Etymotic ER-4 MicroPro Earphones Review

[admin]

I've always been interested in reference quality music being delivered directly to my ears. Perhaps this is a leftover desire from watching The Matrix - I mean, there should be a way to get that sound to your brain uninterrupted, right? I desire the kind of music that would take me away from where I was and plant me squarely in front of the orchestra, concert, or action of a feature film. The ER-4 MicroPro earphones promised to offer transparent, reference quality music reproduction in a system designed (in particular) for audiophiles, musicians, and those who just want the most clear unblemished sound you can possibly get.

Discuss "Etymotic ER-4 MicroPro Earphones Review" here. Read the article.

 

[GlocksRock]

I recently went on a quest for finding some good earphones that didn't cost too much, I found some Ultimate Ears SuperFi 4 on clearance at best buy, so I got those and they were pretty good. I found that while they were ok, they were still lacking, so I also purchased some Klipsch S4 earphones, and those were better, but still not as good as I was wanting, and those were $80. So I was over at my parents house taking care of some things for them while they were out of town and saw my dads Sansa clip .mp3 player I had got him for christmas sitting there, so I picked it up and gave his earbuds a listen, and to my surprise they sounded downright amazing for what they were, some JVC HA-FX34 marshmallow earbuds, the ones that sell at best buy for around $20. They had the clarity, bass, and treble that I found was lacking in the other buds I tried previously, including my Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket 11mm drivers, which have a very exaggerated bass response. So I went home and found a set on ebay for about $7 shipped, and also went on to look at other higher end JVC earbuds, and found a set of their higher end earbuds that they sell for $99, model HA-FX300 for $35 shipped online brand new in retail packaging, and those are even better than the marshmallow buds, and I couldn't be happier. I'm still shocked that a pair of cheap JVC earbuds sound better than the much a set of Klipsch buds costing 4x as much. I guess you don't always get what you pay for. Maybe when you spend upwards of $300 you can get some really good sounding earbuds, but that's too rich for my earbud budget. Anyway I just thought I'd share my experiences with anyone who may be looking for some decent buds that don't break the bank.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I have Etymotic hf2 headset, which are basically ER-4's - and I can attest they are awesome and fit my needs precisely - I needed high SQ and very strong isolation (noisy commute - both trains and passengers) - they deliver both.
Couldn't be happier - I got mine from a colleague, after he received brand new pair from repair service - he sold me them for $100. In his taste he didn't had enough bass - common complain vs Etymotic products - just make good seal, and bass is there.

 

[lsiberian]

I have had these headphones for well over a year now and they are the most accurate sounding system I have. It's important to insert them properly as instructed. By wetting the flange tip and then twisting it into place. Be sure you use the shirt clip or some other method to prevent them from hanging from the ears. If you don't you will get discomfort from the weight of the headphones. Amazon.com has them for 170 not the 300 MSRP, but the 6i is the budget model for 80 bucks.

I've used these for plane trips, chick flicks, and even as ear plugs. They are fantastic. The isolation is so good I can't hear myself snap.

 

[Alex2507]

It's important to insert them properly as instructed.
By wetting the flange tip and then twisting it into place.
The isolation is so good I can't hear myself snap.

You are putting them in your ear ... right?

 

[cornelius]

I used the ER 6i's for years. Actually mine lasted for about 8 years, but like many of today's earbuds, one of the channels died.

I highly recommend the ER-4s, or if you want to save some dough, the hf5. I'd stay away from the 6i's due to reliability problems. the 4s and 5s seem a lot more durable where the cord connects the buds...

 

[sholling]

I recently went on a quest for finding some good earphones that didn't cost too much, I found some Ultimate Ears SuperFi 4 on clearance at best buy, so I got those and they were pretty good. I found that while they were ok, they were still lacking, so I also purchased some Klipsch S4 earphones, and those were better, but still not as good as I was wanting, and those were $80. So I was over at my parents house taking care of some things for them while they were out of town and saw my dads Sansa clip .mp3 player I had got him for christmas sitting there, so I picked it up and gave his earbuds a listen, and to my surprise they sounded downright amazing for what they were, some JVC HA-FX34 marshmallow earbuds, the ones that sell at best buy for around $20. They had the clarity, bass, and treble that I found was lacking in the other buds I tried previously, including my Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket 11mm drivers, which have a very exaggerated bass response. So I went home and found a set on ebay for about $7 shipped, and also went on to look at other higher end JVC earbuds, and found a set of their higher end earbuds that they sell for $99, model HA-FX300 for $35 shipped online brand new in retail packaging, and those are even better than the marshmallow buds, and I couldn't be happier. I'm still shocked that a pair of cheap JVC earbuds sound better than the much a set of Klipsch buds costing 4x as much. I guess you don't always get what you pay for. Maybe when you spend upwards of $300 you can get some really good sounding earbuds, but that's too rich for my earbud budget. Anyway I just thought I'd share my experiences with anyone who may be looking for some decent buds that don't break the bank.

That's the sucky part of saving money on headphones - you always wind up spending twice as much as just buying the good stuff to start with. Started with Shure E2c, graduated to Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5s, and then fell across a deal on UE TripleFi 10 Pros.

 

[GlocksRock]

While I wasn't trying to save money on buying the cheap ones, I went right to the Ultimate Ears then Klipsch, I found the cheap $20 buds to beat out both the more expensive higher end buds, so I returned them to best buy and got my money back. I'm sure some of the super high end buds that cost several hundred sound better than the Klipsch ones I tried, but for the money I spent on what I have now, I'm very pleased, just wish I didn't have to go through the hassle of buying and returning the other ones.

 

[dkane360]

You are putting them in your ear ... right?

Haha thats exactly what I was thinking.

BTW, I have never tried the Klipsch Image S4's, but the Image X10's are fantastic

 

[GlocksRock]

Haha thats exactly what I was thinking.

BTW, I have never tried the Klipsch Image S4's, but the Image X10's are fantastic

The Image S4's are not bad, but like I said, I still found a $20 pair of JVC earbuds to sound much better than those, but the Klipsch are more comfortable and nicer looking, but not worth 5 times the price if you ask me.

 

[alienpi]

I usually am on motorcycle forums but as we all know crossover happens. Based on another forum member's praise of the JVC Marshmallows, because they don't fall out when putting on his motorcycle helmet, I purchased them and am impressed. My other earbuds and in-ear headphones wouldn't work with my helmet (either too uncomfortable or would fall out), so I gave up on listening to music while riding, but after stumbling upon this guy finding the perfect in-helmet headphones I got excited. i listened to them inside my motorcycle helmet (Shoei RF1000) for a bit and they worked great. Due to it not being riding season for me, it's freezing, I haven't had a chance to actually take them for a ride.

I used them yesterday while snow blowing and they blocked out a sufficient amount of noise (they are very good ear plugs) and are very comfortable. I had no issues with the sound quality, but I don't usually expect much from the music coming straight out of the jack of my iPod?

The sound was actually unusually good coming out of the old iPod Nano with the Marshmallows sounding like what I expect 160kbps mp3s to sound like. As I was listening while snow blowing I was questioning whether or not the cashier got the right price on these, $20 headphones? The bass was spot on, if not a tad heavy (which is fine when there's a lot of background noise to drown it out). The middle frequencies seemed a bit recessed, but with background noise to drown out some some of the bass, I'm guessing the middle frequency recession would seem less pronounced. The highs were there and seemed to have better than average resolution, but also seemed slightly recessed relative to the bass. I was curious to how good they sound hooked up to my reference system. Naturally, I wasn't expecting a miracle, but I was expecting an improvement.

After the first few tracks of the Marshmallows hooked up to my Headroom Maxed-Out Home Headphone amplifier, is when I realized the genius of the people at JVC. In my opinion, the Marshmallows sound better powered by the iPod than by my $1000 reference level headphone amplifier. The accentuation of the bass frequencies was too much when connected to the headphone amplifier. The bass seemed to be so powerful that it sounded like one of those stereo systems that the kids have where all you can hear is the bass. Listening to some organ, I felt like I could feel the organ notes moving my outer ear.

The recession of the middle frequencies made female vocals sound unnaturally deep, almost male. And then where most other headphones sound much bigger and have a vastly more spacious sound, the Marshmallows clammed up to where I could clearly hear their soundstage compress to something smaller than what I heard straight from the ipod.

My impression is that these things are perfectly tuned to their application, and that by using reference level equipment with them just exposes their flaws, which are actually engineered compensations for the low powered portable player market, specifically the ipod since they are color coordinated with their colors.

Connecting the $20 marshmallows to the $1000 amplifier (connected to other reference level equipment) is probably not going to be a common occurrence, so I'm pretty sure that this is not a problem in general.

As a side note, I had to get out my pricier Ultimate Ears (in-ear style headphones that wouldn't fit in my ear with the helmet) to compare, and as usual they sounded amazing with the headphone amp and average from the ipod. I actually prefer the JVCs straight from the iPod over the Ultimate Ears for the overall sound. The Ultimate Ears have better resolution, but the JVCs have a more pleasing sound. Of course once the Ultimate Ears are hooked up to a quality amplifier with Headroom processing I undoubtedly prefer them.

I looked at reviews on JVC's website and found some reviews that confirmed my review of these headphones. One reviewer in particular said they sounded better than his $200+ in-ear systems of the past.

I can definitely recommend these as in-helmet/ yardwork/ exercise headphones. I'll keep the Grado SR325s or Sennheiser HD650s for my reference system.