[Happytalk]

ClieOS, you are crazy in the best possible way.

 

[ClieOS]

"Nemo vir est qui mundum non reddat meliorem"

 

[episiarch]

I am right with @Lieon on 4-SR vs 4S (link). I thoroughly love my 4Ss (over the course of a decade and a half I acquired three of them, all still with me), but to my ears and for my preferences the 4-SR is a clear upgrade.

 

[Max Choiral]

Once again I will repeat myself
4SR has a bass character that is similar to nice dynamic headphones while 4S has a bass that has a character of a good tuned flat type driver (electrostatic & planar headphones). Also, mids & highs have more natural tone. While I appreciate more linear mids of 4SR, its quality falls behind of original ER4S. When music calls for aggression, 4SR sounds kind of relaxed.
Standalone, almost all modern DAPs will not have enough juice for ER4S proper amplification unless your player was modified by an skillful engineer or you have at least Lotoo Paw Gold. Old bricks like Hifiman HM-801 + Balance card or several 1st generation portable CD players can show for what it's worth.
It's regretful that company decided to close production of old ER4 line.

 

[ClieOS]

...
Standalone, almost all modern DAPs will not have enough juice for ER4S proper amplification unless your player was modified by an skillful engineer or you have at least Lotoo Paw Gold. Old bricks like Hifiman HM-801 + Balance card or several 1st generation portable CD players can show for what it's worth.

Your understanding of modern DAP might be a little behind. While it is true that companies like A&K and Sony still make DAP with fairly small output, these days quite a few Chinese branded DAP, from mid range and up, can pump out a hundred mW or two worth of power and some of them have balanced output as well. They are more than enough for ER4S.

 

[Max Choiral]

Your understanding of modern DAP might be a little behind. While it is true that companies like A&K and Sony still make DAP with fairly small output, these days quite a few Chinese branded DAP, from mid range and up, can pump out a hundred mW or two worth of power and some of them have balanced output as well. They are more than enough for ER4S.

Thanks for input, my experience shows opposite results.

 

[Happytalk]

Ibasso Dx90 works with er4s. Just a hair better with a dedicated amp.

 

[artnoi]

I’m not sure bout the 4S, but my 4SR plays loudly from any competent sources, except my older iPods that hiss too audibly at higher volume. I mainly use them with Shanling M0 or iPhone 4 + FiiO A5 for finer analog volume control (iOS volume steps suck).

 

[RobinFood]

I’m not sure bout the 4S, but my 4SR plays loudly from any competent sources, except my older iPods that hiss too audibly at higher volume. I mainly use them with Shanling M0 or iPhone 4 + FiiO A5 for finer analog volume control (iOS volume steps suck).

Shanling M0 + ER4 (but XR) brothers! I'm using the clip case and bundle the wires like this, and throw the bundle over my shirt. Zero microphonics and sag! It's magic.

 

[artnoi]

Shanling M0 + ER4 (but XR) brothers! I'm using the clip case and bundle the wires like this, and throw the bundle over my shirt. Zero microphonics and sag! It's magic.

Nice technique! I’ll try that once the clip case arrived. One thing I hate about this is model is that I have to wear them cable-up otherwise the microphonics becomes unbearable.

 

[RobinFood]

Nice technique! I’ll try that once the clip case arrived. One thing I hate about this is model is that I have to wear them cable-up otherwise the microphonics becomes unbearable.

The clip case is great, but it needs to be modded. The clip is too slick so it doesn't hold well, but I put some foam tape meant for baby-proofing with the edges angled off where the clip and back meet. Others put velcro tape, but I found it to rip my shirts a little.
I could never get comfortable wearing them over-ear, they didn't slip into my ear holes right, and when I did by some miracle, I felt it looked sillier than it should.

 

[Max Choiral]

Ibasso Dx90 works with er4s. Just a hair better with a dedicated amp.

You're missing too much with DX90. Amp will not help it, even desktop.

I’m not sure bout the 4S, but my 4SR plays loudly from any competent sources, except my older iPods that hiss too audibly at higher volume. I mainly use them with Shanling M0 or iPhone 4 + FiiO A5 for finer analog volume control (iOS volume steps suck).

Yeah, I guess the time has come to sell all my stuff for listening music and leave smartphone only since it can play loudly with anything up to 400 Ohm.

 

[artnoi]

You're missing too much with DX90. Amp will not help it, even desktop.


Yeah, I guess the time has come to sell all my stuff for listening music and leave smartphone only since it can play loudly with anything up to 400 Ohm.

I dont know about other Android smartphones with headphone jacks, but recent iPhone’s included headphone adaptor also performs really well. It has ~1Ohm output impedance and play most music loud enough with my 300-ohm HD600, although they are definitely too weak for 250-ohm Beyers.

And yes the tiny adaptor works really great with ER4SR. It has very low noise floor, much audibly lower than my harddisk last-gen iPod classic bought in 2011. This is very important since the ER4 earphones seal external noise very well and feature very high quality receivers which are a bit sensitive to noise.

https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm

 

[castleofargh]

I dont know about other Android smartphones with headphone jacks, but recent iPhone’s included headphone adaptor also performs really well. It has ~1Ohm output impedance and play most music loud enough with my 300-ohm HD600, although they are definitely too weak for 250-ohm Beyers.

And yes the tiny adaptor works really great with ER4SR. It has very low noise floor, much audibly lower than my harddisk last-gen iPod classic bought in 2011. This is very important since the ER4 earphones seal external noise very well and feature very high quality receivers which are a bit sensitive to noise.

https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm

the misunderstanding comes simply from @Max Choiral attributing his subjective impressions to power when there were most likely hundreds of other differences between the devices he tried.
on the other hand, when @ClieOS discusses power, he means actual electrical power, not subjective impressions. and he probably measured it himself under load.
apples and bananas.

 

[episiarch]

Not to derail but since we're already briefly mentioning Etys on tiny inexpensive adaptors, I'll add my brief impressions of VE Odyssey out of my laptop:

• ER4-SR + headphone-out of 2013 MacBook Pro 15" Retina: ehh, it's okay.
• ER4-SR + VE Odyssey: absolutely lovely. I could listen on this all day. Highly recommended.
• ER-4S + headphone out (same laptop): no.
• ER-4S + VE Odyssey: also no, just not really up to the job.

Your laptop audio jack will vary, of course. A lot will have changed in laptop audio since 2013. (I could try the comparison with my wife's early-2018 model, if anyone cares.)

I also should try the above comparison using Ety hf3 / hf5. In my experience that model is really shockingly good when it's driven well. (I know it's supposed to be the easy-to-drive model, but still, try giving it a good amp and see how the sound opens up.)