[liquidrats]

when i had the w30 for a while i liked it but found I wasn't happy without a lot of eq.

the overall tone was too soft. there was too much mid bass and not enough mid treble. there was a scoop out of the overall treble that made things lack treble body. the details that were present were a bit raspy and dry sounding. nothing sounded bad per se. there were not a lot of bad peaks or dips. unless you consider the mid/low treble to be a dip, but it is more of a wide dip and thus more transition between the edges of the dip it and not obviously "peaky"

but i did use a resistor for a while. I don't remember the value, but it helped bring up the treble, just not perfectly smoothly.

the er4xr basically fixes all the treble issues and adds a ton of isolation. things sound clearer and smoother. that is my take. the w30 handled eq very well though. i just don't prefer the frequency signature. it is sort of like an er4xr with a slight "pillow covering the sound" quality...

I feel W30 is very genre specific. It will sound muffled when switched from ER4 or any neutral sounding IEM, but somehow it grows on you.

 

[ClieOS]

...

the er4xr basically fixes all the treble issues and adds a ton of isolation. things sound clearer and smoother. that is my take. the w30 handled eq very well though. i just don't prefer the frequency signature. it is sort of like an er4xr with a slight "pillow covering the sound" quality...

I haven't listened to any Westone for awhile now, but they do tend to have a particular house sound that is tuned more toward stage monitoring. I'll reckon it isn't just purely about SQ, but mostly that the sound signature isn't to your liking, If you need an IEM for stage monitoring/performing, an Ety will be far from ideal as accuracy is generally no a big concern while Ety's overly neutral and detailed sound can be fatiguing very soon on a stage environment.

 

[HiFiChris]

My full review of the ER3SE went online today: http://kopfhoerer-lounge.blogspot.com/2018/01/etymotic-er3se-review-deutsch.html

It's written in German, but there's a Google Translate widget right below the navigation bar.



My ER3XR review will also follow soon-ish.

 

[luisdent]

I haven't listened to any Westone for awhile now, but they do tend to have a particular house sound that is tuned more toward stage monitoring. I'll reckon it isn't just purely about SQ, but mostly that the sound signature isn't to your liking, If you need an IEM for stage monitoring/performing, an Ety will be far from ideal as accuracy is generally no a big concern while Ety's overly neutral and detailed sound can be fatiguing very soon on a stage environment.

i completely agree. and maybe it didn't come across clearly, but i found the quality to be excellent, especially how easily it handled eq, no obvious driver crossover issues, no discernible distortion levels, etc. and pretty comfortable.

but when i talk about different sound attributes I'm usually talking about frequency response. and as someone who has played music live, i don't think I'd want to use an er4. it would possibly be fatiguing and I'd worry I'd get caught on something and rip a hole in my ear canals.

 

[Francisk]

I can definitely vouch for the use of ER4 for live performances, even more so after fitting it with ClieOS' ER4B custom cable. In fact I've used mine for many concerts where I performed with numerous artistes in the past without any issues or fatigue. That's probably because I'm using my ER4 through the high quality Aviom personal monitoring system. The Aviom personal monitoring system is not cheap but Yes, proper monitoring system makes a world of difference if you want a good sound from your ER4. In fact my musical director is also using a pair of ER4 for some time now after he tried my ER4. Prior to the ER4 he was using the Westone W4R.

 

[qsk78]

Folks, I own the ER4SR and ER3SE and love them both. I listen to the SR mainly indoors, and the SE outdoors.
Is there any sense to add the ER4S to my collection? I know they require a good amplification which is not an issue in my case.
Do 4S sound differently from the 4SR?

 

[luisdent]

Folks, I own the ER4SR and ER3SE and love them both. I listen to the SR mainly indoors, and the SE outdoors.
Is there any sense to add the ER4S to my collection? I know they require a good amplification which is not an issue in my case.
Do 4S sound differently from the 4SR?

there may be a lot of disagreement on that point. graphs show them essential identical in frequency response. and i think they are the most alike of all the er series. however i feel like they are silkier smooth to my ears by some incredibly small percentage. but for me all the other factors make a bigger difference than the miniscule sound difference if there is one. so i’d probably always buy the sr and not look back.

 

[JohnYang1997]

In order to get all the ingredients from etymotic, i recommend add er4b into it. Emmm em em. That sound. Heavenly.

 

[qsk78]

In order to get all the ingredients from etymotic, i recommend add er4b into it. Emmm em em. That sound. Heavenly.

Well, I prefer clean fast and dry signature. Is there a difference between S and B in that regard?

S will come to me very soon to compare them with the SR. Most probably I will keep both, S and SR. Let's see.

 

[ClieOS]

Well, I prefer clean fast and dry signature. Is there a difference between S and B in that regard?

S will come to me very soon to compare them with the SR. Most probably I will keep both, S and SR. Let's see.

4B is pretty much the super detailed version of 4S - I was kinda impressed by 4B over 4S in first listen, but it did get rather fatiguing on most of my music. In the end, I just switched back to 4S. I will say this - really old recordings do shine on 4B.

I am personally on the fence between 4S and 4SR. I can tell there is some minor advantage technical wise on the 4SR, but the 4S sounds more fluid to my ears more of the time.

 

[lesale08]

Been reading this thread for a month now and I finally found a good deal on a used er4sr unit.

I am coming from sony z5 and I must say this er4sr compliments the sony. Very good for acoustic, rock and vocal oriented song.

However I do experience listening fatigue after an hour of straight testing.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Been reading this thread for a month now and I finally found a good deal on a used er4sr unit.

I am coming from sony z5 and I must say this er4sr compliments the sony. Very good for acoustic, rock and vocal oriented song.

However I do experience listening fatigue after an hour of straight testing.

Insert deeper, reduce volume will help.

 

[rggz]

The 4B + green filter isn't my cup of tea due to ClieoS' reasons in the post above. However, 4B + Knowles red filter (even orange) has been my main/favorite IEM for a long time now. They're simply flawlessly after red filters I can hear it for days straight without any fatigue.

 

[lesale08]

Insert deeper, reduce volume will help.

I will try later. Just resting a bit as I'm having a headache now after listening to etys.

Overall I am very impressed on how clean sounding these phones are.

I first thought the bass will be none existent but I was wrong. It's there when the music calls for it.

 

[JohnYang1997]

The 4B + green filter isn't my cup of tea due to ClieoS' reasons in the post above. However, 4B + Knowles red filter (even orange) has been my main/favorite IEM for a long time now. They're simply flawlessly after red filters I can hear it for days straight without any fatigue.

According to my measurements and listening. If you are going to use knowles dampers, install them with the mesh pointing out. This will reduce peak and valley around 8k 10k region and improve dynamics and naturalness.