[xoa.nine]

Hi! recently joined, have been reading through this thread a lot, extremely helpful! thank you to everyone here

Purchased both ER4-SR and ER4-XR last year, immediately fell in love with the SR, was wondering which DAP would go nicely with the SR? budget is under £1k, hoping to maintain neutrality, not a fan of bass heavy/warm/extended low end. I was looking at the Lotoo Paw Gold (Used), iBasso DX200 (New), Sony WM1A (New), DP-X1 (New), QP1R/QP2R (Used), any feedback/advice would be appreciated!

Have never owned a DAP before, i do honestly like the Walkman UI, but i've tried NW-A45 and wasn't happy with how warm/smooth it sounded, was also wondering if anyone has experience with the SR and WM1A?

Thank You!

 

[Spie1904]

Hi! recently joined, have been reading through this thread a lot, extremely helpful! thank you to everyone here

Purchased both ER4-SR and ER4-XR last year, immediately fell in love with the SR, was wondering which DAP would go nicely with the SR? budget is under £1k, hoping to maintain neutrality, not a fan of bass heavy/warm/extended low end. I was looking at the Lotoo Paw Gold (Used), iBasso DX200 (New), Sony WM1A (New), DP-X1 (New), QP1R/QP2R (Used), any feedback/advice would be appreciated!

Have never owned a DAP before, i do honestly like the Walkman UI, but i've tried NW-A45 and wasn't happy with how warm/smooth it sounded, was also wondering if anyone has experience with the SR and WM1A?

Thank You!

Interested in this too.
I'm also looking at streaming in addition.
I was considering the Fiio M9 or Hiby R6.

 

[BattleBrat]

the bass response is going to be mostly affected by the quality of the seal. so it's very much possible that the bass will feel different if one of the listening conditions didn't offer a good seal while the other one does. beyond that, there are little chances for anything significant going on in the low end IMO.
the main risk beside not getting a good seal sometimes, is about the distance/volume of air between the driver and the eardrum. that can shift the resonance to another frequency and obviously the bigger the shift the more noticeable it's going to be(good or bad).

If you arent getting a good seal with custom tips then you need to get them redone. I've had zero sound issues with my custom fit tips, if anything more consistant sound because they only fit in one way and one depth. They dont die as soon as tri's or foam (mine are over 8 years old) and are a hell of a lot more comfortable. If they affected sound to the degree some have been suggesting Etymotic would not suggest them because accuracy is their bag.

 

[robm321]

Consider the Hiby R6 Pro which should be released soon.

 

[Spie1904]

If you arent getting a good seal with custom tips then you need to get them redone. I've had zero sound issues with my custom fit tips, if anything more consistant sound because they only fit in one way and one depth. They dont die as soon as tri's or foam (mine are over 8 years old) and are a hell of a lot more comfortable. If they affected sound to the degree some have been suggesting Etymotic would not suggest them because accuracy is their bag.

I'm really considering getting a pair of custom moulds just for additional comfort. Even more because I can't seem to find a good custom IEM Europe that offers the sound signature of this ER4SR. Either too little detail or too much bass. So custom tips for this seems a solid middle ground and also still quite cost efficient

 

[xoa.nine]

Interested in this too.
I'm also looking at streaming in addition.
I was considering the Fiio M9 or Hiby R6.

 

[cathee]

Hi! recently joined, have been reading through this thread a lot, extremely helpful! thank you to everyone here

Purchased both ER4-SR and ER4-XR last year, immediately fell in love with the SR, was wondering which DAP would go nicely with the SR? budget is under £1k, hoping to maintain neutrality, not a fan of bass heavy/warm/extended low end. I was looking at the Lotoo Paw Gold (Used), iBasso DX200 (New), Sony WM1A (New), DP-X1 (New), QP1R/QP2R (Used), any feedback/advice would be appreciated!

Have never owned a DAP before, i do honestly like the Walkman UI, but i've tried NW-A45 and wasn't happy with how warm/smooth it sounded, was also wondering if anyone has experience with the SR and WM1A?

Thank You!

If you don't mind the size the iBasso DX200 is a fantastic device.

 

[Spie1904]

If you don't mind the size the iBasso DX200 is a fantastic device.

Up until Hiby R6 Pro came out, I'd have agreed.
Now I'm not sure who comes out on top between these two.

 

[ClieOS]

Built this for someone - short 2.5mm balanced cable with Ety mmcx adapter, meant to be used with EarStudio ES100

 

[tigas]

Hello! I'm a new poster and got confused about where I could or could not post. I asked for help with cables for my Etymotic ER4XR in the General Help forum but it seems I'm allowed to post here where it's more likely to be answered (yesterday, I wasn't). Since I don't want to double-post, could someone check my post on the other forum? TL,DR: apart from ClieOS' wonderful work, where can I find adapters from Ety-MMCX to regular MMCX, shipped to/in Europe? Thank you very much.

 

[xoa.nine]

If you don't mind the size the iBasso DX200 is a fantastic device.

Thanks for the reply, i think i'm leaning more towards the iBasso after giving it a good think, thanks again for your feedback

 

[Spie1904]

I'm not sure if any new people come in here sometimes but I guess as a new Etymotic user I'll share some experiences regarding my journey to the correct fit.

Initially I was very afraid to push it very deep so I ended up with a seal like any other IEM around the entrance of the ear canal. While that wasn't bad , it's certainly not what it should be (based on what I found out later)

Along the way i tried inserting it deeper and just pushing made it rather painful. I tried the trick on Etymotic video with the ear lobe and moistening the tips but it didn't work out for me.

What ultimately worked for me is to start the insertion with the cable facing upwards and then while shoving it in deeper, I turn around while following my ear canal. At some point I then get a very deep insertion where the endpoint of the cable on the housing touches my ear. It's not uncomfortable and the FR is now exactly what I expected from these.

For me personally I was a bit puzzled in the beginning but now I get that perfect seal almost every time first try around so I'd advise any new users like myself to just get a feeling for your ear canal. The key for me was to figure out it went in better if I pushed it down with the cable upwards towards the second bend and then twist it back downwards while turning to get past that second bend it that makes sense

I'm not sure if this is of any use to newer users but I guess I could share my experience as I would think I'm not the only one who starts out not inserting them deep enough and then getting puzzled over the comfort or isolation.

 

[james444]

Also for everyone else, with the deep insertion, you are prone to getting ear wax pushed deeper and thus clogging your ear if you use these daily right? How do you guys deal with it?

Oh that's a good point regarding pushing the ear wax further in. Didn't think about it until you've mentioned it and now I'm worried. I do clean my ears with cotton buds when I plan to use iem to listen to music.

I also have not experienced going to an ENT to have my ears cleaned so it's mostly myself who's doing the cleaning.

Don't use cotton buds for deep cleaning of your ears, either have it done by a doctor or use a cleaning kit like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Earwax-MD-Removal-Rinsing-Bulb/dp/B06XCZYSP2/

 

[artnoi]

Harder materials tend to give a firmer bass response and (very) sightly crispier treble, especially if we are talking about hard acrylic vs. soft silicone. The custom tips I have is from Snug UK and they only do silicone, so it really wan't much of a choice for me back then. However, a good seal will just as well give a firm bass response while custom tips will give a brighter sound than the stock tri-flanges (*has to do with the position of the filter, etc), so my guess is silicone should works out just fine. Besides, I do find silicon tips a little more comfortable.

Just got my silicone tips. Clarity is very much improved! I guess it’s the upper midrange that sounds most different from stock tri tips?

I achieved the same level of seal with the tri-flange, nonetheless these etys for sure sound better and are much more comfortable with custom tips, although my pair is very hard to put on once equipped with custom silicone tips.

 

[davidcotton]

Just got my silicone tips. Clarity is very much improved! I guess it’s the upper midrange that sounds most different from stock tri tips?

I achieved the same level of seal with the tri-flange, nonetheless these etys for sure sound better and are much more comfortable with custom tips, although my pair is very hard to put on once equipped with custom silicone tips.

You should find that becomes easier once you've used the custom tips a few times.