[AryaTwirl]

Hi Head Fi, it's been a while.
So, I just bought Shure olives to replace my rather short-lived Ety foams. I still have one pair left but f it, I'm done with how unreliable they are. But...

Why do olives seem to make the treble sound too smooth? Also, the bass is increased a bit but not as tight it seems? Not that bad but certainly not sounding like ety I've known. a bit disappointed though.

Any tricks to make it sound more airy? Perhaps I should remove the mesh covering the hole?

 

[Blackwoof]

If i like the er4sr and can boost the bass, is there a point of the er2xr?

The ER2XR was for people who for odd reasons would refuse to do a 3 or 6db bass boost, Despite the ER4/ER3 leaving the ER2 in the dust for bass quality. It shows In Reddit impressions where many would start fights or say the ER3XR was lean despite being 4db boost over the 4SR. In worst cases implode if they get called out doing harman 8 ~ 10db shelf boost at 100Hz on any Planar and praise it speed/tightness while then giving the ER4SR a low score for being planar level for speed/clarity?.

I remember when most would hype it being lower distortion than the ER4SR/XR, to then lash out It THD was the same as a ER4XR(0.8%).

 

[SXero]

2nd cable broke on er4xr in 4 months...
let me say that this cable is very poorly designed with no strain releaf. If you loop the er4xr around the ear, the cable will surely fail in few months. The amazing thing is that the iem supposed to fit around the ear to kill microphonics.

anyone knows a good quality replacement cable that can recommend after testing?

I am done with the stock cable!

Hey crazywipe, I can see why you'd be frustrated. Be mindful that you provide anecdotal evidence: mine has been fine for months; really a year. I do hope you can find a cable to your liking. Cables break, which is one of the few large pros to wireless technologies.

Hi, SXero.
I use the medium size olives and compress them around the nozzle as tightly as I can get them. (Making sure the tip isn't blocked) Then I inset them as far as I can get them. The Shures don't seem to go in as deeply as these Westone "Star" silicone tips do, which seem to suction seal pretty far in most times. The grey Ety foams also work pretty well for me, but don't last as long as the olives.

Yeah olives are durable if cleaned once-in-a-while (although they lose their slow-expand pretty quickly). Any idea why they seem out of favour recently?
Otherwise I suppose you could try the hard silicone ones; the medium fit over the ER4 perfectly (small has got very slight length issues). I'd figure your Westone tips sounds like a better option, if you can get them deeper than the olives, as the Shure silicones are more-or-less-the-same as the Shure foamies, apart from a lower stability.

Hi Head Fi, it's been a while.
So, I just bought Shure olives to replace my rather short-lived Ety foams. I still have one pair left but f it, I'm done with how unreliable they are. But...

Why do olives seem to make the treble sound too smooth? Also, the bass is increased a bit but not as tight it seems? Not that bad but certainly not sounding like ety I've known. a bit disappointed though.

Any tricks to make it sound more airy? Perhaps I should remove the mesh covering the hole?

The mesh would introduce unnecessary reflections I suppose, maybe smoothing the sound. You should indeed try removing it, with a smooth finish.

 

[AryaTwirl]

The mesh would introduce unnecessary reflections I suppose, maybe smoothing the sound. You should indeed try removing it, with a smooth finish.

I'll try removing it then. Thank you for the response.

 

[491838]

Hi Head Fi, it's been a while.
So, I just bought Shure olives to replace my rather short-lived Ety foams. I still have one pair left but f it, I'm done with how unreliable they are. But...

Why do olives seem to make the treble sound too smooth? Also, the bass is increased a bit but not as tight it seems? Not that bad but certainly not sounding like ety I've known. a bit disappointed though.

Any tricks to make it sound more airy? Perhaps I should remove the mesh covering the hole?

I had the opposite experience. To me they sound much more airy with the Shure tips but they introduce a peak at 11K. I insert them as deep as possible and the upper treble is very clear. The issue is that the 6-8K dip is more apparent now. The softness I experience comes from that dip and it is a physical limitation of the driver as far as I can tell.

 

[Billyak]

2nd cable broke on er4xr in 4 months...
let me say that this cable is very poorly designed with no strain releaf. If you loop the er4xr around the ear, the cable will surely fail in few months. The amazing thing is that the iem supposed to fit around the ear to kill microphonics.

anyone knows a good quality replacement cable that can recommend after testing?

I am done with the stock cable!

I bought my ER4XR 2nd hand in July 2020 and I wear them over ear with no issues?

 

[CK Moustache]

Hi Head Fi, it's been a while.
So, I just bought Shure olives to replace my rather short-lived Ety foams. I still have one pair left but f it, I'm done with how unreliable they are. But...

Why do olives seem to make the treble sound too smooth? Also, the bass is increased a bit but not as tight it seems? Not that bad but certainly not sounding like ety I've known. a bit disappointed though.

Any tricks to make it sound more airy? Perhaps I should remove the mesh covering the hole?

Removing the mesh should definitely be done.

I'm personally not a fan of foam tips (in general), as my experience with them mirrors yours on most IEMs. My guess as to why the Shure foam tips have that effect whereas the Ety ones (I assume you are referring to the cylindrical barrel-like foam tips - which I find super comfortable, but prefer the silicone tips over them anyway) do not: the Ety ones have a silicone tube that reaches to the end of the tip, and the end of the tip had got a quite smooth surface as if it were sealed, whereas the Shure tips will expose more of the sound waves to the foam that is also somewhat more porous than the Ety tips (at least in the areas that are in direct contact with the sound waves).

 

[AryaTwirl]

I had the opposite experience. To me they sound much more airy with the Shure tips but they introduce a peak at 11K. I insert them as deep as possible and the upper treble is very clear. The issue is that the 6-8K dip is more apparent now. The softness I experience comes from that dip and it is a physical limitation of the driver as far as I can tell.

Hmmm... well, I have inserted it as deep as I could though. I guess I've just been spoiled by Ety clarity for too long I can't even tolerate this Thanks for the response btw.

Removing the mesh should definitely be done.

I'm personally not a fan of foam tips (in general), as my experience with them mirrors yours on most IEMs. My guess as to why the Shure foam tips have that effect whereas the Ety ones (I assume you are referring to the cylindrical barrel-like foam tips - which I find super comfortable, but prefer the silicone tips over them anyway) do not: the Ety ones have a silicone tube that reaches to the end of the tip, and the end of the tip had got a quite smooth surface as if it were sealed, whereas the Shure tips will expose more of the sound waves to the foam that is also somewhat more porous than the Ety tips (at least in the areas that are in direct contact with the sound waves).

will do it tonight, have five pairs to experiment a bit anyway. Yeah, the ety ones are comfortable, contrary to what some people here believe. But, the reliability just sucks. They only survive for a month or two at most, and the rubber ones only for four to six months at most. It's not that bad though, but yeah, still I can hear it.

Thank you for the response.

 

[WilcoRoger]

I consider foam tips as disposable - use them for a couple of months then change them. Just like razor cartridges (blades, for older folks ) Also more hygienic

My personal favorites are the Comply Tx series - the wax guard made filter clogging a thing of he past, no need to change filters anymore. They are also excellent at sound isolation (nearly on par with the grey three flange silicons) which for me is a major consideration, spending a LOT of time on airplanes.

 

[AryaTwirl]

I consider foam tips as disposable - use them for a couple of months then change them. Just like razor cartridges (blades, for older folks ) Also more hygienic

My personal favorites are the Comply Tx series - the wax guard made filter clogging a thing of he past, no need to change filters anymore. They are also excellent at sound isolation (nearly on par with the grey three flange silicons) which for me is a major consideration, spending a LOT of time on airplanes.

Yeah but when it can only survive for a month or two, with nowhere to buy it in my country but ebay (which, even with the cheapest delivery service, costs three times as much as if you live in the US), it bothers me a lot I kinda expect at least three or four, so a pack of five can last more than a year. Yeah, I hope the mesh trick can make the olives sing, or else I have to swallow buying it from ebay.

 

[magicalmouse]

I have the er2xr and have been experimenting with filters, i found the red good but when i tried the orange it made the sq (imo) perfect, the bass was there and the treble was smoother and pleasant - i am treble-phobic- i dislike bright sounding anything so this is a very personal take but i would encourage anyone to try different filters.

d

 

[Raketen]

How quickly will sweat kill a pair of Etys? I recently started doing indoor cycling and my trainer setup is pretty noisy. I was thinking either of my Etys would be great for isolation purposes but I’m also worried if my 1 hour high intensity cycling workouts (lots of sweat) will bring about some kind of premature death.

I have used old 2-pin ER4s in sweaty situations for a long time, if you are someone whose sweat flies everwhere you might have issues, otherwise it should be fine but there are two main risks I'm aware of:

- Oxidation on the connectors - causes volume issues or drop outs. In general I find MMCX more vulnerable to this than 2-pin. Can be solved by cleaning with deoxit occasionally.​

- Filters will close up when exposed to moisture, causing volume issues. It should be fine if you are careful when removing, but if you somehow sweat inside your ears, or the room you work out in gets really steamed up you might have trouble. Not sure about all of the newer models but you can buy replacement filters if this happens.​

Also strongly recommend the use of a shirt clip (or even a short cable + bluetooth dongle) helps cut down on inadvertent tugs on the connectors.

 

[magicalmouse]

Has anyone fitted the knowles (metal bodied) filters to the er4/er2xr and been able to remove them easily?

 

[CK Moustache]

This is probably the second or third time that I have, mostly from scratch, reviewed some of my favourite IEMs (ER4SR) for serious CD listening, and included new/updated comparisons: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/956208/page-3#post-16327128

 

[AnyDave]

Has anyone fitted the knowles (metal bodied) filters to the er4/er2xr and been able to remove them easily?

I'd be very careful about that. The OD of the metal Knowles dampers is quite variable, so they could potentially be too tight to remove. They worked better with the original ER4S/P/B because those had plastic shells. The downside was that the hoop stress was too high because of the aforementioned tolerance variability and it resulted in some of the stems cracking.

If you do try them, I would just make sure you don't push them in if they feel tight. Definitely don't force it.