[panasonicst60]

@EtyDave: I just spoke with a very nice customer representative regarding a recent purchase of some green filters for my ER4s, ER4sr, & HF5 IEMs and asked her to pass on my kind regards to you and inquire about the official balanced cables for the ER4sr ("coming soon"). Do you have any update on the ETA?

Thanks... Brian

Anyone know what the ETA for balanced cable is? Hopefully a 4.4mm would be release. This and the in-line mic has been requested to death, but nothing. We are talking years. This is very disappointing. Etymotic would make a fortune. I had my first quality iem about 6-7 years ago, the hf3 and the wire is coming apart. I have always been a big fan of Etymotic, but with the lack of a balanced cable and modified mmcx is a turn off. Seam like they don't listen to their customer feedback, unlike Ibasso.

 

[panasonicst60]

I'm trying to decide between the ER2SE and ER3SE. Anyone gave this a head to head yet? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DivineCurrent]

I'm trying to decide between the ER2SE and ER3SE. Anyone gave this a head to head yet? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I don’t have the ER3SE, but I recently got the ER2SE. I held off on the ER4 series because I tend not to like the balanced armature sound, so when I found out the ER2 series would have dynamic drivers, I had to get one. I’m sure glad I did because the ER2SE have incredible clarity and detail across the frequency range. And, they don’t have that added harmonic distortion the ER4 has in the midrange due to the BA driver. I enjoy the stock sound of the ER2SE, but I enjoy them even more with some EQ. Reducing the upper mids a bit made them perfect for me. I find the midrange kind of forward stock. And my daily driver is an HD600.

 

[panasonicst60]

I don’t have the ER3SE, but I recently got the ER2SE. I held off on the ER4 series because I tend not to like the balanced armature sound, so when I found out the ER2 series would have dynamic drivers, I had to get one. I’m sure glad I did because the ER2SE have incredible clarity and detail across the frequency range. And, they don’t have that added harmonic distortion the ER4 has in the midrange due to the BA driver. I enjoy the stock sound of the ER2SE, but I enjoy them even more with some EQ. Reducing the upper mids a bit made them perfect for me. I find the midrange kind of forward stock. And my daily driver is an HD600.

Thanks for your input. I heard the er2se is very very close but not as clear as the er3se when in comes to mids and highs. I would assume the er2se would have slightly better bass and distortion.....

 

[panasonicst60]

Like probably many in this thread, I have tried many IEMs over the last 10 years, including custom (hard shell) 3-way IEMs, Triple 10's, Klipsch 10 and 11's, and more recently the lower-cost Kz ZS6 and AS10. I thought some of these prior IEM's sounded good/OK, but when I finally decided to try the ER4XR, I have to admit that at first I was disappointed - they sounded so different.

I then started going through my favorite songs, and listened carefully, and I realized that I could hear things better, and wind and string instruments sounded "true", like I remember growing up listening to guitars, etc. during a live show. That is then I finally realized how much coloring I was used to hearing with the other IEMs. So I started back to back sessions with specific songs where I had a pretty good idea of how a particular instrument sounded "live", and I was also trying to hear how much of the singer's voice was coming through. Man, what a revelation. None of the other IEM's that I have come close to that "even" and true sound I get from the ER4's. In fact, for some songs that are not recorded "well", it shows how crappy the song is!. And for some other good recordings, they sound sublime. If anything, that is the only negative I have about the ER4's - they "will" let you hear bad music more clearly

I pretty much don't listen to any other IEM anymore. I use my FiiO BTR3 with all IEM's, since my S10 supports the good codecs, and the built-in amp in the FiiO seems a little more "punchy" than listening to the ER4's directly from the S10. Maybe it is part of the whole DAC + Amp on the FiiO that makes it better. I don't know.

I recently signed up for the Massdrop on the ER2 so that I have a second IEM to use, but I went with the ER2SE this time, since the freq response is already a little bit "stronger" on the bottom end compared to the ER4XR that I have today. Looking forward to reviewing those soon

So what's your take on the er2se?

 

[wquiles]

So what's your take on the er2se?

This week I got the notification they were shipped, and they are scheduled to arrive next week. I will post impressions when they arrive.

 

[DivineCurrent]

Thanks for your input. I heard the er2se is very very close but not as clear as the er3se when in comes to mids and highs. I would assume the er2se would have slightly better bass and distortion.....

Yeah, usually dynamic drivers have the more impactful bass and lower distortion than BA drivers. I used to have the Klipsch X10, they also use BA drivers and the ER2-SE has the better bass, although less in quantity. Another thing is you may prefer the ER2XR if you really want the sub-bass impact. I may pick up the ER2XR to try out, just to see if I prefer more bass to the neutral SE.

 

[panasonicst60]

This week I got the notification they were shipped, and they are scheduled to arrive next week. I will post impressions when they arrive.

Massdrop is so slow. You do save a bit most of the time though.

 

[panasonicst60]

Yeah, usually dynamic drivers have the more impactful bass and lower distortion than BA drivers. I used to have the Klipsch X10, they also use BA drivers and the ER2-SE has the better bass, although less in quantity. Another thing is you may prefer the ER2XR if you really want the sub-bass impact. I may pick up the ER2XR to try out, just to see if I prefer more bass to the neutral SE.

Having harder bass is not too important for me as more accurate and the quality of the bass. So er2xr is out of the question. I found a deal on a pair of used er3se in good condition for $90 I couldn't resist. Wondering which has the better quality of bass??

 

[panasonicst60]

I know these iem don't require a lot of power. But which one responds better when fed with more power? Anyone test there etymotic with more power than say a smartphone?

Edit: Doing some of my own research and it seems like BA doesn't really benefit that much when feeding more power. I do know that a lot of dynamic drivers do benefit for more power.

 

[castleofargh]

I know these iem don't require a lot of power. But which one responds better when fed with more power? Anyone test there etymotic with more power than say a smartphone?

Edit: Doing some of my own research and it seems like BA doesn't really benefit that much when feeding more power. I do know that a lot of dynamic drivers do benefit for more power.

the power needed is determined by the sensitivity of the transducer you're using, not by the type of driver. here when assessing power needs, be careful that Etymotic usually provides a value in dB for a given amount of voltage. don't directly compare that to specs given by most brands in dB/mW.

also just in case, once you have settled on a listening level, the amp provides enough power or fails to do so in some way. there is no third electrical situation where an amp can just go and send more power into the load without making the music louder.

 

[TrantaLocked]

Is it possible to get a cable with less impedance that that turns the ER4SR into something more like an ER4P?

 

[491838]

^ I don't think the impedance is set in the cable. IEMs aren't tuned that way anymore.

I'm considering getting the ER4XR as an upgrade to the ER3XR because I'm a big fan of the Etymotic sound and find it very accurate. I do find them slightly bright (and perhaps mid forward as well), especially on some days, but the coherency of the sound is very good overall. Better than a bunch of full size cans that I've owned. Would it actually make sense to use the ER4XR as a reference headphone? I think the lack of distortion and good extension in the bass make them better than a lot of full size cans and not to mention the coherency of the sound.

 

[panasonicst60]

Hey Soundstige,

I'm glad you're excited about the ER3 series. After working on them for a while, I'm pretty excited about getting them out as well.

The new ER3s are intended to build off of the new ER4 series at a more affordable price point. Basically, the same family, but with a different response, less strict channel matching and made in Asia. They still use balanced armatures, precision machined aluminum bodies and detachable cables with MMCX connectors.

Basically, they are meant to be part of a new family of earphones. While the cables on the ER3 and ER4 series are different, they are both functionally interchangeable. This will be a bigger deal in the future when we introduce other cable options. For example, we are going to bring the balanced cable out as an ER4 accessory, but it will work on the ER3. Likewise, we are working on a microphone cable for the ER3 but it will work fine on an ER4 if one was interested in that.

As far as sonics (which is of course, the most important), the ER3SE is a bit more accurate than the HF5. In some ways, it's a middle ground between that and the ER4P, but the 4P had some other advantages (again, matching, etc). The difference this time around is that we've introduced an ER3XR along with it for those that want a bit of a low end kick.

I don't think it's going to make most folks sell their ER4SR/XRs but I think it's cool in it's own right and hope folks dig it. I'm assuming we'll all know soon enough.

Any eta on the balanced cable? Any reason for a long delay? Thanks

 

[ClieOS]

Is it possible to get a cable with less impedance that that turns the ER4SR into something more like an ER4P?

As said, there isn't any impedance (=resistors) in the cable so you can't make it less. But it is possible to have a very mild low pass filter build into a custom cable that makes it sound more like a 4P - it will however increase the impedance instead. The actual easy way of doing this is just by EQing.

Any eta on the balanced cable? Any reason for a long delay? Thanks

Don't think fast and furious is Etymotic's motto . It will come when it comes, so to speak. But you can still get 3rd party cable for the time being. I have been using my own balanced cable with ER4SR for awhile now, so are a few others.