[RobertR]

Anyone seen these at:

www.djmart.com/inearmonitors1.html

 

[Duncan]

I can't say that I have...

Look like maybe a comparable (at least in cost) product to the ETY ER6...

Go on then... who's gonna demo a pair??

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Looks like a typo to me... that definitely looks like the Shure E3

Or... what *used* to be Shure E3s... can't find the E3 anymore at shure.com--maybe Sennheiser licensed it from them?

 

[jpelg]

Those look like rebadged Koss Plugs ($14.99) to me. What a rip.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

No, rebadged Shures!

 

[DoNotBugMe]

These hearphone are trully ugly and that's really sad. However, what you can't tell by looking at them is that thet are trully magnificent. These are some of the best performing in-ear head phones. The reason why most people have never hear of the brand is because until recently the company was only popular among profesional musicians with their custom fit headphones. The version that you see comes with an year plug type of end that can be replaced with the custom fit one for an aditional charge of $135 (currently) plus the price of and ear exam. Ther headphones have nothing to do with Shure or any other brand. They are actually Future Sonics Ears(TM) model EM3 which are also distributed by Sennheiser.

If you don't believe me that these are some of the best headphones that you can get just read some of the reviews:

http://www.futuresonics.com/apple/index.html

http://www.futuresonics.com/index.html

They are also cheaper if you buy them direct.
Also the specs listed on DjMart are wrong. Here are the correct specs:

Response: 20 hz to 20,000 hz
Driver: FSI proprietary F/R
Impedance: 32 ohm
Sensitivity: 118dB
Isolation: 25 dB
Cable: 45" standard
Connector: Standard 1/8" Stereo Gold Plug
Accessories: Carrying Case (Pouch Type)

taken from : http://www.futuresonics.com/html/products.html

These are not as nice as the Ear Monitors, I'll admit, but they are way too nice for $99. But you really have to hear them to to believe that something this ugly can sound so good. But then again there is Grado ...

 

[enzoferrari650]

I was gonna say that they were Future Sonics but I never knew they were part of Sennheiser.

 

[DoNotBugMe]

I don't think that the 2 companies are the joint. I think that Sennheiser just paid Future Sonics to use these in one of their monitor systems. DjMart probably got some weird package that contained only the headphones.

 

[jacquer]

how would you compare it to er-6 or er-6i, e3c??

 

[cgdef]

I got lazy yesterday and started posting as DoNotBugMe (the Bugmenot.com user). Anyway, I ordered the headphones last night and once I get them I will post a review. Given all the stuff that people are saying about them and the fact that they are professional equipment (even though not extremely high end) these are probably awsome canal headphones. Plus they are monitors so they should have damn near perfect sound reproduction. My order got shipped this morning so I should be getting them soon and I'll see how good they really are.

 

[cgdef]

Got them today and they are something else alright. The first thing that I noticed was that the drivers are larger that you can tell from the picture. They are also heavier than most in-the-ear headphones that I have seen. Heavy with drivers is always good because it generally means better materials and eventually better sound quality. Ok, now about the sound. Keep in mind that the head phones still haven't been broken in (I've used them about 3-4 hours) so they are probably going to get better in the next couple of days. The first time I listened to the EM3-s (I got the Future Sonic version and not the Sennheiser one) it didn't seem like the headphones were that spectacular. The only thing that was really striking was the sound reproduction. Every pitch and every sound is clear and extremely well defined. It gives you a very natural and clean sound without any distortion. What was more surprising is that even though I tested the headphones on an mp3 player the sound was outstanding. Next I plugged them in my Logitech computer speakers and I have a bad surprise. These headphones DONOT tolerate crappy equipment.

The bass on EM3 is very good. Well defined just like all the rest of the frequencies and it is pretty loud. I tested it with some 2Pac (sorry don't have much rap music so the choice was pretty limited). The bass was kind of crappy at first but like I said the headphones are sitll not broken in so that was expected. The performance improved after about 3-4 songs and right now is very close to perfect. While the base is powerful and well defined the mids and the highs do not get distorted a bit.
Played some Tool and some Metallica and EM3 passed both tests perfectly. These headphones shine most on classical music and other high pitched music. I was surprised how well the highs are defined after listening to the deep crisp bass.

Looking at the pictures I was afraid that the cords would be thin and prone to tearing however they are very nice thickness. The brow/tanned color is definitely my first choice but I can deal with it just fine having in mind the quality.

The fit it great. The ends are made from a material very similar to expensive ear plugs and if your years are not bothered by ear plugs then you will be fine with the EM3 materials. I am not sure what the small ones are for and they are definitely too small for my years. The large size however fits perfectly fine. The ends also attach very well to the driver enclosures and they stay in place when you pull them out of your ears. Insertion is very easy even though silicon ends do take less time to insert. The ends of the EM3-s allow your skin to still breathe some when they are inserted so the skin in your ears doesn't ever start itching.

Don't let the looks of the Future Sonic EM3 deceive you. They are an FSI product all the way and the only surprising thing about them is the price. If I had to buy a pair of headphones again I would go with EM3 again. This is probably the best pair of canal headphones under $250.

 

[Zuerst]

What other IEMs or headphone do you have to compare to the EM3-s cgdef?

 

[cgdef]

Even though right now I don't have any Grados I heve used both the SR-60 and 80. I've also listened to the whole Sony MDR line ( they are by no means anything but mid grade and they all have distortion ) and I actually owned a pair of MDR (what a waste of money). The only reason why I ever tried the Sony MDR line is because a review said that they were better than the iPod headphones and better than Shure E2c. I also used Shure E3c and E2c (loaner from a friend that owns a shop). I also tested a pair of Etymotic ER6i and a pair of Shure E5c. Oh yeah I've also listened to some of the mid to high end Sennheiser a couple of years back and wasn't too impressed with them. Sennheisers are great for acoustic music and the models that I tested with good bass had other things that weren't much to my taste.

Out of all the headphones that I have tried the Future Sonics Ears (EM3) sound most like the Shure E5c (or at least I think so). I let them play for about 20 hours now and the sound quality has iproved some. Now the sound reproduction is perfect in every genre that I tried ( the only thing that I haven't tried is Contemporary Christian). The bass is still very well defined and doesn't seem as over-powering as it did at first. It is still rich and powerful though. These headphones shine for live and acoustic music. There's a perfect acoustic guitar reproduction and Eric Clapton's Unplugged sounds insanely good. The second best genre is pretty much anything that uses heavy bass like Electronic music, Dance music, and R&B. Then comes Rock and all the rest at about the same quality of reproduction. None of the music that I plyed sounded bad at all or had imperfections. The reason why I rated the genres like this is because the Future Sonics Ears make acoustic and live music to sound exceptionally good and I actually like it better than on the Shure E5c. The other thing is that despite the small size of the headphones they do have quite a bit of bass and kick to them so that's why I put bass music on the 2nd position. As far as rock music goes I personally like the way Grado-s sound a little better than the EM3-s. Rock music sounds clear and very well defined through the EM3-s but I personaly like more base than what the EM3-s produce by default. You can change that using the equalizer though so it's not that big of a deal.

The bottom line is that if I could afford the price tag of both the E5c and the EM3 I would probably pick the E5c because of the better looks. However, considering the way lower price tag on the EM3 and the sound quality they are a better deal.

Oh yeah, the only problem that I could see with the EM3 is that in the manual they don't tell you much about the way you are supposed to wear them. I found out that first you are supposed to clean you ears very well ( if you alredy don't do that

) and then the 2nd thing is that they perform best when you don't push then too deep in your ear canal. The foam expands in a couple of seconds and creates the exact same seal and sound isolation but you hear the music better.

 

[BigD]

cgdef, nice mini review.
It would be nicer if shoot-out comparo between em3, e2, e3, er6. Most popular IEMs under $200 range. I wouldn't expect em3 to beat e5 since it's not a fair competition. My interest is peaking already...

 

[xlEnt]

these seem very interesting.. hrmmmm

is this the only store that sells them though?

EDIT: Actually re reading ur review you said something about toleration, when plugged through your mp3 player were you using an amp?