If you still love Etymotic ER4, this is the thread for you...

[mark88888]

Nice! Glad it's working for you too.

Yeah, I'll be sticking with it for the time being. It's pretty microphonic for sure but that's less of an issue now I can set it up over-ear without worrying about the connector coming loose. Sound seems good to me but personally I'm not one to expect much difference between cables on that score.. Unless there's really something wrong with one of them or it's unbalanced vs balanced or something, anyway.

The official cables are £70 in the UK ($95) and having had one that was faulty from the start and seeing other comments about them not lasting very well, buying another one would've been an absolute last resort really. I'm just glad I didn't order one yesterday after putting it in my cart!

You can get it cheaper on Amazon Japan, but if you're outside Japan I'm not sure about the shipping cost (or if it's possible to buy from Amazon Japan without an account with it). Anyway, yeah they are expensive. I'm not sure if yours was faulty right out of the box, but I've been using the ER4 for many years and the cords never last more than a year or two, the sound starts to cut out. Probably from it catching on something now and then and weakening the connection to one of the phones. I'd hoped that the cord would improve with the newest ER4 versions, and it has, but it's still fragile. If yours was faulty within a certain time frame I think Etymotic would replace it?

However, sometime you do need to push it with a bit more force to have it 'click' into the socket.

Thanks.. I used a bit of your language to help the seller edit a tip he/she has added the ebay ad about it.

 

[Luis Mad]

You can get it cheaper on Amazon Japan, but if you're outside Japan I'm not sure about the shipping cost (or if it's possible to buy from Amazon Japan without an account with it).

it is actually very easy to register and buy at Amazon Japan, also at Amazon USA from abroad. For Japan, you can easily find the English language version, register, register a credit card and when you choose something it will tell you if it is delivered to your country and the shipping cost. Then before buying they will give you an estimate of the import taxes before you complete the purchase, so you can decide if it is worth it or not. This estimate seems to be very precise. When I bought my ER4XR from Amazon USA, they latter wrote to me and returned 3 euros for excess charges on the taxes.

 

[WilcoRoger]

Amazon JP is good and easy to use. Some products are way below EUR prices, some are above, so YMMV

Note that you'll get 10% VAT deduction from the posted price and often even 5% for paying with a CC True to amazon, they'll charge you your local VAT, so it comes straight to your door. Delivery fees have been very reasonable (e.g 13€ for a DAP) and even the "non-expedited" option I received in Europe over the weekend (ordered Friday, received Tuesday morning).

 

[Luis Mad]

Already some weeks with the ER-4XR. First of all many thanks to those who advised me to get the XR for classical music. I simply love them, they have an addictive sound as others have mentioned. My last discovery has been to connect them to my old Denon Pma-1500R, a 20 year old stereo amp that works amazingly with headphones and it turns out with the Etys as well. I do not know if It is a matter of power or distortion, but the sound with the stereo amp is phenomenal.
With the ER-4XR and the stereo amp the sound is fantastic with the right amount of bass and incredible clarity in the mids and highs. Of my headphones and iems the Etys are now in a second position after the Denon AH-D7200 closed headphones. To get the quality of the Etys in a portable iem is quite something. These little things are incredible.
Connected to my old stereo, I clearly prefer them to my Sennheiser HD599 open headphones which I generally like very much for orchestral and choral music. I did not expect this, I thought nothing was better for classical than open headphones. I was not so surprised when they were surpassed by the Denon considering price differences, but I did not expect them to be surpassed by iems. I do not know how the Etys would compare with any of the 600s Sennheiser.
I also prefer the Etys to the rest of my gear: Denon Ah-d900, excellent closed vintage; Sony Wh1000m3; Final E4000 and Jabra 65t. The Final are really nice iems and I like the tunning but isolation and clarity in the Etys is so much better in my opinion. They are just in a different league. The Etys with the combination of isolation, bass, clarity and detail are really something special just as sound is concerned, you feel immersed in the music, and portability is a huge advantage.

Here I show my Sr25 line out to Denon PMA1500R and Etymotic ER4XR

 

[Deadleg]

I'm not sure if yours was faulty right out of the box, but I've been using the ER4 for many years and the cords never last more than a year or two, the sound starts to cut out. Probably from it catching on something now and then and weakening the connection to one of the phones. I'd hoped that the cord would improve with the newest ER4 versions, and it has, but it's still fragile. If yours was faulty within a certain time frame I think Etymotic would replace it?

Yeah, it was bad from the off but it was quite intermittent and more of a volume drop so for a long time I thought I was having seal/tip/wax issues or something. By the time I knew for sure it was the cable (because it was now cutting out completely and was obviously affected by moving the cord) I was a month out of warranty. My fault for not testing it more stringently or asking online about it I suppose but you live and learn!

As much as I love the sound of the things I'm not sure I would've gone for them if I'd known replacement cables were a headache.

 

[Leywes]

https://soundchaser.org/notes-from-...with-dave-friesema-lead-engineer-at-etymotic/
Notes from InnerFidelity Podcast No. 10 with Dave Friesema, Lead Engineer at Etymotic - SoundChaser.org

 

[Ivan Reis]

Well, I received this cable from eBay that was mentioned earlier in the thread and the seller was really good to deal with. That said..

Neither of the connectors are very tight and the left one is loose enough that it comes off pretty much if you look at it funny. I nearly lost one earphone in the street the other night, it was pure fluke that it got caught on a bit of clothing when it fell. The cable is also incredibly microphonic unless you go over ear and since it's fairly stiff you need to absolutely clamp them in place with the chin.. strap.. thing. Whatever that's called.

So yeah, not ideal really but maybe I just got unlucky with the connector thing and as mentioned, the seller has been very good and immediately offered a full refund or replacement.

It's looking like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy an official one despite being loathe to give a company more money for overpriced accessories when I'm replacing something which was faulty from the start..

I just received my purchased from this same seller.

It fit and locked perfectly.

It has to fit until you hear the click.

 

[Blackwoof]

I find the ER4XR bass boost is more tasteful, Really wish I got that instead when it was £299. The ER4SR bass can sound quite thin in most metal/Electronic but the boost is not overdone like on the ER2XR. With the 1.6k peak & 7.5k dip fixed and using 11k high shelf to add some air, It sounds more neutral to me than the ER4SR?.

This is why I made a ER4XR preset in APO instead.

 

[ER4S]

https://soundchaser.org/notes-from-...with-dave-friesema-lead-engineer-at-etymotic/
Notes from InnerFidelity Podcast No. 10 with Dave Friesema, Lead Engineer at Etymotic - SoundChaser.org

It seems ER5 is coming in near future.

 

[WilcoRoger]

https://soundchaser.org/notes-from-...with-dave-friesema-lead-engineer-at-etymotic/
Notes from InnerFidelity Podcast No. 10 with Dave Friesema, Lead Engineer at Etymotic - SoundChaser.org

My favourite is at the end

Bluetooth stuff is disposable electronics.

 

[Blackwoof]

It seems ER5 is coming in near future.

Wonder why driver tech they'll use & how it compare to the current ER4XR/SR quality wise. Even the ER4SR still outshine nearly everything with EQ, Same with the ER4S with its old for the time BA driver.

 

[ER4S]

Wonder why driver tech they'll use & how it compare to the current ER4XR/SR quality wise. Even the ER4SR still outshine nearly everything with EQ, Same with the ER4S with its old for the time BA driver.

Not sure. Also, what do we understand from driver technology? Different driver type, advanced tuning options etc.?

When it comes 'sound', quality wise means different imho. It's not (maybe will never be) like 1080p vs 4k. So, not sure if they can do 'better' than ER4 in terms of overall Etymotic sound. I also don't think SR is better than S. It's just more 'reasonable' with its sensitivity, replaceable cable and 'tranquil' sound.

The only things that excite me are the new developments/paradigms in hearing... maybe different target curves etc. Who knows.

 

[LIVE_EVIL]

Really, the only upgrade for me in new ER series is the metal body and leas mixrophonix cables. XR is a detour. MMCX connector is proprietory. Resistance and sensitivity were never a problem for me.

 

[Bacon_N_Cheese]

Anyone try the etymotic tuning kit of 5 filters and have an opinion on whether it's worth it? It's cheaper than buying one color sets, but I worry that some of the colors on either ends of the spectrum will be less than ideal

 

[Jupiterknight]

Anyone try the etymotic tuning kit of 5 filters and have an opinion on whether it's worth it? It's cheaper than buying one color sets, but I worry that some of the colors on either ends of the spectrum will be less than ideal

You may want to read this.. the effect on various dampers/filters on ETY... I think the only filter that you may want to try out is the red one, 2200 Ohm, the rest are a waste of time and obviously this tuning kit is way overpriced!
http://rinchoi.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-effect-of-acoustic-dampers-on-iems.html