I question why anyone would think that a cheaper product would outperform it in its *secondary* usage thinking the grass is greener or just very wishful thinking? I obviously like my Ety's and have absolute piece of mind that if there was a product competing within in the same class, we would know about it by now. And if there was a better upcoming product I would honestly expect it to be boasted by Etymotic if by anyone. Of course thanks to Ruiz for trying them out and giving a more complete account of these phones.

It takes more than random reviews on the net to pique my interest...you will find plenty of random reviews claiming the superiority of Sony V600's, B&O A8's, Bose Tripholes etc...

 

[Onix]

They look like KOSS's "The Plug" with gold paint and Chu Moy's modification. In fact, if you write Optimus on them they look exactly like the last pair I had.

 

[roadogin]

re: "warm" and just to clarify (and I agree that this thread is nearly a full sweater now

, I am specifically talking about the 200Hz - 320Hz area where some low mid tones can get a little "muddy." Something that needs to be there but just right for vocals and certain percussion and horns, etc..

Aaron