If you still love Etymotic ER4, this is the thread for you...
Oct 18, 2019 at 6:38 PM Post #14,222 of 19,203
My ER2XR has arrived lately. Here is my first thoughts with the tri-flange tips which come attached to iems out of the box:

Can't reach TOTL iems level by any means and it's totally normal considering the price tag. Resolution is worse than ER4XR, upper treble rolled off and not enough extension, female vocals is ok, male vocals need to be more clear, good amount of subbass quantity but can't say the same for its control, bloated frankly.

After this initial impressions I was seriously considering returning them. Because I liked ER4XR with tri-flange tips rather than foams. How could be different with these? Well, that's a mistake for dynamic drivers, at least for this one apparently.

I'm listening to it with foam tips for 3 hours without any fatigue. Foams comparing to stock tri-flanged tips, more dynamism in midrange, no more bloated sub to mid area, midbass quantity meets the quality finally, definitely more clear upper mids and timbre is one of the best you can hear from a dynamic driver iem. A change of tips then viola! Completely different experience for me. At this price tag, ER2XR "with foam tips" is a no brainer. Just my .02 cents.

How do feel they compare to the ER4XR after you put the foam tips on?
 
Oct 18, 2019 at 6:58 PM Post #14,223 of 19,203
How do feel they compare to the ER4XR after you put the foam tips on?
After I put the foam tips on ER2XR comparing to ER4XR, mids sound slightly distant from your head which is a good thing since ER4XR is too close in this regard. Also, there is more depth on ER2XR comparing to ER4XR. So all in all I prefer ER2XR with foam tips to ER4XR even the latter has still better treble extension (still do not expect totl iem treble extension from that if you don't have one). Everything else is more fun, especially guitar riffs and male vocals on ER2XR.
 
Oct 20, 2019 at 4:32 AM Post #14,227 of 19,203
Can anyone confirm that real stock ER4S and ER4B earpieces are the same, and it's only the electrical tuning in the cable? I was recently told otherwise, that er4b is damped differently, and I can't find any information to confirm or deny.
 
Oct 20, 2019 at 4:57 PM Post #14,228 of 19,203
Can anyone confirm that real stock ER4S and ER4B earpieces are the same, and it's only the electrical tuning in the cable? I was recently told otherwise, that er4b is damped differently, and I can't find any information to confirm or deny.
er4p and er4s are the same IEM with a different cable, one of them changing the impedance. er4(p or s) and er4b are not the same! because the B has some little components inside the shell itself to mainly high pass the electrical signal. so you could make a B out of an er4p with the right stuff inside a cable, but you won't turn a B into a S or P.
edit: seems it's also in the cable for the B and I've been wrong about this for about a decade.
 
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Oct 20, 2019 at 5:24 PM Post #14,229 of 19,203
er4p and er4s are the same IEM with a different cable, one of them changing the impedance. er4(p or s) and er4b are not the same! because the B has some little components inside the shell itself to mainly high pass the electrical signal. so you could make a B out of an er4p with the right stuff inside a cable, but you won't turn a B into a S or P.
Oh, so the high pass filter is inside the actual earpiece? That makes sense I guess. BA driver itself is still identical?
 
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Oct 20, 2019 at 5:34 PM Post #14,230 of 19,203
All er4p er4s er4b have same driver, same earpiece. Only difference are the impedance network in the cable. er4p being around 18ohm resistor, er4s around 92ohm resistor and er4b has a parallel high pass path 0.22uF + 100ohm.

New generation er4sr er4xr er3se er3xr all have resistors built in the housing behind the driver. Cable are no longer different.
 
Oct 20, 2019 at 5:41 PM Post #14,231 of 19,203
All er4p er4s er4b have same driver, same earpiece. Only difference are the impedance network in the cable. er4p being around 18ohm resistor, er4s around 92ohm resistor and er4b has a parallel high pass path 0.22uF + 100ohm.

New generation er4sr er4xr er3se er3xr all have resistors built in the housing behind the driver. Cable are no longer different.
Hm. This is what I assumed originally, but I'm getting some different answers here overall. Would be helpful if someone who actually owns both stock S and stock B could confirm or try swapping cables.
 
Oct 20, 2019 at 5:44 PM Post #14,232 of 19,203
Hm. This is what I assumed originally, but I'm getting some different answers here overall. Would be helpful if someone who actually owns both stock S and stock B could confirm or try swapping cables.
I have friends cracked them all open before. And I have owned er4p er4b and swap the drivers. I'm 100% confident about the configuration. But I'm not 100% sure about the resistor values. They are roughly at those values.
 
Oct 21, 2019 at 6:48 AM Post #14,234 of 19,203
Can anyone confirm that real stock ER4S and ER4B earpieces are the same, and it's only the electrical tuning in the cable? I was recently told otherwise, that er4b is damped differently, and I can't find any information to confirm or deny.

Those drivers are the same. It has been comfirmed many times in the forum, by both forum members who own all of them as well as EtyDave himself (who helps to design them all those years ago).

As far as I know the S is 100 ohm. 17.5/18 ohm for P seeing how my P to S adapter is 82.5 ohms.

4P with P-to-S adapter actually does not always add up to the exact same impedance as one piece 4S. It doesn't actually matter that much because once you pass certain impedance, they all measured (and sound) fairly close to identical as long as the difference isn't a big number. That means 100ohm ER4 will be almost the same as, said 120ohm ER4 under measurement. So a few ohm of difference here and there isn't going to be a big problem.
 
Oct 21, 2019 at 7:10 AM Post #14,235 of 19,203
Those drivers are the same. It has been comfirmed many times in the forum, by both forum members who own all of them as well as EtyDave himself (who helps to design them all those years ago).



4P with P-to-S adapter actually does not always add up to the exact same impedance as one piece 4S. It doesn't actually matter that much because once you pass certain impedance, they all measured (and sound) fairly close to identical as long as the difference isn't a big number. That means 100ohm ER4 will be almost the same as, said 120ohm ER4 under measurement. So a few ohm of difference here and there isn't going to be a big problem.
Alright, good to know. Was arguing with this one guy on er4s vs b sound and he was being all dismissive of my arguments when he learned that I actually had an er4pt, er4s 100 ohm mmcx adapters, and the er4b cable you built me when he had tried stock pairs of each lol

He was sure the physical damping on the BA was somehow different :rolling_eyes:
 
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