Barbarism
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2003
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I received my ER4Ps today and have spent the day pouring through my favorites. I know this is has been done a hundred times over but...here's my take.
Build quality: It’s about what I expected. The connectors are very nice and the wire they've selected feels great. However, the injection molded casings around the split and the transducers are rather cheap looking and the clip looks really budget. From looking at the pictures, the design of the ER6 seems more appealing.
Build rating: 8
Fit: They fit well using the default silicone tips. I'm used to wearing custom musicians earplugs and these feel just as good. I don't like how far they stick out of my ear though. Wearing anything that covers your ears or applies pressure (pillows) would be very uncomfortable. My guess is that they made it long to accommodate more ear types. An option for short or long would be nice. The ER6s look like they're a bit shorter.
Fit rating: 8.5
Sound: I've been listening to "audiophile" gear for years. I have an isolated listening room in my house and currently listen to a set of ML electro-stats, Rel sub, class A mono-blocks, blah, blah. The one thing I've observed over the years is that "reference" level reproduction and what the average, to above average, listener prefers, don't always coincide. For example, I really enjoy listening to cello and organ pieces on my home setup. It's very accurate and there is a certain tone that you can't really describe. On the other hand, I really enjoy 80s pop (smiths, joy division, etc) and even rap (ludacris, etc). While the home setup reproduces that type of music very _accurately_, it never relaxes. By “relax”, I mean to overly saturate and even exaggerate. As a comparison, most people are used to looking at overly sharpened, heavily saturated Tvs -- it’s what we PAL and NTSC users have been fed. If you were to sit an average viewer down in front of a professionally calibrated monitor, they would think that the colors are too fair and that the picture looked soft. The same applies to music. I believe that engineers of today’s rock/rap/pop know their audience -- 99% of the time, the listener will be using common components -- so, they correct for it by emphasizing aspects. Ludcris just wouldn’t have the same impact without that boomy hard-hitting bass. It just part of the listeners culture – what is accepted as sounding “great”. I’ve never read of one but, I’m sure there is someone out there who is a rap audiophile and they’d probably say that they’re looking for a very full sound with accurate mids and very tight but deep lows – I would. My point is that being “audiophile” or “reference” level does not necessarily mean that the result will be stunning -- although you might be stunned when you get the bill. When I first hooked up my electro stats I popped in my favorite pop CD and was expecting magic, umm, not quite; everything sounded different, flat, kind of boring really. I popped in my favorite pipe organ CD and was blown away. I could hear nuances within the pipes that completely justified the effort and expense in minutes.
Ummm, okay, back to the earphones here. The ER4s remind me a lot of my home setup. They’re very accurate and deliver a very accurate reproduction of the music – I like how someone said “analytical”, that describes it well. The dynamic range is amazing and when listening to Yo-yo Ma’s Moon Over Guan Mountain (an incredibly dynamic piece of music, go get it) it’s just, wow – clean, almost too dynamic. The trouble is that I spend only 20% of my time listening to such music. Most of my time is spent listening to, umm, okay, let’s face it, The Smiths is on almost constant rotation; and they sound good overall. For example, the vocals and mid-range instruments are emphasized. You can really get caught up in the details of acoustic guitars also. As for Bjork or Jay-z, I’d steer you away if "Cash Money Hoes " is your usual fare. It’s just not a “normal” reproduction. They don’t deliver that low frequency emphasis that I believe a lot of music demands and quite a few earphones deliver – I’m actually quite happy with a pair of Koss 250s for that type of music. Hmm...I also feel that need to cover the isolation here as well, since it does change the sound. The isolation is the frankly the best that I’ve experienced. Sitting on my balcony almost delivers the same type of stillness that my sound room delivers. It definitely changes how much of the music you can clearly hear.
I don’t believe that this rating can be a one-size-fits-all type of rating that I see so many sites giving them. So, I’m going to break it up into types of music and when it was engineered, because I think that recording taste has change in the last 20 years:
Classical – heavy cello/string: 9.5 super!
Classical – heavy pipe organ: 9 missing some of the pedals energy
Classical – heavy brass: 9
Instrumental ethic: 9
Today’s rock/pop: 7 slightly flat sound, boring lows, good vocals
Yesterday’s rock/pop: 8
Today’s Rap: 6 just doesn’t cut it but, it is listenable if you don’t have an alternative.
Old school rap: 7
Jazz: sorry, don’t listen to jazz.
Electronic: 7, it’s average; in some songs and falls sort on others it's great so…I think that Bjork sounds mediocre but, old Craftwork sounds great so…
Other thoughts:
Well, the cord noise (microphonics) that every talks about isn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. If you’re used to using ear plugs – eating with them in for example – then it’s pretty normal sound. I’ve actually found that the noise from the cord does less to the music then the noise around me so, it kind of balances out. Unless of course, you walk the streets with your earphones cranking out 100 db then… Put the clip on your shirt and it’s virtually eliminated anyway.
Oh other comment; I feel slightly vulnerable to a huge POP from having the volume too high. I had them plugged into my computer and the master volume was at about 80% while the media player was around 20% so, they sounded fine. I went to some web site and it loaded a plug-in which played some crap at 100%, hitting me with 80% of the master volume. Not fun really. Just need to be careful and make sure everything is low before starting. It would actually be nice to have a small regulator built in to prevent spikes like that but...
Well, I know it’s all very subjective anyway and I’m sure I’ll get some flame for some of this but…
I bought them with the 30-day guarantee and I’ve actually decided to keep them, and it’s only been 7 hours. The isolation alone is worth the cost. I’ll still use my 250 for Ludacris and playing games but I think the ER4Ps will find a permanent home on my iPod and notebook.
Build quality: It’s about what I expected. The connectors are very nice and the wire they've selected feels great. However, the injection molded casings around the split and the transducers are rather cheap looking and the clip looks really budget. From looking at the pictures, the design of the ER6 seems more appealing.
Build rating: 8
Fit: They fit well using the default silicone tips. I'm used to wearing custom musicians earplugs and these feel just as good. I don't like how far they stick out of my ear though. Wearing anything that covers your ears or applies pressure (pillows) would be very uncomfortable. My guess is that they made it long to accommodate more ear types. An option for short or long would be nice. The ER6s look like they're a bit shorter.
Fit rating: 8.5
Sound: I've been listening to "audiophile" gear for years. I have an isolated listening room in my house and currently listen to a set of ML electro-stats, Rel sub, class A mono-blocks, blah, blah. The one thing I've observed over the years is that "reference" level reproduction and what the average, to above average, listener prefers, don't always coincide. For example, I really enjoy listening to cello and organ pieces on my home setup. It's very accurate and there is a certain tone that you can't really describe. On the other hand, I really enjoy 80s pop (smiths, joy division, etc) and even rap (ludacris, etc). While the home setup reproduces that type of music very _accurately_, it never relaxes. By “relax”, I mean to overly saturate and even exaggerate. As a comparison, most people are used to looking at overly sharpened, heavily saturated Tvs -- it’s what we PAL and NTSC users have been fed. If you were to sit an average viewer down in front of a professionally calibrated monitor, they would think that the colors are too fair and that the picture looked soft. The same applies to music. I believe that engineers of today’s rock/rap/pop know their audience -- 99% of the time, the listener will be using common components -- so, they correct for it by emphasizing aspects. Ludcris just wouldn’t have the same impact without that boomy hard-hitting bass. It just part of the listeners culture – what is accepted as sounding “great”. I’ve never read of one but, I’m sure there is someone out there who is a rap audiophile and they’d probably say that they’re looking for a very full sound with accurate mids and very tight but deep lows – I would. My point is that being “audiophile” or “reference” level does not necessarily mean that the result will be stunning -- although you might be stunned when you get the bill. When I first hooked up my electro stats I popped in my favorite pop CD and was expecting magic, umm, not quite; everything sounded different, flat, kind of boring really. I popped in my favorite pipe organ CD and was blown away. I could hear nuances within the pipes that completely justified the effort and expense in minutes.
Ummm, okay, back to the earphones here. The ER4s remind me a lot of my home setup. They’re very accurate and deliver a very accurate reproduction of the music – I like how someone said “analytical”, that describes it well. The dynamic range is amazing and when listening to Yo-yo Ma’s Moon Over Guan Mountain (an incredibly dynamic piece of music, go get it) it’s just, wow – clean, almost too dynamic. The trouble is that I spend only 20% of my time listening to such music. Most of my time is spent listening to, umm, okay, let’s face it, The Smiths is on almost constant rotation; and they sound good overall. For example, the vocals and mid-range instruments are emphasized. You can really get caught up in the details of acoustic guitars also. As for Bjork or Jay-z, I’d steer you away if "Cash Money Hoes " is your usual fare. It’s just not a “normal” reproduction. They don’t deliver that low frequency emphasis that I believe a lot of music demands and quite a few earphones deliver – I’m actually quite happy with a pair of Koss 250s for that type of music. Hmm...I also feel that need to cover the isolation here as well, since it does change the sound. The isolation is the frankly the best that I’ve experienced. Sitting on my balcony almost delivers the same type of stillness that my sound room delivers. It definitely changes how much of the music you can clearly hear.
I don’t believe that this rating can be a one-size-fits-all type of rating that I see so many sites giving them. So, I’m going to break it up into types of music and when it was engineered, because I think that recording taste has change in the last 20 years:
Classical – heavy cello/string: 9.5 super!
Classical – heavy pipe organ: 9 missing some of the pedals energy
Classical – heavy brass: 9
Instrumental ethic: 9
Today’s rock/pop: 7 slightly flat sound, boring lows, good vocals
Yesterday’s rock/pop: 8
Today’s Rap: 6 just doesn’t cut it but, it is listenable if you don’t have an alternative.
Old school rap: 7
Jazz: sorry, don’t listen to jazz.
Electronic: 7, it’s average; in some songs and falls sort on others it's great so…I think that Bjork sounds mediocre but, old Craftwork sounds great so…
Other thoughts:
Well, the cord noise (microphonics) that every talks about isn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. If you’re used to using ear plugs – eating with them in for example – then it’s pretty normal sound. I’ve actually found that the noise from the cord does less to the music then the noise around me so, it kind of balances out. Unless of course, you walk the streets with your earphones cranking out 100 db then… Put the clip on your shirt and it’s virtually eliminated anyway.
Oh other comment; I feel slightly vulnerable to a huge POP from having the volume too high. I had them plugged into my computer and the master volume was at about 80% while the media player was around 20% so, they sounded fine. I went to some web site and it loaded a plug-in which played some crap at 100%, hitting me with 80% of the master volume. Not fun really. Just need to be careful and make sure everything is low before starting. It would actually be nice to have a small regulator built in to prevent spikes like that but...
Well, I know it’s all very subjective anyway and I’m sure I’ll get some flame for some of this but…
I bought them with the 30-day guarantee and I’ve actually decided to keep them, and it’s only been 7 hours. The isolation alone is worth the cost. I’ll still use my 250 for Ludacris and playing games but I think the ER4Ps will find a permanent home on my iPod and notebook.
