Hello friends.
I also still like my ER4s and they are an important set in my arsenal. It is amazing that no one has beat them yet. Maybe they have but I am not going to burn more money on custom IEMs until I found the magic set ...honorable mention, Sennheiser IE-800.
I have not posted much on Head Fi but quit posting when the old site went off the air, I think it was called HeadWize (?). I have not posted anywhere much in this community but was quite active in the previous community. Much of that was about Stax headphones and binaural recording. Anyone remember? Boy, a lot has happened in the headphone/IEM world in the last several years!
I have had the ER4S (and later also P) for close to 20 years, went through several sets and 4 custom molds as my ears just don't work with the tips. My ERs visited the factory for delicate problems several times over the years but later I would just buy new ones. I have used them professionally for mic placements and got to compare them to overpriced custom IEMs. The last ER4 molds BTW where excellent and obviously made by an experienced shop and stay with me to this day in all their purple glory.
When years ago I ordered a set of Ultimate Ears UE-10s based on good reviews I was so utterly disappointed. So much so that i believed something was wrong with them, that after decades of listening to top quality stuff and professional sound work. I am also a classical musician and have a good quality "hi fi stereo" system ( age shows here
) and a collector of Headphones including must of what Stax has produced over many years. The UE-10s had a muddy bass and it was different between the drivers both across the range and between them. Poor "soundstage", poor resolution. Center focus and phase acuity compared to the ER4s was poor (!!). These became $1500 earplugs for airplane flights but regularly I would plug them in to see if my ears were wrong after all, but no ....
I had a discussion with the UE folks and send them back. They did nothing other then print a new test graph and send them back to me, telling me they were perfect and it was my ears. It wasn't. Recently my Sennheiser IE 800 broke (again, excellent customer service over so many years) and and why on earth Sennheiser does not offer a custom mold!!!! And now I found this forum again and thinking it was time to share some exerience were I saw mentioned the EJ-16 and something called "Roxanne"( believe). A quick glance at the manufacturers page shows some discussion from the maker about better phase coherency, a patented technique and utterance about phase improvements to their previous products, including the one I have and it was labelled perfect, my ears were labeled and wrong and UE-10 much better then my little cheap ER4S (no!). So, no way will take any gamble on blowing more dough these multi driver designs with very limited true engineering behind them esecially where it matters, UNLESS, a good set of ear and clearly quanity if any of them can beat a classic driver like ER4. Which would be needed in the professional situations that these custom IEMs are aimed at.
Yes, ER4 cables are stiff and noisy but the sound is of very high quality and the phase coherency is near perfect between the drivers and across the frequency range. The resolution is not tops but everything else is. Custom molds are a no brainer for good bass In fact these replaced my Stax Omega 2 for me in many important ways other then delicate classical music and I have considered offering that for sale.
They still make the ER4, wow!
