[vranswer]

OK.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vranswer OK.

Was that a sarcastic OK? (given your post above?)

 

[dotyman]

I really don't think that is a very good evaluation of the Etys. As mentioned above, a good seal and quality source material/equipment are prerequisite to understanding what the Etys offer. Otherwise, you completely miss their talents. With the proper setup and quality encoding, the Etys are easily capable of superbly articulated detail (without shrillness) and impressive bass. They are amazing for a single-driver IEM.

 

[AuroraProject]

Did I miss the comparison somewhere? All I read here was how unimpressed with the Ety's you were.

 

[random person]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dotyman I really don't think that is a very good evaluation of the Etys. As mentioned above, a good seal and quality source material/equipment are prerequisite to understanding what the Etys offer. Otherwise, you completely miss their talents. With the proper setup and quality encoding, the Etys are easily capable of superbly articulated detail (without shrillness) and impressive bass. They are amazing for a single-driver IEM.

Where the shrillness came in was in listening to Hillary Hahn's gorgeous recording of a Bach partita ( Partita No. 3; lossless, ripped from CD). Her violin should sing, not shriek. Honestly, I've never heard her shriek before except when auditioning a pair of overly bright mid/high end B&W loudspeakers in a very very bright room -- lots of wood and limited furniture. Admittedly, it is a challenging piece and these are subtle distinctions, but there it is. By contrast, with the UE5c, the highs are impressively there, and the violin really does sing with a glorious sweetness. There is a huge difference there, and for me the Ety's wrecked Hillary Hahn -- changed the intended tonal quality and emotion of the music. More importantly, this is a very very high quality recording. A canalphone with an excellent high end should do brilliantly with this recording, and not leave me feeling fatigued -- even pained. Perhaps I am more sensitive to this problem than others, but bear in mind also that my point of reference is a high-end home audio setup. Talk about singing violins! They bring tears to your eyes (the good kind!)

Aurora -- yes i left out my detailed impressions of the UE5c because I did a very long review of them some time ago on head-fi and didn't have the energy to reprise it tonight! Sorry about that.

 

[rx7_fan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dotyman I really don't think that is a very good evaluation of the Etys. As mentioned above, a good seal and quality source material/equipment are prerequisite to understanding what the Etys offer. Otherwise, you completely miss their talents. With the proper setup and quality encoding, the Etys are easily capable of superbly articulated detail (without shrillness) and impressive bass. They are amazing for a single-driver IEM.

Indeed they are amazing for single-driver IEM but how do they par up to Dual-drivers custom molded IEM? Random person isn't trying to diss the Eytomic, she is just comparing them to her own UE5c. She wrote her personal opinion on it-apparently it's TOO SHRILLED FOR HER. Doesn't mean it sound the same in your ears, so don't imply that she's wrong. Just a different opinion that's all.

P.S. Please dont turn this into a Etymotic V.S. UE thread, cause it wasn't intended to be.

 

[random person]

Thanks, rx7_fan!

There is something about canalphone discussions that frequently gets out of hand -- why is that?

 

[crazyfrenchman27]

One man's (or woman's) shrill is another man's (or woman's) sparkling highs.

It's as simple as that.

-Matt

 

[setmenu]

ER4's are strange beasts,out of the box ,P or S I find they do sound a bit hot
and lacking in low end weight .
And for optimal listening need an amp.
This means for ultimate plug and play portability they loose out on convenience.

But if one is prepared to use a portable amp they can be tuned quite easily,
That is assuming one likes a bit of diy.

I have had my own ER4,s for about a year and with the use of diy inline filters and
an amp bass boost have more or less tuned them to my tastes.

They now have a powerful open and airy sound without the tendency to become
overly forward or shrill, more akin to my Stax setup, but with a little more immediacy and slam.

Interestingly I took delivery of some Shure E4,s yesterday and by comparison
the modded ER4's have a slightly less forward 'lower mid' midrange, increased low end weight
and a shade more in the highest frequencies.
The Shures also seem to sound a bit monochromatic by comparison at the moment due
to what appears to be a little excess in the mids.
The Shures are fine phones and I would recomend anyone in the market for good canal phones giving them an audition.




Setmenu

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rx7_fan apparently it's TOO SHRILLED FOR HER. Doesn't mean it sound the same in your ears

Apparently so, because a properly inserted ER4 shouldn't sound shrill. Next to a Grado, it actually sounds quite smooth through the midrange and treble. It should actually sound quite balanced with just a bit of hotness. I still suspect a very bad seal. It makes a big difference and requires some effort to get right. Until I got a good seal, the treble just dominated the entire sound.

 

[setmenu]

The problem with IEMs is that ones personal ear canal shape can produce
a seemingly huge variation in how people perceive their sound.
Not forgetting personal preference of course.

For myself with the ER4, that 'bit of hotness' could dominate at times and
a slight attenuation was just the ticket.
Another area that helped balance them out a bit more was elevate the
very highest frequencies by means of a high pass filter.[in the fashion of the 'B' model]
This helped put the 'hot' area into proper perspective.


Setmenu

 

[adhoc]

fwiw, imo any iem 'review' that has the phrase...

Quote:

Also, my seal was not great, although decent enough if I held them in with my hands to simulate a better seal.

...should be taken with a LARGE grain of salt.

it's akin to saying that, yes, i auditioned headphone A, but i couldnt extend the headband fully, so i rotated the cups around to fit 'streetstyle' or oh yes, i did go for a test drive of car B, but i sat in the passenger seat.

not many people here seem to know of the er4p foamie mod - just trim the foams back till the filter is ~1mm from the edge. smooths out the highs ALOT and improves the bass.

 

[fsrenduro]

That's exactly my point. I'm not trying to say the Ety's don't lack bass or that they don't have an exaggerated mid range because they do. I would never describe them as shrill though, and when you couple this with someone admitting they they didn't get a good seal it REALLY is hard to believe you truely heard what these IEMs sound like.

I don't know how many times I've read in this forum about someone getting IEMs for the first time and saying how terrible they sound, and then doing a complete 180º when they finally figure out how to insert them correctly. There is a learning curve to inserting universal IEMs. Custom fit is not the same, so if you haven't used the Etys for at least a couple of days there is a good chance you don't have them properly inserted.

It can't be said enough SEAL IS EVERYTHING with IEMs.

 

[wolfen68]

From my experiences with RP, this was meant as a simple comparison between an IEM she's had for sometime, and another that is talked about on the boards quite often. I highly doubt there there is any ulterior motive....RP may be very enthusiastic over UE5c's, but she's never dumped on the alternatives either (please correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore, this was meant as a "here are my impressions" thread, albeit brief and not perfectly scientific.

RP: Adhoc's statement is right on the head. Could you better describe your ER4 fit? Did you acheive a seal, but needed your hands to maintain it? Do you think you acheived a good sound seal but it wouldn't hold when you moved your head? Please describe further if you can.

P.S.- Maybe unrelated, but I have UE5c's and I've heard Shure E2's, E3's, E5's, and Ety ER6i's....no comparison with any of those models IMO. I would like to hear ER4's one of these days since I've heard so much about their signature.

 

[random person]

Really I was just trying to compare the two in the quick time I had to do so. It is quite possible in an absolute sense that the ER4P is not shrill or harsh, but in comparison to the UE5c they were. That is the context. Also, the other guy listening to them used the word "Harsh" as his first and only comment. So I am clearly not alone. I don't know what he was comparing them to.

Oh, and I do know about IEM fit -- that's why I went custom in the first place. I did get a better than decent seal with the ER4P but clearly not what I could get out of my custom UE5cs. Therefore, to compensate I held them more firmly in place, hoping that would make a difference. It did, but not enough to make them sound as good as my custom phones. Over time I'm sure I could have gotten a better seal as I tweaked the various options, but naturally it could never be as good as what you can get from a decent-fitting custom phone. That's just the way it is, and part of the comparison.

It is interesting also how much the commentary has focussed on "shrill." I actually said that they were harsh, but also said they sounded relatively thin and lacking in bass. Indeed, it is the thinness and bass-shy aspect of them that to me is much more of a problem than the occasional shriek in very challenging violing solos. So, for someone thinking about these vs taking the plunge to the UE5c, it might be useful to think along the "bass shy/ thin/colder" spectrum vs the "warmer/full more bassy" signature of the UE5c. While this might have seemed an obvious comparison to make, I don't know of anyone who has made the statement who has actually heard them both. So that was my intent -- that's all. And it is all in the context of comparing these two very different phones. It is in that comparison that distinctions can be meaningfully drawn.

And no I have no ax to grind at all. If I had liked them my intent was to buy them for a friend of mine so I did really want to like them! But I found them anemic by comparison -- again, by comparison. Had I never heard the UE5c I would probably have felt the same way about them but it is in the comparison that you determine that they are in a different league altogether, IMHO.