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Feb 16 2006
Etymotic ER-6 earphones Review
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| Summary: Superb sound, maybe a little light on bass, need to ensure a good fit
93
I had several pairs of the beautiful Bang and Olfusen A8 earphones which were just great. Before that I had the Sony earphones that fit in the ear canal like these. The B&O were not only more beautiful but sounded so much better than the Sony's it blew me away. But after the third pair were stolen from my desk at work I gave up with them, they are just too damn sexy. So I found these Etymotics. I had heard of the top of the range ones as being probably the best head/ear phones ever made, surpassing the $10,000 Sennhesiers (yes that is the correct number of 0's!).
I bought them on ebay for about $89. They came in a nice neoprene pouch with a number of different sized tips. These are needed to make sure they fit your ear perfectly. They are designed to completely isolate you from the outside. The supplied tips were too big for my ears, sound was terrible! Unless I really shoved them down my ear hole there was almost no bass at all. I emailed etymotics and in just a few days they sent me a selection of other sized tips free of charge. Great service. I tried the smaller ones and they fitted perfectly. Easy to put in, no problems at all and the sound is outstanding really.
I got the er-gi which are just a little more bass heavy and designed more for ipod/psp type applications. They are only the bottom of the etymotic range but are really great. They are light and after a while you forget you have these things stuck in your ear canal. It sounds a bit sketchy and you need to make sure your volume levels arent too high. because they are so much more sensitive than normal earphones you really dont need high volumes to get good sound. They isolate your ears very well and its quite weird if you leave them in for a long time and take them out to find all this noise going on around you. Good for the office except when the phone rings!
Highly recommended but you may well want to ask for the other sized tips. If you have any trouble getting the supplied tips in your ears then email etymotics straight away.
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Comments
02/17/06
24 
overachiever
| Maryland USA
I'm not into high end earphones really, but good review anyway.
+
02/17/06
rem3
| Minnesota USA
good review, but i'm not planing on dumping my Bose quiet comforts any time soon.
+
02/17/06
18
solarflere
| New York USA
A good way to destroy your hearing, a regular headphones are ok, the earphones are border line because it brings sound vibrations close to your eardrum, thus vibrating it a lot more. But these, make sure that all you hear is the loud sound, as close as possible to your eardrums, making sure that you will never hear a normal tone of voice ever again (without the hearing aids that is). They are meant to act as suction cups. So the sound will not escape anywhere else and go straight into your ears. I would not use them if they were given to me for free.
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02/17/06
mOOsE
| Colorado USA
I agree, I am sure they sound great, but think about the way they work before you buy them. Especially those of you that like to crank the volume to max to enjoy your games.edited: Feb 18 2006
+
02/20/06
42
theazhrei
| Michigan USA
I own the ER4-S's. They do sound fantastic. I have also had the opportunity to do some listening to the Sennheiser Orpheus headphones and amp. I don't know who told you the Etys sound better than that, but they were full of it.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Etys and I still can't believe how nice they sound. Using them with a portable amplifier (the 4s are harder to drive than the 6 or 4P) every game, music, or movie sound so fantastic! But there is a reason why you can't find the Orpheus for less than $20,000 used thses days. Sennheiser makes the best headphones in the world IMHO. If you ever get the chance to hear that Orpheus rig you MUST go for it. I drove eight hours for the chance and it was worth it.
I do agree with you that the Etymotic canalphones are very nice and they are far more portable than this. .
link
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02/20/06
42
theazhrei
| Michigan USA
solarflere said: "A good way to destroy your hearing, a regular headphones are ok, the earphones are border line because it brings sound vibrations close to your eardrum, thus vibrating it a lot more. But these, make sure that all you hear is the loud sound, as close as possible to your eardrums, making sure that you will never hear a normal tone of voice ever again (without the hearing aids that is). They are meant to act as suction cups. So the sound will not escape anywhere else and go straight into your ears. I would not use them if they were given to me for free."
Actually, since they block out outside noise, I can listen to them at much lower listening levels than ordinary ear buds or other 'phones. Imagine listening to music in an absolutely silent room. You don't need the music loud at all to really enjoy it.
There is one danger though. I wouldn't wear them while walking around outside. I don't like the idea of not being able to hear the bus that is about to flatten me. But at work, or Starbuck's, or actually riding ON the bus (or even a plane), they are great.
+
02/20/06
18
solarflere
| New York USA
theazhrei said: " solarflere said: "A good way to destroy your hearing, a regular headphones are ok, the earphones are border line because it brings sound vibrations close to your eardrum, thus vibrating it a lot more. But these, make sure that all you hear is the loud sound, as close as possible to your eardrums, making sure that you will never hear a normal tone of voice ever again (without the hearing aids that is). They are meant to act as suction cups. So the sound will not escape anywhere else and go straight into your ears. I would not use them if they were given to me for free."
Actually, since they block out outside noise, I can listen to them at much lower listening levels than ordinary ear buds or other 'phones. Imagine listening to music in an absolutely silent room. You don't need the music loud at all to really enjoy it.
There is one danger though. I wouldn't wear them while walking around outside. I don't like the idea of not being able to hear the bus that is about to flatten me. But at work, or Starbuck's, or actually riding ON the bus (or even a plane), they are great." But what you still misunderstand, that even with a low volume, all of the sound vibrations are directed into your ears without a posibility to bounce back and out.edited: Feb 20 2006
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02/20/06
42
theazhrei
| Michigan USA
solarflere said: " theazhrei said: " solarflere said: "A good way to destroy your hearing, a regular headphones are ok, the earphones are border line because it brings sound vibrations close to your eardrum, thus vibrating it a lot more. But these, make sure that all you hear is the loud sound, as close as possible to your eardrums, making sure that you will never hear a normal tone of voice ever again (without the hearing aids that is). They are meant to act as suction cups. So the sound will not escape anywhere else and go straight into your ears. I would not use them if they were given to me for free."
Actually, since they block out outside noise, I can listen to them at much lower listening levels than ordinary ear buds or other 'phones. Imagine listening to music in an absolutely silent room. You don't need the music loud at all to really enjoy it.
There is one danger though. I wouldn't wear them while walking around outside. I don't like the idea of not being able to hear the bus that is about to flatten me. But at work, or Starbuck's, or actually riding ON the bus (or even a plane), they are great." But what you still misunderstand, that even with a low volume, all of the sound vibrations are directed into your ears without a posibility to bounce back and out."
Yes, but what I have found is that I don't listen loud. I have recieved much more pain (and most likely damage) at concerts before I started using ear plugs.
Beyond the Eustacian tubes that go from the middle ear to the back of your throat, your head also dissapates sound vibration. You can actually feel that with these 'phones in properly. After a few years of using the 4S's, I can still hear the difference between different types of cable in my sound system just fine.
I would agree with you that these would probably make it easier to screw up your ears. But they're expensive so hopefully anyone that can afford them would be mature enough to control themselves when adjusting their volume levels. If I had these or the ones I have now some years ago, I would have saved myself some pain on a bus trip with about 50 extremely loud teenage girls.
It's unlikely that you could get someone to let you try their's out, but you could buy a set, give them a try and return them if you are still worried after you have actually used them. I know there is a LOT of stuff that I won't even try that everyone else says would be fine so I understand if you refuse to put these in your head but if you start with the volume all the way down and slowly bring it up, you will see what we mean about how these work.
Oh, and when I was looking at another 'phone (that turned out to be far too expensive) I talked briefly with a local audiologist and she didn't think they would be too horrible if I controlled myself. Those 'phones would have been custom fit to my ear canals so no sound would have leaked out.
+
02/21/06
1
angelman
| Alabama USA
I do agree that it would be easier to blow your hearing with these earphones but as I said I have been listening at much lower volumes. The biggest danger is if you get some uexpected tone, like static or something which can be much louder. Also because there is so little distortion it makes it much easier to listen to. I remember listening to a friend's high end audio system. We were running it so loud we couldnt really hear ourselves talk, yet there was no discomfort at all to us. Listening to a crappy system as loudly would have been very unpleaseant indeed. I am no specialist but I think maybe its not just colume but the type of sound that determines what happens to your ears. As to the comment about the orpheus, well I have not been lucky enough to sample for myself but just read reviews on the web. link amongst many others which comared the etymotics very favourably with far more expensive systems such as the orpheus...
thanks for the compliments for this my first review 
+
02/21/06
42
theazhrei
| Michigan USA
I should keep in mind that I haven't had my Etys plugged in to the same equipment the Orpheus was plugged into. Can't compare apples and oranges, as they say. :-)
Actually I ordered mine from Headroom link . I think you meant to link their web site. I go to that other one by accident all the time as well.edited: Feb 21 2006
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