UM3X arrived on Saturday... I've only had a few sporadic minutes to listen so far, but there's a lot going on here, for a couple of reasons: 1) i'm a loooong time Ety ER4 user-lover, and 2) the tips/insertion have a relatively huge impact on the sound.
this is a very different beast than the ER4.
a few early thoughts, with both of the above factors always kept in mind:
- large, but not overlarge soundstage, that exists outside my head but without diffusing the imaging. very nice.
- good 3D imaging... puts the musicians in their proper places very easily.
- excellent midrange detail. the way people always rave about the remarkable treble detail in the ER4... that was my first reaction to the UM3X midrange and upper-mid detail. it's quite impressive.
- bass tactility. i use tactility instead of 'slam' because i tend to associate the latter word with more of a pounding impact. so Vic, What are you talking about then? take, for instance, Herbie Hancock's tune "Chameleon," off of Head Hunters. i can almost feel the fingers pluck the wrapped strings of the electric bass, or Hancock pecking out the clipped groove on his keyboard.
- bass extension. deep, with no-rolloff. i am one who believes that the ER4 does not lack deep, musical bass... but it does lack impact. and the UM3X has it, giving it fullness the ER4 lacks.
OK, now for the tricky part:
the highs. i'm still trying to figure out the upper register of the UM3X. at first, the highs came off as disappointingly muffled. and when i heard that, i realized this was going to be a trickier transition than i expected, and potentially unsuccessful. however, i think i'm over the hump and on my way to solving this mystery:
first of all, this is where the tips are incredibly important.
- the large Comply sleeves totally swallowed the highs for me, and muddied up the bass. at first (i'll get back to that).
- the Ety triple flange sleeves leave an entire flange unsupported by the shorter nozzle, so while they tightened up the bass significantly, the highs were still too muffled.
- i snipped off the smallest front flange, cut a little ring off and inserted that ring on the nozzle, then slid on the modified bi-flange. this brought the nozzle and the end of the tip almost flush with each other. the highs are there now! yay! except that this tip is not very comfortable for me. boo. sad face.
then i had another revelation... i said to myself, "self, i think as an Ety old-timer, you're jamming these things half-way into your gray matter." so i pulled out the large Comply sleeves one more time, and slid them into my ear just to the point where they met resistance with the wall of my ear canal...much (much) shallower than i'm used to. holy mother of ******! the treble...it's ALIVE!
now so far, the upper frequency still doesn't have that same magical sparkle that the ER4 has, but i wasn't really expecting that. not to mention, the UM3X does so many other things brilliantly that it's a worthy trade-off.
in addition, i have a Shure fit kit on order and i'm going to keep experimenting with tips to find the perfect combination of comfort and sound, and perhaps coax forth a bit more top-end shimmer.