From: Rick Alfaro <rick.alfaro_at_comcast.net>
Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 15:34:21 -0400

Hi Rocker.

For what it is worth, here is my opinion on the Etymotics.

Originally, I had the 4s and I can tell you that you absolutely need some
sort of headphone amp for these to sound the way they are supposed to. They
are very high impedance and really need power for them sound good. They
sound absolutely beautiful with amplification. Without the amp, they sound
terrible in my opinion. I then decided to turn them into the 4p which I did
by sending them back to Etymotic. For a charge of $60, the changed the
impedance on them and made them the 4p which according to what I had read in
many forums, worked a lot better with portable devices and required less
power. They do a little better now as 4p's, in my humble opinion, they
still need an amp or a device with some good output to really sound good.
The sound very good on my Archos Recorder but I have to give it plenty of
bass boost, and I am not a bass head. I typically like a nice balanced
sound, but without the bass boost, or adjusting the bass directly in
RockBox, they still sound very anemic to me. Good luck with them though and
hopefully, you will get the sound you expected from them. If not, consider
a small headphone amp as this will make all the difference in the world and
will bring these back to life and give you truly outstanding sound.





--Best regards,

--Rick Alfaro
--rick.alfaro_at_comcast.net

-----Original Message-----
From: rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se [mailto:rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se] On
Behalf Of Erik Slagter
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 5:46 AM
To: rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se
Subject: Re: Etimotic

On Thu, 2006-05-04 at 20:11 -0600, Rocker wrote:
> Just wanted to thank you all for your cool opinions and advice. Still
> not sure if I will pull the trigger on the ER4S.

BTW anyone experience with the Shure E3c? I bought a set of these a few
months ago and I was soooo disappointed. I have been using Sony MDR-888's
for a few years and was always quite happy with them, clear sound, flat
response, the only thing is that the l/r balance seems to go off a bit after
some time, don't ask me how, I had this with two sets...

So now I bought these Shures (comparable to the Etimotics, according to the
specs) and I am not using them anymore, at all. First the frequency response
doesn't come anywhere near what I was used to (both low and
high) (I am not talking "hyperbass" etc. just a normal, dull, flat
response), it's difficult to get them in and out but the worst (and this is
something the Etimotics don't seem to suffer from), the leads are more than
twice as thick as the Sony's and therefore also weigh quite a bit. You can
feel the wires pull your ears all of the time. You cannot apply the plugs as
described (wire over your ear-shell) because the wire is far too stiff for
that, it won't stick there. Also because the wires are so stiff, any wind
blowing will catch the wires and pull the plugs
(half) out. Oh BTW, I did allow the plugs to get "worn-in", I connected them
to the computer and had them play for 3x24x7 hours at high volume.
No change.

A disaster.
Received on 2006-05-05