[FastAndClean]

Happy New Year everybody.

Sorry, I occasionally read but have not posted as much as I previously have. I don't have quite as much free time these days, but I will do what I can to post on a more regular basis.

I can definitively confirm that the 4SR/XR are not being discontinued. I think some retailers are just out of stock at Christmas. Hopefully, going forward, we see less of that.

There certainly has been some conjecture here about the change of ownership. Over the years, I think Etymotic has had a really solid technical approach to making great sounding products (which I'm obviously biased towards) and, while we've had some wonderful sales folks here, as a company we have simply been more engineering driven. Going forward, we plan on continuing to make products with solid technical design, but the hope is that there will be more of an effort to grow the brand and the distribution network. Many here have commented on how difficult it is to find our products at times and that is something that we hope to improve, although growth takes time.

TL/DR, I'm still here. We're still working on products and we will be pushing to keep putting out products that we think are cool, and hope you like them too.

As far as Massdrop goes, I don't know if that's in our future or not.

so the Etymotic is working on a multi driver earphone? thats great

 

[davidcotton]

Hmm in that case I think I'll go sr and manually bass boost. Now to decided whether to go 4 over 3...

If you go 3 then amp3 have a boxing18 code to apply to check out to bring them down to £170 if that helps.

 

[ClieOS]

Per request of a member to rework this ER4S cable and shorten it to around 50cm. Probably the shortest ER4S around. Tested on FiiO BTR3 and they actually sound quite nice together.

 

[episiarch]

I've been really surprised at how well the Fiio I1 cable drives the ER-4S. Does the BTR3 do a similarly good job?

 

[ClieOS]

I've been really surprised at how well the Fiio I1 cable drives the ER-4S. Does the BTR3 do a similarly good job?

Haven't really compared them head to head but going by memory, BTR3 seems a little better.

 

[episiarch]

Thanks very much.

 

[gazzington]

How comfortable are these iems as I want some I can keep in my ear for many hours every day?

 

[DeliriumCordia]

How comfortable are these iems as I want some I can keep in my ear for many hours every day?

That depends on your ear canal, which tips you're using and how change averse you are. If you've never experienced a deep fitting IEM, it's going feel awkward at first. This went away for me after a few weeks of use. You need to find what's best. I avoid the included foams like the plague as they're abrasive. The clear tri-flanges work best for me. They don't feel like tiny pillows in my ears, but I don't notice any pain.

 

[artnoi]

I used a pair of Snug custom fit silicone tip from time to time. Can't say about ER4XR, but it sounds just a little brighter and fuller than tri-flanges on my ER4SR.

May I ask which material do you prefer for your custom Ety tips?

My local audiologists said they could not make acrylic shells for my Etys because of some fitting problems, so if I decided to choose them I’d have to get silicone tips, but I didn’t do any research at the time about the material acoustic properties, only the fitting, so I went to a hospital to clea my ear wax for tomorrow’s impression making.

If they don’t inherently differ acoustically that much, maybe I’d go for silicone since they are nearby and faster to get and I don’t want to send my impressions and make my molds abroad.

 

[renault4]

Thanks,

So it would seem as though the ES100/ER4SR combo should become my primary portable DAC/AMP unit for my ideal "in-flight" scenario; this would give me a set of IEMs with good noise isolation characteristics, a quality DAC/AMP to drive them, and the "play-through" capability to pipe in external sounds without having to remove the IEMs.

Would anyone care to comment on noise isolation experience with the ER4SR/XR, especially if you can compare it with over-or on-ear conventional active noise-cancelling units such as those made by Bose?

I am now the proud owner of a ER4SR headset and the Radsone EarStudio ES100 bluetooth amp. With respect to the deep insertion, I knew what to expect from having owned a set of Etys many moons ago, so happily it didnt take a lot of getting used to--I went straight to the grey triple flange and havent messed with that since!

I did get to try the noise isolation in combination with the ambient sound pass-through of the ES100 on a flight just before the new year; both performed as advertised! I'd rate the isolation as good as the QC-15's I've had for a long time. I need to play a lot more with the ambient settings on the ES100 to get it right, but either way, the function obviated the need to remove the earphones to hear announcements, Flight Attendants, etc.

Happy New year to all and thanks for the insights!

 

[gazzington]

I'm thinking of buying the 4 sr or XL. Would they handle black and death metal well?

 

[artnoi]

I'm thinking of buying the 4 sr or XL. Would they handle black and death metal well?

I’d say yes and go for SR. Bass is super fast, clean, and accurate, so your low end response can always keep up (because it’s supposed to be so), while the highs are never exaggerated to my ears, which means that if your music is properly mixed in the studio not to be sibilant, they should just sound like that. IMHO I het treble spikes every now and then with my “smoother” headphones, but never once thay the trebles become unbearable with these Etys.

The mid range here is also super accurate and clean as expected, so guitars and vocals are very true to the ear.

 

[ClieOS]

May I ask which material do you prefer for your custom Ety tips?

My local audiologists said they could not make acrylic shells for my Etys because of some fitting problems, so if I decided to choose them I’d have to get silicone tips, but I didn’t do any research at the time about the material acoustic properties, only the fitting, so I went to a hospital to clea my ear wax for tomorrow’s impression making.

If they don’t inherently differ acoustically that much, maybe I’d go for silicone since they are nearby and faster to get and I don’t want to send my impressions and make my molds abroad.

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.

 

[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 Sung 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.

Thank you sire!

 

[episiarch]

May I ask which material do you prefer for your custom Ety tips?

My local audiologists said they could not make acrylic shells for my Etys because of some fitting problems, so if I decided to choose them I’d have to get silicone tips, but I didn’t do any research at the time about the material acoustic properties, only the fitting, so I went to a hospital to clea my ear wax for tomorrow’s impression making.

If they don’t inherently differ acoustically that much, maybe I’d go for silicone since they are nearby and faster to get and I don’t want to send my impressions and make my molds abroad.

In my experience silicone tips are fine, but I would choose the stiffest silicone they have available. The tips I once had made with a soft and very pliable silicone turned out to be really sonically inferior to two sets I had made - by the same maker and from the same impressions - in stiffer silicone.