[backdrifter]

This happens from time to time with me, too. It's always been solved by replacing a filter.

 

[riodgarp]

Okay this getting bit weird I just bought a ER3XR & ER4XR both for X-mas all have died on me on one side randomly. Just Emailed Etymotic about this since Amazon US is ghosting me.

had you tried cleaning inside the nozzle with soft brush and paper towels? I had this problem since my earwax is wet type

Yes, they're biflange tips. (I wanted to specify that, but as happens more and more often these days, it slipped my mind.)

They're long biflange tips, though. I cut down the stems of mine. Just look through my past posts in this thread, you'll find pictures.

maybe I'll tried their medium triple flange and I hope feels better than 3rd party small triple flange

 

[highway11]

Is there anywhere I can buy the official Etymotic triple flange clear tips? After trying the other ones in my kit these are the ones I prefer. So far I've only found them on Etymotic's site but the shipping is insane to Canada. Is there an Amazon or Ebay or some other site that sells them?

I think these are the ones I like/use:
https://www.etymotic.com/product/triple-flange-eartips/

I found these but not sure they'd work as they are long stem?
https://musicredone.com/products/etymotic-er38-18cll-long-stem-3-flange-eartips

 

[Technohabilis]

Etymotic — My history

I am . . . old. So my ears are not new - IYKWIM.

At 67 what was once a hearing range above 22kHz now rolls off, evenly in both ears thankfully, at ~15kHz. I know this because I have been testing myself since 1976.
Calibrated mic for testing the transducer in question and Digital Test tones I have been making since 2011. Before that I had to buy them on one kind of disc or another.
From a 1970s Macintosh Receiver @55 watts rms (Mac-Watts) I drove the early edition Stax SRD-7 Adapter into Stax SRX Mk3 headphones . . . the ones that look like they came out of the 1940s. My baseline for what a short list of well produced performances should sound like is established here (then being 1976 through 1980).
I wore out 2 x 33rpm discs of DSOTM and played a half-speed-mastered, premium vinyl edition disc onto a 15ips x ¼” x 10” NAB reel using TASCAM decks recorded using DBX Noise Reduction so I could preserve that last *played once disc* ( I still have it ).
Ok — I also have a factory 8-track edition, a CD edition & in a moment of weakness I bought an iTunes edition.
I . . . know this music . . . well.
I bring it up because I found that the old 80s vintage DSOTM edition has information in it that was not revealed until after 2000. I favor Fidelia for mac use and commend VLC as a bargain player for any platform with no frills.
Through the 80s I hated digital/CD music. We said of it at the time — it was like bleaching the music or getting your blood sucked and the receiving a B-12 shot.
I have learned that the limits, as of last week, to my hearing fail to let me appreciate anything more complex than 192k x 32k rate and depth -- and then only in a very few captured performances ( Saint-Saens Symphony No.3 -- Kansas City Symphony -or- Chick Corea, Christian McBride, Brian Blade - Trilogy 2 ). Generally I am a 96/24 kind of guy.

So I had money to burn in 2011 and collected a MacBookPro and was rebuilding my old fashioned 33rpm collection with something I could travel with. I noticed that different budget earbuds and some of my veteran headphones were not giving me what I expected and doing this in different ways. This lead to a one-sided war of escalation I will skip-ahead to and bought a set of Etymotic HF5 IEMs.
Now we’re talkin’!

Using these I found that my new iPhone4 sounded better than the MacBookPro this lead me to budget USB-DACs, then to an Ety P/S ER4 then an on-shore US produced premium DAC, then an Ety ER3-SR then landing me on a DragonFly Red which I love, then Ety ER4-SR. Finding a hot deal I picked up a second DragonFly Red just for drill, then a set of Ety ER4-XR — which more or less brings us to 2022 when I deduced that the ‘push them in from both sides until they touch in the middle’ fitment of various sized flanges worked but I could not wear them for more than a couple of hours.
So — I found on *that Big River eCommerce giant* a DIY hearing protection system that was user-cast into the user’s ears.

A two-part material much like epoxy — but not. After reading the instructions . . . You wash your hands as if for surgery, then you strip all the oil off your fingers with solvent alcohol.
Parting the two colored putties evenly and mixing per instructions for *one ear only*, shape the mixed putty into a raindrop shape and lay on one side to insert and shape the putty to interlock with the convolutions of your outer ear on the one side that is directed up with a mind to have securement made by clasping the outside curves and clevises rather than penetrating to the depths of the ear canal like a screw.
In twenty minutes I had a cured plug that came right out from it’s new snugness and set about doing the other ear.
It is interesting to note that my right is not a perfect match for my left.
In examining the new rubber casting of my ears I could see just where I wanted the flange-FREE tip of the barrel to deliver impulses. Assuring that the curing process was concluded I prepared to mate the Etymotics to the rubber castings ( history has shown that the one set of castings fits well all the Etymotic IEMs I own )
Using a disassembled BIC-like barrel pen I twisted the now empty pen barrel into the blue rubber castings with a few twists.
I note that after a couple of years the seal is superior and I can wear them all day and into the evening but I do sweat behind the DIY Custom casting mountings filling my ears — the humidity condensing in the metal parts of the Ety barrel. This is the end of that audition period until the moisture evaporates.
Oh ,and the bass is better as is the isolation.
My resolution to the humidity issue was to withdraw the flange-free Ety barrel from the rubber and using the twisted off tip from a cotton swab, twist up a short soft humidity wick that lies to one side of the Ety barrel extending from into the ear and out to the room — and — no more sweat issues.

I find that my hearing drifts and varies with the passage of time, time of day, and weather. I regularly re-EQ to stay within what I recall of vintage Return To Forever -- Joni Mitchell -- & Dire Straights, all from the salad days of my once bat-like hearing and what I see as a concurrent pinnacle of record production artistry.

Unless you are my age your experience and reference points MUST be different than mine.

I find no open backed cans that deliver the experience of premium IEMs unless you drive them hard, loud, and in a listening environment with studio-like isolation. Most of us live in a very noisy world.

Seriously -- go to A--zon and check out the DIY casting hearing protection. Doubtless some of you will figure out how to make it work with other brands of IEMs.

 

[riodgarp]

Is there anywhere I can buy the official Etymotic triple flange clear tips? After trying the other ones in my kit these are the ones I prefer. So far I've only found them on Etymotic's site but the shipping is insane to Canada. Is there an Amazon or Ebay or some other site that sells them?

I think these are the ones I like/use:
https://www.etymotic.com/product/triple-flange-eartips/

I found these but not sure they'd work as they are long stem?
https://musicredone.com/products/etymotic-er38-18cll-long-stem-3-flange-eartips

the long stem seems needed to cut, otherwise it'll stuck on your ear

 

[JAnonymous5150]

Etymotic — My history

I am . . . old. So my ears are not new - IYKWIM.

At 67 what was once a hearing range above 22kHz now rolls off, evenly in both ears thankfully, at ~15kHz. I know this because I have been testing myself since 1976.
Calibrated mic for testing the transducer in question and Digital Test tones I have been making since 2011. Before that I had to buy them on one kind of disc or another.
From a 1970s Macintosh Receiver @55 watts rms (Mac-Watts) I drove the early edition Stax SRD-7 Adapter into Stax SRX Mk3 headphones . . . the ones that look like they came out of the 1940s. My baseline for what a short list of well produced performances should sound like is established here (then being 1976 through 1980).
I wore out 2 x 33rpm discs of DSOTM and played a half-speed-mastered, premium vinyl edition disc onto a 15ips x ¼” x 10” NAB reel using TASCAM decks recorded using DBX Noise Reduction so I could preserve that last *played once disc* ( I still have it ).
Ok — I also have a factory 8-track edition, a CD edition & in a moment of weakness I bought an iTunes edition.
I . . . know this music . . . well.
I bring it up because I found that the old 80s vintage DSOTM edition has information in it that was not revealed until after 2000. I favor Fidelia for mac use and commend VLC as a bargain player for any platform with no frills.
Through the 80s I hated digital/CD music. We said of it at the time — it was like bleaching the music or getting your blood sucked and the receiving a B-12 shot.
I have learned that the limits, as of last week, to my hearing fail to let me appreciate anything more complex than 192k x 32k rate and depth -- and then only in a very few captured performances ( Saint-Saens Symphony No.3 -- Kansas City Symphony -or- Chick Corea, Christian McBride, Brian Blade - Trilogy 2 ). Generally I am a 96/24 kind of guy.

So I had money to burn in 2011 and collected a MacBookPro and was rebuilding my old fashioned 33rpm collection with something I could travel with. I noticed that different budget earbuds and some of my veteran headphones were not giving me what I expected and doing this in different ways. This lead to a one-sided war of escalation I will skip-ahead to and bought a set of Etymotic HF5 IEMs.
Now we’re talkin’!

Using these I found that my new iPhone4 sounded better than the MacBookPro this lead me to budget USB-DACs, then to an Ety P/S ER4 then an on-shore US produced premium DAC, then an Ety ER3-SR then landing me on a DragonFly Red which I love, then Ety ER4-SR. Finding a hot deal I picked up a second DragonFly Red just for drill, then a set of Ety ER4-XR — which more or less brings us to 2022 when I deduced that the ‘push them in from both sides until they touch in the middle’ fitment of various sized flanges worked but I could not wear them for more than a couple of hours.
So — I found on *that Big River eCommerce giant* a DIY hearing protection system that was user-cast into the user’s ears.

A two-part material much like epoxy — but not. After reading the instructions . . . You wash your hands as if for surgery, then you strip all the oil off your fingers with solvent alcohol.
Parting the two colored putties evenly and mixing per instructions for *one ear only*, shape the mixed putty into a raindrop shape and lay on one side to insert and shape the putty to interlock with the convolutions of your outer ear on the one side that is directed up with a mind to have securement made by clasping the outside curves and clevises rather than penetrating to the depths of the ear canal like a screw.
In twenty minutes I had a cured plug that came right out from it’s new snugness and set about doing the other ear.
It is interesting to note that my right is not a perfect match for my left.
In examining the new rubber casting of my ears I could see just where I wanted the flange-FREE tip of the barrel to deliver impulses. Assuring that the curing process was concluded I prepared to mate the Etymotics to the rubber castings ( history has shown that the one set of castings fits well all the Etymotic IEMs I own )
Using a disassembled BIC-like barrel pen I twisted the now empty pen barrel into the blue rubber castings with a few twists.
I note that after a couple of years the seal is superior and I can wear them all day and into the evening but I do sweat behind the DIY Custom casting mountings filling my ears — the humidity condensing in the metal parts of the Ety barrel. This is the end of that audition period until the moisture evaporates.
Oh ,and the bass is better as is the isolation.
My resolution to the humidity issue was to withdraw the flange-free Ety barrel from the rubber and using the twisted off tip from a cotton swab, twist up a short soft humidity wick that lies to one side of the Ety barrel extending from into the ear and out to the room — and — no more sweat issues.

I find that my hearing drifts and varies with the passage of time, time of day, and weather. I regularly re-EQ to stay within what I recall of vintage Return To Forever -- Joni Mitchell -- & Dire Straights, all from the salad days of my once bat-like hearing and what I see as a concurrent pinnacle of record production artistry.

Unless you are my age your experience and reference points MUST be different than mine.

I find no open backed cans that deliver the experience of premium IEMs unless you drive them hard, loud, and in a listening environment with studio-like isolation. Most of us live in a very noisy world.

Seriously -- go to A--zon and check out the DIY casting hearing protection. Doubtless some of you will figure out how to make it work with other brands of IEMs.

That was a cool read, man! Thanks for sharing. I have actually ordered some eartune fidelity custom IEM tips for a few of my UIEMs including my ER4XRs to see how well they work. They should be waiting for me when I head home in a little over a week. I basically decided to try them because I had just had new scans done for some CIEMs and had heard the Eartune tips work really well so it seemed like a prime opportunity to give 'em a go. I'll have to remember to come back by here and post aome thoughts on how they work out.
Hopefully something like what you're talkin' about.

 

[Blackwoof]

had you tried cleaning inside the nozzle with soft brush and paper towels? I had this problem since my earwax is wet type


maybe I'll tried their medium triple flange and I hope feels better than 3rd party small triple flange

Nope I replaced the filter It still cut out, I bought a 2000s era ER4P as my replacement. My ER4SR's have zero issues.

 

[riodgarp]

Nope I replaced the filter It still cut out, I bought a 2000s era ER4P as my replacement. My ER4SR's have zero issues.

that's sad their qc is bad this time

 

[Blackwoof]

that's sad their qc is bad this time

Never had issues with hifiheadphones but with Ebay & Amazon It very meh. Ebay tried to claim my ER4XR wasn't broken to avoid giving me a refund would cut CS chats to avoid replying, The Japanese seller had quite a few 1 star ratings. When I gave a 1 star rating cause of the ER4XR I got a warning message out of nowhere.

 

[Technohabilis]

That was a cool read, man! Thanks for sharing. I have actually ordered some eartune fidelity custom IEM tips for a few of my UIEMs including my ER4XRs to see how well they work. They should be waiting for me when I head home in a little over a week. I basically decided to try them because I had just had new scans done for some CIEMs and had heard the Eartune tips work really well so it seemed like a prime opportunity to give 'em a go. I'll have to remember to come back by here and post aome thoughts on how they work out.
Hopefully something like what you're talkin' about.

Radians Custom Molded Earplugs, Blue -- this is about $11.00 usd as I write, from *that Really Big River eCommerce* outfit.​

The KEY to success is to clean the holy cheez whiz out of your hands before you begin. Your ears -- not so much. Plan for no distractions for the better part of an hour.​

Understand the instructions!​

Mix fast and thoroughly and then a bit more -- you will feel the putty getting just a bit warm. Stuff it into your -ONE EAR at a time- thinking about how you want to have the casting clasp the outside of your ear -- for mechanical/acoustical connection & isolation, and 'not falling out'.​

Mine essentially completely fill the exterior auricle -- deep penetration is not a concern because you are 'seating' the Etymotic barrel into the outside of the ear rather than penetrating the depths of your ear canal. I used a cheap stick ball-point pen disassembled down to the empty pen barrel as a coring-device. A Bic-Pen with thin white plastic barrel worked for me perfectly. As you look at it you will intuitively see where you want the Etymotic barrel tip to go -- which will be not as deep as the 3-flange tip does.​

Sweating was an issue for me. I separated the right ear casting from the Ety-barrel and twisted up the cotton tip from a cosmetic swab and laid this into the cavity of the casting before re-inserting the Ety-barrel into the casting, being sure to ever-so-slightly extend the cotton past the Ety-tip and letting it flutter in the breeze outside my ear casting. Cotton absorbs like mad and the moisture evaporates into the room air.​

 

[highway11]

Radians Custom Molded Earplugs, Blue -- this is about $11.00 usd as I write, from *that Really Big River eCommerce* outfit.​

The KEY to success is to clean the holy cheez whiz out of your hands before you begin. Your ears -- not so much. Plan for no distractions for the better part of an hour.​

Understand the instructions!​

Mix fast and thoroughly and then a bit more -- you will feel the putty getting just a bit warm. Stuff it into your -ONE EAR at a time- thinking about how you want to have the casting clasp the outside of your ear -- for mechanical/acoustical connection & isolation, and 'not falling out'.​

Mine essentially completely fill the exterior auricle -- deep penetration is not a concern because you are 'seating' the Etymotic barrel into the outside of the ear rather than penetrating the depths of your ear canal. I used a cheap stick ball-point pen disassembled down to the empty pen barrel as a coring-device. A Bic-Pen with thin white plastic barrel worked for me perfectly. As you look at it you will intuitively see where you want the Etymotic barrel tip to go -- which will be not as deep as the 3-flange tip does.​

Sweating was an issue for me. I separated the right ear casting from the Ety-barrel and twisted up the cotton tip from a cosmetic swab and laid this into the cavity of the casting before re-inserting the Ety-barrel into the casting, being sure to ever-so-slightly extend the cotton past the Ety-tip and letting it flutter in the breeze outside my ear casting. Cotton absorbs like mad and the moisture evaporates into the room air.​

Interesting! Can you upload a picture of how these look? Tempted to try this

 

[shinewu]

https://www.etymotic.com/product/triple-flange-eartips/

The original soft and transparent tri-flange tips that come with ER3/4 give me the best comfort and sound. I am not 100% sure if it is the above linked one that says "LARGE FIT|CLEAR"? Can someone confirm if it is the same as the original one that comes in package?

I find the newer harder and frost tips are horribly uncomfortable. So I want the soft and transparent ones. Thanks a lot!

 

[Rackhour]

Finally can contribute something to this group.

I finally got around to buying a FiiO UTWS5 to convert my ER4XR to wireless. As @ClieOS pointed out here, an angled converter of sorts is needed to make these bullet-shaped buds even fit in the first place, I jumped on a very good deal on a very lightly used, practically new 0.78mm version.

From here, I scoured AliExpress for a pair of "0.78mm F to MMCX M (right image)" converters and "angled MMCX F to Etymotic MMCX M" converters; I do not have the tools on hand to mod my ER4 buds. They arrived with no issues some 2 weeks later, and I connected everything.

I encountered a problem: the earhooks couldn't make full contact with the case magnets unless I moved the ER4 buds in some shape or form, and if I do that, then the lid doesn't close. With a very small push, you can make the hooks make contact with the magnets.

I then searched my little box of random IEM accessories, and found a pack of unopened Comply tips without the paper cover; I'm assuming they are the P-series tips because there's no mesh in the middle. I swapped the Ety gray, cylindrical foam tips that were there originally with the Comply tips, and the lid almost fully closes; there's still a slight gap but it closes enough to trigger the charging LEDs for the hooks.

I suddenly had an idea, removed all the foam tips. and replaced the earhooks. As it turns out, the ER4 bullets are a bit too long for the combination to sit flush with the case, because even then, while charging works, there's still a minuscule gap when closing the lid. It isn't flush, though functionally speaking, everything works as advertised.

Just for giggles, I ordered a pair of straight, unangled 0.78mm F to MMCX M converters to see if shifting the buds more outwards can lower the angle and let the lid close fully. I'll let y'all know how that goes.

I've attached a couple photos of how it looks. The left bud has the Comply tip and the right bud has the gray Ety barrel foam tip.

 

[Rackhour]

https://www.etymotic.com/product/triple-flange-eartips/

The original soft and transparent tri-flange tips that come with ER3/4 give me the best comfort and sound. I am not 100% sure if it is the above linked one that says "LARGE FIT|CLEAR"? Can someone confirm if it is the same as the original one that comes in package?

I find the newer harder and frost tips are horribly uncomfortable. So I want the soft and transparent ones. Thanks a lot!

Using this image for reference, are you talking about the 4 middle tips between the gray barrel foam tips and the gray triple flange tips?

If yes, then those should be the "Triple Flange Eartips| Large Fit | Clear | 10 Pack" option. But I'd wait for others to chime in to confirm I'm right or wrong.

 

[Blackwoof]

Just noticed when you drunk or high 3KHz really ear hurting but doing -2 ~ -4db 3KHz at Q5 with EQ seems to fix It.