I can't say I'd call the ER4S treble to be sharp. It's more tame than say the PFE treble yet no one complains about the PFE treble. It's also rolled off above I think 12kHz or so which gives it a relative inability to be overly sharp or peircing. It just doesn't play high enough to do so. Etymotic even specifically toned down the top end a little to a more accepted level for modern recordings. The bass on the ER4S is actually quite good, the midbass at least. It does drop like a rock on the bottom though and doesn't output much below 60Hz. However, higher bass is balanced and full with good articulation and energy. With a bit more midrange presence than what most other earphones are geared for, it may be just that the response isn't the typical V shape people are used to and the bass ends up lighter than what one might expect. I wouldn't exactly call the ER4S veiled, but I might call it constrained in a sense. Dynamics and energy aren't as effortless as some other earphones, but this does help it present in a more balanced manner. I'd be fun to own another ER4S again, especially since I have a better DAC/amp now to operate them. I just haven't been all that compelled to do so being they're only a single driver BA which has inherent limitations in breadth of frequency response. I'm more partial to the dual driver options simply because they cover the spectrum better. I probably should purchase some "reference" hardware again though. I keep trying to whittle down my collection back to my one favorite, but doing so means I keep selling great earphones that I would kind of like to keep if I didn't think they'd sit in their cases most of the time. I think it might be nice just to hold onto a few of nice ones just for reference points when comparing newcomers.
