SR-71 & Ety ER4?
Mar 2, 2006 at 3:38 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

Jazz1

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Would this be a good match? I'm considering the version that requires an amplifier. I used to own a pair but lost them, and was thinking about buying a pair to be used with the SR-71 and an iPod crammed with lossless tunes.
 
Mar 2, 2006 at 4:06 PM Post #3 of 8
You may also be better served by a amp with adjustable gain, as IEM's don't really need all that much gain and in fact I believe some have heard a buzz using high gain amps with IEMs, though of course I am not familiar with ER-4's and SR-71 specifically. The RSA Hornet has this, as does the Supermacro-3.
 
Mar 2, 2006 at 4:36 PM Post #4 of 8
ER-4S sounds terrific with SR-71. This is now my reference portable system, replacing an 8620 Pimeta. Other portables I've owned or auditioned enough to have an opinion were the Porta Corda II, SuperMacro V3/627, HeadAmp AE-1, Micro/DM and Hornet. To my ears the SR-71 bested them all (the Micro/DM by the least margin).

I have the standard gain SR-71 and no problem with excessive gain. It's well matched to the ER-4S.
 
Mar 2, 2006 at 7:57 PM Post #5 of 8
If you're happy with the ETY soundstyle, the SR-71 is an excellent choice. If you want to deepen the low-end go with the Hornet.
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Mar 2, 2006 at 8:57 PM Post #6 of 8
OK, I tried this setup last Saturday at the big Saratoga (aka San Francisco Bay Area meet) with my Ety 4S hooked up to an SR-71 + several different mini-to-mini cables + iPod (lossless format). I only listened to two songs from Diana Krall's Love Scenes CD, and in both cases, her voice was way in the foreground and her band sounded so distant away that I could barely hear them. I didn't have too much time to spend at the meet, so I just did a quick 10 minute listen. Did I like not insert the earphones correctly or something? I didn't like what I heard and was thinking maybe it's time to get rid of the Etys and try the Shur earphones instead.
 
Mar 6, 2006 at 8:22 PM Post #7 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by gundam91
OK, I tried this setup last Saturday at the big Saratoga (aka San Francisco Bay Area meet) with my Ety 4S hooked up to an SR-71 + several different mini-to-mini cables + iPod (lossless format). I only listened to two songs from Diana Krall's Love Scenes CD, and in both cases, her voice was way in the foreground and her band sounded so distant away that I could barely hear them.


Over the weekend I listened to this album with Etys and SR-71, and I don't hear what you heard. Her band sounded very present to me, not at all distant.

Specifically my setup was LAME APS MP3->iPod 4G/60 photo -> SiK RAM Din -> SR-71 -> 4P-4S converter -> ER-4P (tri-flange). So not exactly the same as yours, but I think close enough that I should have been able to hear the issue you were describing, if it were inherent to the equipment.

Here are my conjectures:

1. Time for a filter change? I find the need for new filters creeps up gradually, until one day I think, "this really ought to sound better than it does." Then I change them and lo, it does sound better.

2. Tired batteries in the SR-71 you were using? The bass player's pretty prominent in that recording, and if the batteries were almost gone, he might have been the first to suffer.

3. Poor seal? I list this last because it seems by now you would know a good seal from a poor one. But perhaps it is a possibility. FWIW: to my ears Diana Krall's voice - at least on this recording - is strangely separable into two parts, a melody component which is smooth in timbre, and a words component that is much harsher in timbre and has lots of higher-frequency elements. If a poor seal robs the bass and midrange, it's possible to think Diana still sounds "right" because the part of her voice that carries the words is in the upper frequencies and therefore last to go, and the words remain remarkably intelligible.
 
Mar 6, 2006 at 8:34 PM Post #8 of 8
Thanks for all the advice. I think changing out the filter would be a good thing to do as I haven't done so for a long time. Well, I haven't really been using these Etys that often for a while.

I had just been told a couple of weeks ago to get ready to spend two months in London, so I thought I better investigate into some iPod or the like so I can have some music while on the road. Had my mind set on a red-wine moded 4th generation iPod for a little while, but now I am rethinking it over again.
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