[Max Choiral]

Double flange sound the same as the big triple flange to me but with less isolation. The muffled sound is part of the tuning though. The ER4 has slightly too relaxed treble with an additional dip at 6-7K.

Edit: Even still I found that the ER4 has much better clarity in the treble compared to the HD800 because it doesn't have any peaks to speak of so you can hear all detail pretty much equally well. HD800 was too sharp and had too distracting upper treble.

Just admit already that you're treblehead

 

[carmatic]

unfortunately, after a few hours of listening to them, this is my perception ...sorry for the unprofessional sketch, i dont have access to my main computer right now, so i cant do any frequency sweep measurements
the same situation as my old ER4XR's and ER3XR's, noticable bass imbalance below the matched frequency range... and here I was thinking that the SR's will avoid the problems of the XR's, or if that was not the case, at least I was hoping to have a better luck of the draw

anyone interested in a slightly used pair of ER4SR's ...? will not include foam tips, tore the cores from the foam while trying to detach the drivers from the cable to swap them around

 

[491838]

Sounds like you have an imperfect seal in one of your ears. It can throw off the channel balance by quite a bit.

 

[magicalmouse]

Does anyone know where to source the double flange tips and the pack of different filters in the UK?

thanks

d

 

[LIVE_EVIL]

Hi everyone,
less than a month ago I got ER2XR and "I think" I am having an issue with them.
The other time I was watching this video:
For some reason these produce some sort of screeching echo, also perceived as metallic buzz in one of the channels, after certain words. If it was both channels at the same time I would not be concerned. This is very prominent after around 40th second.
I tried the same video with ER4S and it is very clear, no weird sounds.

Could anyone confirm whether they have the same issues in this video or I am just imagining things?

I used Fiio Olympus 2 (left channel affected) and LH GeekOut 450 with the same effect. It was observable on LG B9 TV headphone out as well.

P.S. tested now and it seems that this might be amp dependent, maybe even laptop dependent (these are usb ports on thinkpad t450)

So I tested ER2XR with Gustard H10. Cracking is there even at quite low levels in botch channels with some "tubbiness". So it is clear that my pair developed a fault .

 

[carmatic]

Sounds like you have an imperfect seal in one of your ears. It can throw off the channel balance by quite a bit.

thats why i mentioned swapping the drivers, thankfully the cable is detachable so that it is possible to have an objective test by exchanging the drivers between the channels
so its not my amp or my own ears, because the left and right side cables stay on the left and right side respectively
and its not the seal in my ear because i've tried it with the foam tips and the silicon tips

the 009 driver definitely has more bass than the 927 driver

 

[491838]

Just admit already that you're treblehead

This comment made me rethink my impressions and I went back to the big double flange tips. Let me tell you that I noticed a while ago that the foam tips (shallowest insertion depth) had terrific clarity but sounded sharp (dip at 8-9K moved down and caused some sibilance). The big double flanges bridge that gap between the muddy triple flanges and the super clear foams and the balance is essentially the graph. Awesome clarity akin to the HD800 but with no grain. 2K is still a bit shouty but not as annoying as the HD800 treble issues.

Edit: I recommend videos like this one to evaluate the clarity in the treble. Some of the sounds in this one startled me lol. Spectacular performance on binaural recordings on the ER4.

 

[carmatic]

So I tested ER2XR with Gustard H10. Cracking is there even at quite low levels in botch channels with some "tubbiness". So it is clear that my pair developed a fault .

my very first pair of ER4XR's had a crackling distortion in one of the drivers when any bass is passed through it, somehow it passed quality control! the shipping back to Etymotic cost almost half the price of buying them in the first place
the replacement which came back had no distortion, because it had no bass response on one of the drivers ! technically both sets are within spec because the frequencies above 100hz match between the drivers

 

[ClieOS]

my very first pair of ER4XR's had a crackling distortion in one of the drivers when any bass is passed through it, somehow it passed quality control! the shipping back to Etymotic cost almost half the price of buying them in the first place
the replacement which came back had no distortion, because it had no bass response on one of the drivers ! technically both sets are within spec because the frequencies above 100hz match between the drivers

It is almost unbelievable on how unlucky your are when it comes to IEM with channel balance issue, but also beg the question on whether it is really the IEM or it is something else. But given how much effort and money you have spent on finding the perfect IEM, I would suggest you ask @jude on whether you can send your pair of Etymotic to him for a measurement with his shiny new B&K 5128, which is by far the most accurate measurement headphone equipment to date.

 

[491838]

Yeah, I bought the 3XR, 4XR, and 4SR and had no such issues but full size headphones have always had balance issues to me. Really sad to hear that can happen on Etymotic stuff too.

 

[LIVE_EVIL]

my very first pair of ER4XR's had a crackling distortion in one of the drivers when any bass is passed through it, somehow it passed quality control! the shipping back to Etymotic cost almost half the price of buying them in the first place
the replacement which came back had no distortion, because it had no bass response on one of the drivers ! technically both sets are within spec because the frequencies above 100hz match between the drivers

I can feel your pain. I have er4s which developed this issue with cracking after a year over 10 years ago. It was fixed free of charge but took like 3 months (nearly went mental waiting then).

Yesterday I made a cheap cable for my ER4S and it effectively became ER4P.

So now I have ER4S and ER4P in one.

Now I do wonder if I should just get refund for my ER2XR or get a replacement pair... I do think that ER2XR bleed a bit in midrange, meaning that bass does mask midrange a bit on them, which is not that great.

 

[carmatic]

It is almost unbelievable on how unlucky your are when it comes to IEM with channel balance issue, but also beg the question on whether it is really the IEM or it is something else. But given how much effort and money you have spent on finding the perfect IEM, I would suggest you ask @jude on whether you can send your pair of Etymotic to him for a measurement with his shiny new B&K 5128, which is by far the most accurate measurement headphone equipment to date.

What is unbelievable to me is that I seem to be the only person who is not happy with the lack of balance in the bass response between drivers? Can nobody else simply hear the difference in bass levels between their left and right ears?
With my current set of ER4SR's , I could immediately hear the 042009 driver's increased bass response, and I initially chalked it up to just bad fitment and seal
But after swapping the drivers around more than a dozen times ( and accidentally destroying the foam tips in the process because I was pushing the drivers back on via the tips) and trying all the tips which fit me, it can no longer be denied

 

[castleofargh]

I think that over time, we went through pretty much all the possible scenarios with @carmatic and I have slowly(VERY slowly) come to believe that he simply does have some particular sensitivity to low end imbalance.
As to the reason why? that's a mystery to me. Did a radioactive elephant bite him? Is he a space invader blowing his cover unknowingly? Are some people just more sensitive to that(I know I'm not)? 3 almost equally valid hypotheses. ^_^

 

[chinmie]

What is unbelievable to me is that I seem to be the only person who is not happy with the lack of balance in the bass response between drivers? Can nobody else simply hear the difference in bass levels between their left and right ears?
With my current set of ER4SR's , I could immediately hear the 042009 driver's increased bass response, and I initially chalked it up to just bad fitment and seal
But after swapping the drivers around more than a dozen times ( and accidentally destroying the foam tips in the process because I was pushing the drivers back on via the tips) and trying all the tips which fit me, it can no longer be denied

And it isn't just Etymotic IEMs ,although their detachable and symmetrical nature allowed me to objectively identify their bass imbalance... I've had the same problem with AKG, Audio Technica, Bose and other brand earphones.... In fact the only pair of earphones which did not have a bass imbalance for me was that one pair of Bose Soundtrue Ultras I owned for a few weeks before giving it as a gift... I bought another pair a few weeks later thinking that this model had inherently balanced bass, but turns out that my second pair had bass imbalance just like the rest of them
My worst experience was using the Bose QC20 noise cancelling earphones, and the lack of bass on one side also meant lack of noise cancelling on that side, and it was nauseating to use them in a noisy area

if it's consistent that one of your ears have lower bass response, you might want a doctor to check/test your ears, just to be sure..

 

[carmatic]

if it's consistent that one of your ears have lower bass response, you might want a doctor to check/test your ears, just to be sure..

you aren't the first one to suggest that it's my hearing
that's why I've set up my own test rig to see if that was true...
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/if-...-thread-for-you.538615/page-932#post-15121217

long story short, the bass imbalance can be measured even with a low quality improvised recording system