Etymotic moving-coil based earphones ears-on
By Jacob Schulman 
posted January 9th 2010 11:12PM
posted January 9th 2010 11:12PM
posted January 9th 2010 11:12PM
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I can't wait till an author figures out how to post "hard-on" in a title.
@TonyMontana2367
I can't wait until they get an editor who _is_ an audiophile.
How much less expensive?
@stickboy I'm pretty sure these run about $70 for the mic-free version and the one with the mic / inline controls costs another $20.
@Jacob
The MC series (dynamic driver) consists of the MC5 and MC3. The HF series (balanced armature) consists of the HF5, HF2 and HF3. Funny how the naming works, isn't it?
MC5 MSRP is $80 and MC3 $100.
They are letting people try their raping-wax-removing-in-ear buds?
And you tried them?
Urrgg, disgusting.
@Arkv2
this cracked me up! now i'm the guy who sits in his office laughing alone at the computer screen. thanks alot!
Clean your ears before using in ears. The last etymotic I had was rather baseless even after a good seal. Seems as if ety's r doing what shures are calling ported bass.
@Drlau9 Etymotics will never have overpowering bass like a pair of Beats will, thats not Etymotics sound. The overall excellent sound quality is what they're known for, good enough bass that doesn't mud out the mids and highs.
However you should let your headphones burn in for about 100 hours before you can make an accurate judgment on sound quality. It can be deceiving when you first get headphones and not hearing any bass. But both my Shures and Etymotics improved their bass a lot after I let them burn-in looping pink noise for about 100 hours. I have a burn in playlist with 1 hr of pink noise followed by 10 mins of silence, and I let that loop for about a week. It was quite a big difference for the bass.
@Drlau9
These use Dynamic Drivers as opposed to Etymotic's tradition of Balanced Armature. Dynamic has more bass.
@(Unverified) Since Etymotics use balanced armatures it isn't necessary to burn in and most believe that the burn-in effect for balanced armatures are mostly your own hearing adjusting to the sound. Dynamics on the other hand, DO burn in and get better with age.
@hollis Ah yes If I had read it properly I would of picked up the dynamic drivers bit and how they were planning to change drivers. I have found that burn in for armature drivers rather pointless as my ears can't hear it, I think it needs to be fed into something really sensitive that could detect the burn in effect.
The hf5 is listed on their website at $150, which given the price of their ER-4 $300 is less expensive. A pair of ear-buds past the $100 mark better be made out of platinum.
I spent the majority of my life buying $10 headphones at drugstores and haven't really had any qualms about sound quality. During the holidays I decided to see what all the fuss was about and picked myself up a Maximo iP-HS5 set for $60 on newegg. I tried it out and was impressed by the bass and treble response of the buds.
However, I still don't know how more expensive buds can improve on that. Especially given that most reviews show similar ratings on any buds above $50, only differentiating them based on different tastes e.g. too much/too little bass/treble.
Oh yeah, putting in someone else's ear canal buds is just disgusting and unsanitary. I hope they use alcohol wipes. Wax buildup anyone?
@niteriderxp I have owned a pair of both the ER-6 and ER-6i and the sound quality is unbelievably better than the Panasonic buds I had before those. Most cheap headphones have heightened bass that colours the music, and are highly lacking in the highs. Etymotic makes their headphones such that all the frequencies are exactly where they are intended to be. Because of the accurate response and less distortion of the higher quality earbuds, I hear many nuances that just aren't there in cheap headphones. Those Maximo you tried have dynamic drivers, which just don't deliver the same sound quality as Balance Armature IEM's.
The biggest complaint about Etymotic headphones I hear is that they don't have any bass. This is completely untrue, most people are used to over represented bass, and it does take some practice to get the proper seal in the ear with a canalphone.
@niteriderxp
Nobody pays RRP for earphones. ER-4s are $160 and HF5s are $100.
@dragoneye whilst I agree with your main points about etymotics iem sound quality (I have a pair or ER-6is also) I think its slightly misleading to say dynamic drivers don't deliver the same sound quality as BAs. The point is the majority of inexpensive earbuds use dynamic drivers, however you also get some very good dynamic driver IEMS such as the Sennheiser IE7/8 and the Victor FX500. Both of these are comparable to, if not arguably better than the ER-6i and some higher end BA IEMs such as the TF10 and the SE530s..
@on2a I didn't realize that the Sennheiser IE8 had dynamic drivers. I do guess I was being somewhat misleading. BA are used because they are more efficient than dynamic divers, so they can be driven by portable players. The vast majority of high end IEM's are BA though, and I would suggest that @niteriderxp give a higher end pair a try. Then again, he may not notice a difference, and that is perfectly fine. My wallet would certainly be happier if I was satisfied with cheap audio equipment.
@dragoneye - regardless of the frequency response of the cans - the iPod is playing lossy compressed music using a crappy DAC. Maybe if you get a Zune HD, you'd be able to get something a little less colored, but an iPod is never going to warrant spending a lot of money for headphones.
Can anyone comment how the Etymotics do in noise isolation? I have used Shure E2Cs forever but think it may be time to upgrade. I have always lusted for the Etymotics and now these lower priced models may be the ticket, but I have never found any data explaining how well their method of isolation works. I use my Shures on airplanes quite a bit - sometimes without music just to block out the noise. Thanks very much.
@ejfiii Etymotic headphones have excellent noise isolation. I believe they bill their IEM's as some with the highest noise isolation ability of anything currently on the market. I cannot hear anybody when I have my ER6i in, and I can barely hear the bus running when I'm taking transit. Etymotic and Shure both use passive noise isolation, so it really comes down to how well the tips seal your ears, I would guess you couldn't tell the difference in isolation between the Shure and Etymotics.
@dragoneye
Thank you very much. Out of curiosity what made you pick the ER6i over the ER or HF style? Just the lower price or something else I'm not aware of?
Thank you again.
The BS surrounding the world of 'audiophiles' is something more suited for writing psychology books on than discussing it in a serious matter since the actual things involved are BS and only interesting to psychologists researching self-delusion.
Open any discussion on audio and everybody's an expert, but for some reason absolutely nobody noticed (or cared) that for many years youtube only had mono sound, and at low bitrate to boot, which nicely illustrate the difference between reality (that 99% of the people can't tell good from bad) and observed claims that 99% of the people have a superior hearing to everybody else, plus dogs and bats.
Now feel free to get very upset and call me insane to protect yourself.
@Wwhat Who the hell "seriously" listens to music on youtube? You do to get a good idea of the song but it obviously sounds like crap, even in stereo. If you can't tell the difference between Youtube and high bitrate audio files you are either kidding yourself, listening through some earphones that are not very good or just don't care enough to notice the difference.
I've owned a few different earphones and I DO NOT consider myself an audiophile but I can absolutely tell a difference between each one (though some may sound similar). That being said not everyone is going to like every earphone as much or as little as the next person considering we all hear things differently in addition to having different tastes for sound. It's more about trying different headphones to see which ones YOU like and being happy with it. Others consider it a hobby to try different earphones to see how different music sounds with each one.
I have a pair of ER6-i's and i LOVE them. Great brand
Jacob you are way off. The hf2 and hf5 are their older earphone/headsets. The hf3 is the hf2 with the new iPhone/iPod compatible controls. The mc3 is the moving coil version of the hf3 and the mc5 the moving coil version of the hf5. The moving coil versions being cheaper to manufacture are in turn cheaper. SO hf2, hf3 and mc3 are headsets. The hf5 and mc5 earphones.
Jacob, I just meant to correct info you had here and did not mean to sound harsh with my opening line.