[EmPathWalker]

Swallow Insertion, errr, that sounds dicey.
 
I get the impression you are talking about what amounts to placing the tiny tip of the ER4 as close as possible to the ear drum, without touching it.
 
It sounds like a great way to make an earphone sound it's best but it also sounds like a design conundrum. Something that close to my ear drum really shouldn't be on the other swingboat end of a protrusion from the side of my head.
 
I'll have to do something, though. I'm not getting the isolation I was expecting, and I'm sure I'm not getting the full thickness of the sound due to a lack of a seal, or, too shallow insertion.
 
Thank you for your comments.

 

[Happytalk]

Swallow Insertion, errr, that sounds dicey.

I get the impression you are talking about what amounts to placing the tiny tip of the ER4 as close as possible to the ear drum, without touching it.

It sounds like a great way to make an earphone sound it's best but it also sounds like a design conundrum. Something that close to my ear drum really shouldn't be on the other swingboat end of a protrusion from the side of my head.

I'll have to do something, though. I'm not getting the isolation I was expecting, and I'm sure I'm not getting the full thickness of the sound due to a lack of a seal, or, too shallow insertion.

Thank you for your comments.

If it sounds good, it is. I can't go in too far with my right ear. Left seems a little further. If I go too far in either, it ends up muffing the sound. I imagine everyone has their sweet spot.

 

[castleofargh]

edit: ok I broke internet

 

[castleofargh]

  Swallow Insertion, errr, that sounds dicey.
 
I get the impression you are talking about what amounts to placing the tiny tip of the ER4 as close as possible to the ear drum, without touching it.
 
It sounds like a great way to make an earphone sound it's best but it also sounds like a design conundrum. Something that close to my ear drum really shouldn't be on the other swingboat end of a protrusion from the side of my head.
 
I'll have to do something, though. I'm not getting the isolation I was expecting, and I'm sure I'm not getting the full thickness of the sound due to a lack of a seal, or, too shallow insertion.
 
Thank you for your comments.

ahahahah, yeah I obviously wrote it just fine ^_^ sorry

 

[AnyDave]

  Im going off several measurements from reviews I found online, which may or may not be accurate... Which frequencies and at what Q factor would you say the Ety Kids or MK5 could use EQ correction?

 
I would just start by playing around and seeing what sounds good to you.  When talking about a deviation from flat, personal preference plays a large part.  The cool thing about EQing is that you can play with various settings and find what works for you.

 

[AnyDave]

  Hello everybody,
 
Is it possible to unpack and try the ER4SR/XR without damaging parts of the packaging?
 
Although I lean towards the SR model, I'd like to try both before I'm convinced and keep one. I do have a pack of spare flanges which should avoid any hygiene issues. But if they come in a sealed packaging, I might risk a fee for having unpacked them.
 
 
My second question is a follow-up to a reply from @EtyDave from several pages back:
 
 

Can we also expect a successor to the HF5 with user replaceable cables anytime soon?

 

I like the HF5 in every respect, except for the cables that would not remain intact for too long. I can't rule out occasional abuse, however, that might be only part of the problem. Even with the ER38-18 large triple flanges, the earpieces slip very far into my ears. The cables won't hang straight down but bend outwards as they run down my earlobes. It's always at this bend where the small fissures in the cable sheath appeared first.

 

Thanks in advance for your replies. You've been a great source of information so far.

 
I'm doing my best to help with information but I'm probably going to limit it to released products and *maybe* the occasional sneak peak of an imminent release.
 
If we do end up doing an update to the HF, I'll definitely keep your comments in mind.  It might be worth trying a slightly longer cut eartip with your HFs so that the cable doesn't bend outwards.  The large, clear 3-flange that the MC5 uses is cut 2mm longer and would probably help.  It's this one:
 
http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/accessories/er38-18cl.html

 

[promenader]

  If we do end up doing an update to the HF, I'll definitely keep your comments in mind.  It might be worth trying a slightly longer cut eartip with your HFs so that the cable doesn't bend outwards.  The large, clear 3-flange that the MC5 uses is cut 2mm longer and would probably help.  It's this one:
 
http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/accessories/er38-18cl.html

 
Thank you, very much appreciated!

 

[McCol]

SR were delivered today. So far impressed, been a few years sincecI had my Ety Er4s, forgot how much I like the Ety sound.
 
Got a bit of a bargain on these and not sure how or why but not complaining. Was going to order from a retailer here in the UK but thought I'd check ebay first. Got them new for £140 instead of £330. The seller had them listed as er4s but picture of SR. Its the second pair they have sold, bit strange.

 

[robm321]

Wonder if the warranty will be good. Was it an authorized retailer? 

 

[McCol]

Wonder if the warranty will be good. Was it an authorized retailer? 

No wouldn't have thought it was an authorized retailer but was happy to risk warranty issues for that kind of saving.

 

[luisdent]

This Web site is a good starting point: http://dr.loudness-war.info

Cool site, and thanks for the link, but I meant more, "I want to buy (insert artist's name) brand new album". Is there more than one master of newer albums? I know there's the whole "mastered for iTunes" thing, but from what I've read that's more about preparing it for the AAC conversion than necessarily to prevent over compression. Although their volume match does seem to average songs to about -14 dBFS. Which helps. I'm just curious if there really are different masters aside from that. I know in the LP days the pressing plant is who mastered the album. So you could get varying masters depending on which plant produced the album. I just figured in today's world there was only one master. But would love to be wrong and there be less compressed masters available of the same album.

When it comes to new albums being released currently, many times you don't have any option and you are stuck with whatever mastering job it gets. Unless they happen to release something on hdtracks website or sacd or some other high res format that "usually" is more likely to be less poorly mastered.

As for existing releases, steve hoffman has a good forum, the dr database site is pretty good, and many time i used to go into used record stores with a cd player. I know, I'm crazy... Some of them didnt mind you walking around sampling music.

Sometimes i buy an album, find that it is compressed and then search for an older release hoping it isn't.

There's no hard fast rule, and just because something uses compression doesn't mean it sounds bad. However, when a great album is produced and then it is mastered poorly it definitely can be an improvement to get a different version in the form of an older release.

Interestingly, vinyl is usually touted as being warmer and better quality. The sad truth is that a cd can faithfully reproduce a vinyl with no audible difference and usually with no noise and scratching sounds. But the issue is the mastering. When put to cd or digital the mastering engineers now have the means to make things louder easier and to di whatever they deem necessary to improve the sound or cater it to a certain audience.

Vinyl in the other hand was typically processed in a very consistent way and pressed to vinyl. So the reason most people think it sounds better, without even knowing why, is that they are more true to the studio masters usually. They didn't apply brick wall limiting or compression. So people are already hearing this difference, but cds are still bashed as being inferior. I say, good master on cd is the way to go...

 

[Matte82]

I completely agree that CD is a far superior medium. Especially if it was used properly. Just hope this trend of using more dynamic range keeps growing. Even if the CD itself is basically dead.

 

[luisdent]

I completely agree that CD is a far superior medium. Especially if it was used properly. Just hope this trend of using more dynamic range keeps growing. Even if the CD itself is basically dead.

It seems to have a small growth recently. Certain musicians have started to fight for dynamics (aka the loudness war) and some just want high fidelity music. Pop and a lot of "common" radio music is unfortunately caught more often in the loudness trap. Some people think a louder master is what people want, and there are many reasons why they think this, but it just is a sad misconception. It may be true that some people say "why is that song so quiet?" But just turning up the volume a bit would make it louder and more energetic and less fatiguing. So it should be "why is that other song so loud?", but it's just more common to have a loud song than a quiet song nowadays...

 

[AnyDave]

It seems to have a small growth recently. Certain musicians have started to fight for dynamics (aka the loudness war) and some just want high fidelity music. Pop and a lot of "common" radio music is unfortunately caught more often in the loudness trap. Some people think a louder master is what people want, and there are many reasons why they think this, but it just is a sad misconception. It may be true that some people say "why is that song so quiet?" But just turning up the volume a bit would make it louder and more energetic and less fatiguing. So it should be "why is that other song so loud?", but it's just more common to have a loud song than a quiet song nowadays...

 
I think that might be the true victory of the high res audio movement; more attention is likely to be paid to the mastering quality of the releases.  There have been many debates about the value of higher resolution/higher bitrate recordings but I don't know anybody that would disagree that it's pointless if you are going to destroy the dynamic range by compressing the signal so much that you are running it to the rails.
 
 

 

[luisdent]

It seems to have a small growth recently. Certain musicians have started to fight for dynamics (aka the loudness war) and some just want high fidelity music. Pop and a lot of "common" radio music is unfortunately caught more often in the loudness trap. Some people think a louder master is what people want, and there are many reasons why they think this, but it just is a sad misconception. It may be true that some people say "why is that song so quiet?" But just turning up the volume a bit would make it louder and more energetic and less fatiguing. So it should be "why is that other song so loud?", but it's just more common to have a loud song than a quiet song nowadays...

I think that might be the true victory of the high res audio movement; more attention is likely to be paid to the mastering quality of the releases.  There have been many debates about the value of higher resolution/higher bitrate recordings but I don't know anybody that would disagree that it's pointless if you are going to destroy the dynamic range by compressing the signal so much that you are running it to the rails.

Yes, and I'm in the minority, but inthink the difference in cd to high res is infinitesimal compared to the difference between a good and bad master. So it's almost sad we need bigger more expensive files to get the sound we should be getting (and some do) with cds.

I just bought keane's hopes and fears album on SACD dual disc. I love the cd but always found it very compressed. Even the cd layer on the dual disc is the same, but the stereo part if the SACD is instantly better sounding. You may say "well it's a SACD", but i just hooked up the outputs of my SACD player to my apogee interface and recorded the whole stereo SACD layer as 24/96 audio files in audacity. Converted thise to 16/44 for portable use. The sound is practically identical and much better than the normal CD. Why? Because they thought the CD should be louder...

It's sad and frustrating to have to un-master albums myself. I don't want to be restricted to listening on my couch (which is still awesome) Haha. Anyway, it's worth it. It sounds incredible in the er4sr after hearing the CD so many times. I'll try to post samples and images of the differences later if anyone is interested. Not to get off topic. But it is ear candy for the er4sr