Etymotic ER4SR & ER4XR

I have seen red filters mentioned occasionally, mainly in relation to ER4S. Does anyone know what reds bring to the table? I am assuming some sort of alteration to mid and/or high frequency response?

 

Exactly. See #9 here: https://clarityfidelity.blogspot.com/2015/08/etymotic-research-er-4s-iem.html?m=1.

Stock dampers are green.

 

Great resource, thanks. I assume the colour codes of the Knowles and Etymotic dampers correlate with each other? Or would that be too straightforward?

 

My understanding (years ago) was that Etymotic used and sold the green Knowles dampers as the stock dampers. Looking today, they may not be. The ER4 filters on Etymotic’s site have a green body, and all the Knowles filters appear to have a silver body. I seem to recall stock filter replacements I ordered from Etymotic having a silver body years ago, so who knows. See: http://rinchoi.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-effect-of-acoustic-dampers-on-iems.html?m=1.

I’m sure Etymotic would clarify over the phone. I was always really impressed with their customer service

 

You can search EtyDave's posts on head-fi, afair he talked a lot about filters:

https://www.head-fi.org/search/10688447/?q=filters&t=post&o=date&c[node]=103&c[user][0]=450423

(Hope the link works...)

 

I've used both the red "silver" metal body Knowles filters and the red plastic body filters from Ety with my ER4Ps. They're the same as far as I can remember from the research I did way back when, except the metal ones are hard as f**k to get out without snapping the plastic nozzles (there's a trick using the stock tool that EtyDave shared involving hooking the thread of the tool on the inner lip of the filter).

The red gives the bass a few dB lift relative to mid and highs. I find I still need a bit of EQ to get enough bass. Have the Westone Star tips on order and will report back.

 

Thanks to all. I found some Ety red filters so I will give those a go.

EtyDave is the man! So much useful information from him in that thread.

I know I have been joking about ‘deep insertion’, but WTF is this...

 

The ER doesn't actually stand for "Etymotic Research". It stands for "Ear Rape".

That's really their biggest drawback...

 

Is it just me, or does this thing resemble a small alien life form ?

 

This is where I first discovered the red filter mod. Nut rattlin' is a bit hyperbolic, but there is a significant boost.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/nrb...rom-an-ety-yes-yes-yes-how-to-nrb-mod.626457/

And here are EtyDave's instructions on how to remove the metal filters, in case anyone tries those and needs to get them out again:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/if-...-thread-for-you.538615/page-503#post-12537955

 

Necroing this thread. With lockdowns continuing through the summer, I'm holing up in the office and considering getting something better to use with ER4 and likely HD600 / Utopia.

What are people driving their Etymotic earphones with these days? Anybody tried them with a Vali 2?

 

For my 3SR I use my phone and my DAP (Deltonray DTR1), very nice and practical. My 4SR needs more drive so I use them at home with a large amp Harmony Design Ear909

I really like their true voicing that still holds up whatever music I listening to.

cheers
Ferrum

 

just grabbed a pair of ER4SR for tracking because they're reported flat/accurate/good isolation. hearing accurately during tracking is actually critical imo, because if a musician can hear accurately, they can place subtleties of complementary playing they otherwise wouldn't be able to. even minimally inaccurate subtleties can trick musicians into playing to the wrong vibe. so i loved these as an idea. basically, if you enable them, good musicians will help you mix by playing complementarily to what you have so far.

got em amazon for $200 vs the normal $300. no warranty service apparently due to unofficial merchant, but a nice 30 day return window, and i'm gonna buy the $30 amazon insurance if i keep em so i can replace em if they break. they seem potentially repackaged but they're operating at high quality and the included certification matches the serial numbers on each earpiece. took a risk and seem to have gotten lucky.

deep insertion, etc. gotta know how to do it. twist em in gently. also if you wrap the cable over your ears and tighten the clasp you won't hear any microphonics. much nicer. the large triple-flange eartip works for me for ideal isolation.

listening: wow, yeah. no bass hype, very studio, very flat. if i were to use these to listen to spotify etc on a smartphone i'd bass-boost the eq for more fun. these are d r y. which is ideal for me. the single B/A driver gives maximum coherence. it's almost uneventful, how simple the music sounds. its almost like my brain is used to having to process multiple drivers with weird phase relationships, compared to the coherence on offer here. so that coherence is almost boring, lol. but perfect for audio work. drives you to create interesting mixes. definitely hearing details i'm not used to also, in music. dynamics (off this iphone 6s) are uneventful but accurate seeming. will try them on motu 828es headphone outs when the 1/4" adapter arrives and see if they jump more.

i'm a bit magnetically sensitive, for example i don't like wearing my audeze mm-500's for too long. but these haven't caused me any discomfort in that sense , like odd head confusion etc.

overall pretty happy. these are f'ing useful and also fun for music on the go if i'm out.

 

for any interested. i have a pair of audeze mm500's. the curve is supposed to be flat to approach ideal translation for mixing engineers. but flat from a "mains" perspective, with fully featured sub.

i just spent an 45 minutes or so tuning an eq curve to match the er4sr to the mm500.

here is the result-



they take eq really well. they sound similar to the mm500 now, just without as jumpy dynamics. and not as "plasticy". but i'm impressed with how well they took this eq. feels like the single-driver design makes for a simple and sculptable base. i have them at max volume out of a motu km-828es headphone amp, and there is no problem. taking the eq with grace.

5db on both ends may seem extreme, but this is what was called for. note the ultra gentle 1-pole slope.

mm500's still have better detail, more precise transients, better separation/cohesion dichotomy, etc. but now the er4sr's are totally usable in a studio environment and wont trick me, and still sound great. and remarkably similar from an overall general-listener pov.

er4sr's are tuned to "studio response" perhaps from a sort of orchestral or acoustic perspective. i notice this kind of brighter curve coming out of that world. but the mm500s are flat from a pop perspective where synthetic subs are very familiar from synths, electric bass, etc, so they're more realistic in including the low end, which does happen to sound unnaturally loud when flat, because nature generally doesn't create low end sounds that rival midrange except in extreme situations. this can confuse the acoustic crowd, because "flat" can sound over-subby and unnatural to them....but it's accurate, if you want to actually work with deep bass. close-micing things actually creates a lot of unnatural lowend as well, which is probably how acoustic people hear it in the first place and get confused. they dont want to have to work with highpass filters etc, so they sort of just "avoid" the problem, imo, and brighten their monitoring to sound more "natural". lol. but these er4sr's are at least bright very generally, so it's easily correctable.

when previously calling them flat, i sort of meant in a near-field way. they are very "well proportioned". but the tilt is bright.