catscratch
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2004
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You described it really well I think. I heard something very similar. Very crisp attack, but very short decay that made things dry and brittle, transparent on first glance but artificial in the long run. The UM3x is very much not like that - attack is crisp, but decay is nicely extended and transients are very well done. It sounds fluid and full, but still very detailed. Similar to electrostatics, but 'stats are even faster naturally.
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Well I don't have the ER-4P on hand to compare anymore, though I could borrow my friend's I suppose. But the Ety did sound pretty fast from what I remember. There is a track, "Avalon" by the now defunct French progressive trance act Spectral, which really nicely evaluates speed, detail, and transients. It is one of the most insanely overproduced pieces of electronic music ever made (in a good way), every single sound has its own reverb and its own texture, as well as its own localized point in space, and the track is simply awash with spatial information and detail gone berserk. It's an incredibly complex, three-dimensional fractal sonic hologram when it's presented properly. The best I've ever heard this track was on the Omega 2, the UM3x, and the ER-4P.
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I think the ACS T2 uses the ER-4P driver as a tweeter, but I'm not too sure about that. I do like the SE530 a lot but it's like the W3 in that it needs the exact right fit in order to shine. The steely highs, warm but plasticky mids and wooly bass - which is all I ever got out of it until I got a good fit finally - is not how it's supposed to sound. It actually sounds very much like an HD650 in an IEM, though faster but less refined. I do like it quite a bit more than the ER-4P, but it's likely that I never got a good fit with the ER-4P to begin with. The IE8 is dynamic and is a completely different animal.
Originally Posted by 3X0 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks. I don't think the ER-4P has much of a boosted treble (compared to the ER-4S, anyway), but I see where you're coming from. I'm not surprised the UM3X has better transients -- IMHO the ER-4 is produces unnatural (consequently, poor) transients. It seems to have a very edgy attack for the leading edge of a note but then the decay is quickly exaggerated for the tail of the note (even though the decay itself is not quite as impressive). I'm not sure how to describe this but the notes have some kind of raindrop effect that is noticeable in a few tracks I have. This gives a false impression of enhanced speed. |
You described it really well I think. I heard something very similar. Very crisp attack, but very short decay that made things dry and brittle, transparent on first glance but artificial in the long run. The UM3x is very much not like that - attack is crisp, but decay is nicely extended and transients are very well done. It sounds fluid and full, but still very detailed. Similar to electrostatics, but 'stats are even faster naturally.
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Would you say the UM3X is "faster" than the ER-4P? I am curious to know if it would ever blur and coalesce the notes together in fast-paced passages (i.e. speed metal) compared to the ER-4P, which I feel handles these passages oddly well because of its weird pseudo-speed. |
Well I don't have the ER-4P on hand to compare anymore, though I could borrow my friend's I suppose. But the Ety did sound pretty fast from what I remember. There is a track, "Avalon" by the now defunct French progressive trance act Spectral, which really nicely evaluates speed, detail, and transients. It is one of the most insanely overproduced pieces of electronic music ever made (in a good way), every single sound has its own reverb and its own texture, as well as its own localized point in space, and the track is simply awash with spatial information and detail gone berserk. It's an incredibly complex, three-dimensional fractal sonic hologram when it's presented properly. The best I've ever heard this track was on the Omega 2, the UM3x, and the ER-4P.
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I must say I am not sure I agree with your last paragraph; I have put the ER-4P ahead of modern options like the TF10pro, SE530, and IE 8 in more than one dimension. A good portion of this liking is based on simple preference, but I feel there are still a few technical aspects where the ER-4P excels in compared to the decade-later competition. The single armature of the ER-4P is absolutely amazing considering it is without a doubt of significantly higher quality than the individual armature components in the multi-armature universals today. |
I think the ACS T2 uses the ER-4P driver as a tweeter, but I'm not too sure about that. I do like the SE530 a lot but it's like the W3 in that it needs the exact right fit in order to shine. The steely highs, warm but plasticky mids and wooly bass - which is all I ever got out of it until I got a good fit finally - is not how it's supposed to sound. It actually sounds very much like an HD650 in an IEM, though faster but less refined. I do like it quite a bit more than the ER-4P, but it's likely that I never got a good fit with the ER-4P to begin with. The IE8 is dynamic and is a completely different animal.