Etymotic ER4XR Extended Response Earphone

I felt compelled to write a review of these IEMs having obsessed about them for months now. They are all very good! They should be for the price! Haha. So where do I begin? Most important, above all is sound quality. They are all good with certain signature differences. I have been using Etymotics for years. Using the Etymotic hf3. Excellent overall. Very accurate. Just not a lot of punch or presence to the bass. It's there but doesn’t hit you over the head. I tried other brands of phones and found them to sound inaccurate or sloppy. I had some older Shure IEMs and I wanted to see if their newer models sounded better. I tried the Shure SE315. and the Shure SE425. Didn’t sound as good as my old model. Back they went. Decided I would need triple drivers to get a significantly better sound. Bought the Shure SE535. Lots of money! And wow! Very impressive! Having come from the Etymotics, the sound is very different. Its warmer and slicker sounding. The voice range is a little less forward, which may be simply because the bass presence and detail is huge compared to the Etymotics. The Shure SE535s are very entertaining to listen to. More so than the Etymotics. With the Shures, you feel more like you are being washed with music. With the Etymotics, it just feels more like you are analyzing the sound. There is way more punch and space to the sound in the Shure SE535s. Almost too much punch on certain tracks. 😳 Let me go back to the Etymotics. I tried out the Etymotic ER4XR and the Etymotic ER4SR. Very little discernible difference. Maybe slightly more bass presence with the XR. I have been using the Etymotic hf3 for many years. In my opinion, the hf3 sounds as good if not better than the ER4XR. The reason is that the ER4XR has a higher impedance than the hf3. On an iPhone, you have to turn up the volume essentially all the way to get the full sound out of the ER4XR. This is not the case with the hf3s. They are good at 3/4 volume. Makes a significant difference! Other than that, there is maybe a slightly discernible improvement in separation on the ER4XR. But I mean slight. Overall the hf3 sounds better. And they cost way less! And there is another point. Comfort. This is a tricky issue when it comes to IEMs. After trying to use the triple flange cone tips, I gave up do to discomfort and the scariness of sticking a little plastic Christmas tree up your ear canal. I found that using the cylindrical foam tips created just as good a sealed fit and bass response as the "tree" did. So that is what I use. The Soft Flex Sleeves are also an excellent alternative. Really good isolation and amazing bass response! That brings me to the difference between the Etymotics and the Shures. The Etymotics are simply more comfortable. The drivers are smaller and weigh less than the Shures. Less of a pull on your ear structure. Shures design is supposed to route the wire over and behind your ear. I find this distracting and annoying in addition to being uncomfortable. My solution is to let the wires remain in front of my ears, hanging down in front of me. Much more comfortable. (See photos) This however, necessitates using a shirt clip to cancel out the weight of the cord pulling on your ears. I bought some from Amazon. Works well to make the phones as weightless as possible. With the Etymotics, this is less of an issue because the earpieces weigh so much less and the foam goes straight into your ear canal. The Shures have to kind of sit on your ear structure. Not so comfortable. I'm hoping over time that I will be bothered less and less by this slight pressure. It is worth it to get the sonic results that the 535s deliver. Back to the Shures. I payed a very large amount for the 535s. For me they are worth it for the spectacular performance they deliver. I can only imagine how nice the Shure SE846s sound. I just couldn't bring myself to spend one thousand dollars on IEMs. I do after all have a family to support! 😛 So I am happy I have both. I will probably usually use my 535s for my daily commute to Manhattan. But it's nice to switch out to the Etymotics for a lighter more Spartan sound signature. Hope this review helps some of you out there. With streaming music, it's like being a kid in a candy store every day. And with these headphones, You can hear the candy really really well! 😊

I'll say this first, there is a learning curve to them, your ear will adapt and it will like it. First few weeks were sort of unpleasant with them in my ears, but after that break in time it all became worth it. With them just in your ear and no music playing they're like very good earplugs, very useful for traveling, exceedingly useful for traveling, best thing is that you don't need to charge them, they're small, wired, and never run out of battery! And we haven't even gotten to the point of the product yet hahahaha, the sound, oh my... As soon as sound starts playing the outside world vanishes, everything but a jet engine right next to you might as well not exist, that and maybe gunshots or loud sudden noises. For almost every other situation, they offer unparalleled noise isolation. You might be familiar with noise isolation in its active form, its what all the nice bluetooth headphones and earbuds (airpods) use, and its quite nice, its nice that you can modify it and adjust its intensity. But even on an ANC's highest level, it can barely hold a flame to what these things can do passively (no fancy programming required!), its hard to imagine so my words will only do it partial justice, but I can't stress it enough, you've never had isolation like this before. If you're looking for the ultimate study, focus, silence, earbuds, you may not like it but this is about as good as it gets. AND WE HAVEN'T COVERED SOUND YET. They sound amazing, super crisp, insanely crisp, some may say its a bit clinical of an experience, idk, I like it. I think theres enough bass, although I can see how one may want more. You'll hear details that you've never noticed before in music, songs youve heard a million times before. Obviously soundstage is going to be compromised for something that is halfway into your ear canal, but they still put down great numbers. Other people have done more in depth reviews on the stats than I'll provide here so go check those out before you buy if you care about the numbers. While they may be about as good as it gets for noise isolation, I won't deny that its not exactly the case for sound, ofc there are better sounding headphones out there, especially at this price point. But I think overall, for the packaged deal, these tiny little things, that fit in a cute little pouch you can easily slip into any pocket and not have a weird bulge, these little earbuds that you can just forget about and throw them in your bag when you're leaving without worrying about them not having enough charge, these little monsters you can put in your ear and drown out the world all while enjoying world class quality sound, these earbuds? They're worth a buy

I'll do my best to update this review as I wear these more. As of my last edit, I have owned these for a week. Bottom line: These earbuds sound fantastic, but because of a comfort hurdle and not-great accessories, I don't think they're worth $350. Go for them if they're on sale. First, the positive: these are easily the clearest earbuds I've tried. Every sound is incredibly crisp and clean; I have no idea how Etymotic managed to get both good bass and no lingering rumble after, say, a drum hit, but they did it. As a result, these have an almost sterile, technical feel to them in a very good way: you'll hear every detail in any song you play or video you watch, provided you can get the fit right. This includes distortion or clipping if the recording was flawed. Speaking of fit, these will definitely take some getting used to. These feel more like earplugs than earbuds, and I had to spend several minutes switching between the provided ear tips (regular, large, and foam) before settling on one large triple-flanged tip and one foam. Even then, it's almost painful to feel the flanges digging into my ear canal. Hopefully, the earbuds will get easier to insert as I get used to them. As a final note, these things are so good at noise isolation that they can probably be used as professional hearing protection. That's no exaggeration; earplugs generally reduce noise by about 30 dB, and Etymotic claims that these earbuds reduce ambient noise by between 30 and 40 dB. They even include a warning to not use them while jogging outside, since you won't be able to hear anything around you. After a week of wearing, I've noticed a few minor problems in these earbuds. First, the slider that holds the earbuds under your chin is far too loose; it won't stay in place for more than a minute or two even if you're sitting still. The earbuds are also prone to falling off of the shirt clip quite easily. As Etymotic warns in the packaging, it's possible to insert the earbuds too far into your ear and lose the tip in your ear canal; the glue holding the foam ear tip to its rubber core is not especially strong, exacerbating the potential problem. On the plus side, these have gotten much more comfortable to wear as my ears get used to them. However, the problems I've noted are big enough together that I don't think these are really worth the $350 price tag. Maybe closer to $250 or even $225. Second edit: These are now my favorite IEMs. Etymotic is legendary for good reason. This would get a full five stars from me if the cable were a bit better; the MMCX connectors have a proprietary notch, so the only way you're recalling these is by sanding down the IEMs themselves. Not good, considering they're BAs. After a year or so of daily wear, the angled rubber on the MMCX connector wore through entirely; be careful taking these out or you could end up needing to spend $40 for a replacement.

Background: This is my 1st pair of BA-only earphones. I have other earphones that I really like, but those are dynamic driver-only or hybrid. These sound heavenly. So beautiful. I have had them over a month now and they still give me that WOW factor when I switch from another pair. They are so detailed and so smooth. The mid range and treble are just so clear and so slick. I can hear tons of details. Vocals (make and female) sound balanced compared to other instruments and so natural. The treble is clear and sweet, and it has a great "bite" to it when a punky electric guitar is playing. Nile Rodger's guitar sounds like a bell on these. All genres sound good on these, and I am impressed with how they handle congested tracks and how easy it is to follow individual instruments in a busy song. This is the kind of set that makes you listen to all your music over again. The bass is definitely present. I was worried that the bass wound be weak or thin, but these have punch and slam when it is present on the recording. These are neutral-tuned earphones, so they are not going to loosen your teeth, but the bass is certainly NOT missing. If you cannot hear the bass, your fit and seal is not correct. It took me two days to find the bass on my ER4XR, turns out I just had to experiment with all of the eartips and get the seal correct. Just watch the video from Etymotic about how to insert these and the bass comes alive. They take EQ really well. You can easily make them basshead level without distortion. They are good for hip-hop...it's fun to hear so much detail in the samples. I'm not a gamer, so I cannot speak to how they perform with video games. I have never tried to watch TV or movies with these either. About that fit, honestly...it is not comfortable...especially when you first put them in. They are tolerable though. Each time I put them in, It takes me a minute to get the seal right...then after about 3 minutes of discomfort I don't notice them much at all. True, they are the least comfortable of all the earphones I have ever tried, but I HAVE fallen asleep with them in my ears, so they are NOT THAT BAD. My setup is: ER4XR connected directly to the 3.5mm jack on my cheap android phone. No external amp, DAC, DAP, or dongle. These are easy to drive. I love these. When I hear a new song while I'm out, I cannot wait to get home to my ER4XRs so I can listen to it "properly." These sound SO good to me. If these ever get lost or broken I will get them again. These are my favorite earphone right now.

Noise cancellation is ok and sound quality is acceptable. BUT all this is moot, if the product doesn’t last very long before going kaput. The left ear piece turned out to be defective and only works if bent in a certain way, and the cable keeps snapping off. I had not done a thorough research on Amazon - best reviews show up top by default - but if you sort by recent comments you quickly realize my experience in not unique. Many others have had the same problem - Amazon will be better served showing more balanced reviews by default IMO. Anyways, my problem appeared a day after the Amazon return window had closed. So, I decided to contact Etymotic directly. And it was a horrendous experience. First, the chat on their website did not work. Then I called the support number, and guess what?! There is no response there, no even and outgoing message to record. Finally, I was able to get an email response from someone in support, who proceeded to tell me that I should go via Amazon Returns, even though I had already sent them a copy of my invoice that clearly stated that I had passed the Amazon return window! Arghh! I decided to pursue this with Amazon. And to their credit, after a usual runaround (contact the company directly, etc.), the Amazon support guy understood my situation - after all I am a long term repeat buyer with NO defective returns - and helped me return the headphones that were 2 days outside the return window. Still waiting for a response from the company…. Unscrupulous stuff. Buyer beware. Do your research.

I've been an audiophile for over 40 years. I am 64 and my first taste of music came when I was 7 in Omaha's Orpheum back when Leonard Bernstein conducted the Young People's concert and since then, I loved music (who knew classical could nock you off you seat!). If you've played a Steinway, you know the sound of the keys when you press and the sound of when the key hits the bottom with it's 'earthy fundamental sound, and the strike against the strings. This cannot be heard in most any system. I can hear it with the Lavricable update. I've had Sennheiser HD-600, HD-700, Stax 727 amp and Lambda headphones. I've also had the older ER4 Etymotic back before 2010 and after these I gave to my son in law, I've tried what are now Sennheiser IE-800s, and a host of others and they never gave me the fit, or sound of the original ER4. These new ER4 series are outstanding and unlike the bulky and filled with dips and peaks of other headphones and IEMs are engineered correctly with the Fletcher Munson curves and are actually tested for each ear piece just as the best cartridges (I have the Benz Ruby Z cartridge which has gone through voicing and also the B&K measurement tape). The ER4XR does an excellent job in producing bass with accuracy, the fundamental and the overtones rather than a thud as what the best REL subwoofers used to do with 6' or larger bass drums, large tympani drums and the accuracy of differentiating the metal vs wooden lowest registers of pipe organs and grand pianos. This was a big surprise for me as only my tri-amped Accuton/Focal & Rel have performed this well. I can hear the voices distinctly, the instruments individually can be followed and the nuances of analog playback are not lost. In the digital realm they are a bit bright in the mid to upper midrange but they are still new. Being IEMs one is not going to get the depth of the sound stage and give a good 3 dimensional characteristic of what is being reproduced (from the older 1 take recordings of Classical and Jazz are the best and the Direct to Disc are a very rare treat (Thank you Doug Sax). The dynamics and width / breadth of the music is as recorded. These go to the upper frequencies with no problem either. I have Lavricables on the way from the UK and by then I hope to have them broken in. I am not a fan of any digital hand units and almost all convert DSD to PCM with only one exception, that being AK4499EQ which has the ability to process DSD in it's correct form without conversion as all others claim it but always convert to multiple step higher frequency PCM. See diagrams of each and one finds the difference quite easily as DSD is very simple 1 bit processing at very high megahertz frequencies when DSD 256, 512 and 1024 are used. With no crossover, I can understand why Louther, Mark Audio, Phy-hp and others at the top of their ranges are so sought after. GET THE LAVRICABLE!!! Huge difference and puts the IEM into the higher end territory of open back overpriced headphones. The sound of individual instruments is excellent even in PCM Rock and the older recordings on vinyl are able to distinguish not only each instrument, but the fundamental from harmonics and the higher harmonic nuances. One can hear the background activity of the live recordings of Jazz, Classical, Blues along with conversations. The impact of the bass is very tight and stronger, string instruments sound like what they are supposed to and separation of instruments I thought only available from the better headphone that are made in-house and air between them is very good. Listen to the different filters too. I have never heard ANY IEM come close to this EVER and the fit and isolation are exceptional compared to bulky poorly engineered, over the ear and pathetic ear inserts of any other IEM maker. These people are experts in fit and IEMs as they have been around since 1984 and are also experts in audiology the science of how the ear hears.

The ER4XR earphones were exactly what I had hoped they would be. After much research I decided on these etymotic earphones. I wanted lightweight earphones that were modestly priced (many others can go for $500 to $1500) for easy mobile sound. These did not disappoint and in fact fit the bill perfectly. The one thing to keep in mind is these are 'in ear' earphones, and you must be comfortable with inserting these into your ear canal. It may take a little getting used to but once these are inserted deeply enough you will not only drown out any outside noise you will hear some of the most precise and amazing music/sounds you may have ever heard with 'earbuds'. The ER's have plenty of bass. I've seen reviews where it was stated that there was hardly or no bass at all. I chalk this up to the fact that the earphones were not inserted deeply enough. In fact, after I initially insert them (moistening the ear cups helps) and let the cups warm, I will adjust them another time or two (pushing a little and maybe lightly twisting) to get the most amazing and deep sound. By doing this you will first find that all outside noises are very diminished and the music will sound very full with deep bass (depending on the source/music of course). I like these for their light weight so you won't feel any tug to them but you will know they are in your ear (because you have to insert them fully) until you get used to them. I am totally amazed at the sound of these and for the money you can't go wrong. Obviously you will need a good source to take advantage of the excellent sound quality of these earphones. A good DAC and amplifier will take you to a high level in sound quality. Since I wanted these for mobile use I bought a great phone that I feel has one of the best DAC's/amps available, the LG V40 ThinQ. The DAC is awesome (and extremely tune-able) and the amp stage puts out a little more power than average and can drive these very efficient cans to a very loud level if you want. I didn't want wireless phones since it takes the DAC/amp out of the picture and the wired setup is the best sound you can get right now. (IMHO) Once these are plugged into the LG V40 I make sure the 'Hi-Fi Quad DAC' setting is on and I leave the equalizer settings and digital filter to default and I also set the 'DTS:X 3D Surround' to on with the 'side to side' option. This will give you the most realistic and deep sound stage you can imagine. When it makes you grin from ear to ear you know the experience is fantastic. The bottom line is if you are comfortable inserting these earphones deeply enough and pair them with a very good source, you will experience the most amazing music you can have with ear bud type phones. Happy listening!

As with many others who have had the same problem, the cable was deffective on arrival. The left connector simply didn't work. I ordered an overly expensive replacment cable. With that horrible start I still had faith in the product, now the Etymotic ER4XR work as intended and do a great job both on sound quality and noise reduction, given you spend some time finding the right tips and fit for you.