JasonR
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2001
- Posts
- 13
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I got a pair of Etymotic ER-6 headphones today from Headroom and spent some time with them this evening. So far I'm really enjoying them, and they seem well worth the price.
As a background, my usual headphone setup is Sennheiser 600s with an older Headroom Supreme (~ '95 - with the AA battery tubes). I also have a pair of Grado 60s that I use a lot while away from home - generally powered directly from an Aiwa CD player (forget the model off hand - the one that Headroom recommended in '95 which really sounds quite good.)
I didn't have too much trouble getting a pretty good comfortable fit. I own professional hearing protection, so I'm pretty used to inserting these kinds of things. Still, I was surprised at how well they fit - snug, comfortable, and with pretty significant attenuation. They're not as quiet as my Westone plugs with the Etymotic -15dB attenuators, but not that far off either.
The first thing I noticed when listening was how much I was reminded of my car stereo listening experiences. The bass in a car stereo is produced basically by pressurizing the listening environment since the wavelength itself can't be heard in a traditional sense from such close proximity in a closed space. The bass you hear in a car is different than that from a speaker in a large room. I started wondering about the 'cabin gain' of my outer ear (air space between ER-6 and ear drum).
Anyway, the bass response is pretty darn impressive. It sounds very tight, with really good dynamics and seems relatively accurate.
There are some frequency ranges that sounded a bit 'funny' to me - at least one of which I was able to tune out by adjusting how tightly the ER-6s were in my ears. The midbass sounded very thin and was ringing slightly... was very localized AT my ears, instead of in any reasonable soundstage. This was corrected by getting a tighter fit. When the units were a little loose, they sounded pretty darn good except for that region. There's also a slight brightness in the upper mids that I heard mainly in female vocals as a slight shrillness. It's not bad, and something I began to ignore as I had the phones on for a while. After a few hours of listening my ears didn't fatigue at all, which is a huge compliment as far as I'm concerned!
Overall I'm really digging these. For not much more than a hundred bucks, I was really looking to get Grado 60 or 80 performance in a highly portable package. I think the ER-6 phones really do more than that. They're also surprisingly easy to drive! Right out of my Aiwa CD player, or on my new NEX II MP3 player, they really sound great!
I had always liked the idea of getting a pair of ER4s for portable use, but couldn't really justify spending the money on something I might not use that often. Coupled with a highly portable MP3 player, I think I found a great use for Christmas cash.
And the ER6s leave enough room in the budget to buy a second pair for the SO. That's always a safe move.
Happy Headphonin'
- Jason
As a background, my usual headphone setup is Sennheiser 600s with an older Headroom Supreme (~ '95 - with the AA battery tubes). I also have a pair of Grado 60s that I use a lot while away from home - generally powered directly from an Aiwa CD player (forget the model off hand - the one that Headroom recommended in '95 which really sounds quite good.)
I didn't have too much trouble getting a pretty good comfortable fit. I own professional hearing protection, so I'm pretty used to inserting these kinds of things. Still, I was surprised at how well they fit - snug, comfortable, and with pretty significant attenuation. They're not as quiet as my Westone plugs with the Etymotic -15dB attenuators, but not that far off either.
The first thing I noticed when listening was how much I was reminded of my car stereo listening experiences. The bass in a car stereo is produced basically by pressurizing the listening environment since the wavelength itself can't be heard in a traditional sense from such close proximity in a closed space. The bass you hear in a car is different than that from a speaker in a large room. I started wondering about the 'cabin gain' of my outer ear (air space between ER-6 and ear drum).
There are some frequency ranges that sounded a bit 'funny' to me - at least one of which I was able to tune out by adjusting how tightly the ER-6s were in my ears. The midbass sounded very thin and was ringing slightly... was very localized AT my ears, instead of in any reasonable soundstage. This was corrected by getting a tighter fit. When the units were a little loose, they sounded pretty darn good except for that region. There's also a slight brightness in the upper mids that I heard mainly in female vocals as a slight shrillness. It's not bad, and something I began to ignore as I had the phones on for a while. After a few hours of listening my ears didn't fatigue at all, which is a huge compliment as far as I'm concerned!
Overall I'm really digging these. For not much more than a hundred bucks, I was really looking to get Grado 60 or 80 performance in a highly portable package. I think the ER-6 phones really do more than that. They're also surprisingly easy to drive! Right out of my Aiwa CD player, or on my new NEX II MP3 player, they really sound great!
I had always liked the idea of getting a pair of ER4s for portable use, but couldn't really justify spending the money on something I might not use that often. Coupled with a highly portable MP3 player, I think I found a great use for Christmas cash.
Happy Headphonin'
- Jason