Etymotic ER4XR IEM Review

[SteveL]

A question I’m really curious about: what’s the *#*%¥ about bass and Ety’s deep insertion?
I’ve read eternal flames theories about: deep insertion = better contact with the “bony” part of the ear canal = no need for that much bass…

Is there any truth to that? Is it flat out wrong and it’s only about noise isolation? Or is it some trade secret you can’t discuss?

In my experience with a flat Ety and a bass-shelf Ety, it's pure wishful thinking.

 

[tonyo123]

For those troubled by the deep insert, I used to use the foam inserts but switched to the silicon with one modification: with an exacto knife, I cut the tip off - the smallest of the three flanges, The wider two still give a proper seal and by removing the tip, the insertion is not as intrusive. Works great for my ears.

Also, one thing that is forgotten here is that these are some of the best exercising headphones as once inserted for running or cycling, they do not fall off. Now that everything is wireless, I use them with a Qudelix 5K.

 

[AnyDave]

A question I’m really curious about: what’s the *#*%¥ about bass and Ety’s deep insertion?
I’ve read eternal flames theories about: deep insertion = better contact with the “bony” part of the ear canal = no need for that much bass…

Is there any truth to that? Is it flat out wrong and it’s only about noise isolation? Or is it some trade secret you can’t discuss?

The deep insertion is for better isolation, but you do need a good seal as leaks will cause a low-frequency roll-off. Any verbiage I've ever seen about the bony portion of the ear canal was in reference to isolation, of which Etymotic does get a bit more (verified by third party labs).

As far as frequencies go, deep insertion will have a pronounced effect on the upper mids and high frequencies, however. Insertion depth makes a big difference. Shallow insertion will yield an overall frequency balance that is different than you would get with a deep insertion (and different from our published graphs). So the tonal balance does shift when it's pushed in deeper, which may be what some folks are describing.

When I was at Etymotic, one of the primary complaints we got from customers was that it didn't have enough bass. Many of these customers simply weren't getting a good seal, so I am sure it did sound pretty bad. Many, if not most, were happy once they figured out how to get a good, deep seal. Of course, some folks understandably want more bass, even when they do achieve a seal, which is fine as well.

 

[music_lover]

The deep insertion is for better isolation, but you do need a good seal as leaks will cause a low-frequency roll-off. Any verbiage I've ever seen about the bony portion of the ear canal was in reference to isolation, of which Etymotic does get a bit more (verified by third party labs).

As far as frequencies go, deep insertion will have a pronounced effect on the upper mids and high frequencies, however. Insertion depth makes a big difference. Shallow insertion will yield an overall frequency balance that is different than you would get with a deep insertion (and different from our published graphs). So the tonal balance does shift when it's pushed in deeper, which may be what some folks are describing.

When I was at Etymotic, one of the primary complaints we got from customers was that it didn't have enough bass. Many of these customers simply weren't getting a good seal, so I am sure it did sound pretty bad. Many, if not most, were happy once they figured out how to get a good, deep seal. Of course, some folks understandably want more bass, even when they do achieve a seal, which is fine as well.

You did a decent job on them. I really liked the midrange when I had them. I found it to be smooth and clear and also good decision on bringing the treble down that certainly helped the overall tone. They were slightly bass light, but they did have an effortless clarity that I enjoyed very much. Thank you for making this iem.

 

[Ambient384]

No idea why people are freaking out that the ER4XR is 0.98 ~ 1.6% at 1KHz/104db. When the ER4SR is 0.2 ~ 0.5% at 1KHz/104db can handle a full 12db bass lift(on 4XR that 6db 105Hz low shelf) no issue.

ER4SR is much better showing for what a Single BA can do. My ER4SR unit rates <0.4% at 1KHz/104db.

 

[blse59]

IMO one of the better sounding IEMs if not the best. I personally place more importance on hearing an accurate reproduction of the recording rather than "seasoning" the sound to my taste. I want to hear what the engineer intended rather than taking a recording and saying, it needs a little more salt or more pepper. One of the benefits of high isolation IEMs is you can listen at low levels because they are literally earplugs and block outside sound. The distortion numbers are meaningless because no one listens to it that loud without damaging their hearing. We are living in an age now where it's time to start balancing the left and right sides of the brain and stop being over-reliant on the left side and placing so much weight on numbers and graphs.

 

[cookiefactory]

Got a real soft spot for Etymotic. The ER4P/S were my first "real" IEMs and served as my standard for years. It wasn't until Shure released the E4C that I found an IEM I liked better overall. Since then I've been in the Shure camp with the SE846 w/ TW2 as my workout/travel set and KSE1200 as my reference IEM.

 

[Ambient384]

IMO one of the better sounding IEMs if not the best. I personally place more importance on hearing an accurate reproduction of the recording rather than "seasoning" the sound to my taste. I want to hear what the engineer intended rather than taking a recording and saying, it needs a little more salt or more pepper. One of the benefits of high isolation IEMs is you can listen at low levels because they are literally earplugs and block outside sound. The distortion numbers are meaningless because no one listens to it that loud without damaging their hearing. We are living in an age now where it's time to start balancing the left and right sides of the brain and stop being over-reliant on the left side and placing so much weight on numbers and graphs.

Yeah the ER4XR I've got rates 1.2% at 1KHz/104db which means nothing since It rates 0.58% at 1KHz/94db. It still sounds/performs like planar HP's like the LCD-X and others in IEM form.

 

[isostasy]

I recently received a pack of ER38-15S Frost 3-flanged eartips from Westone (I believe they're now the parent company of Etymotic Research).

They are different to the old ones, not frosted at all. More like the large clear eartips but even less opaque material.

I will update after some use if anyone is interested. Just like the old ones they're a bit hard and uncomfortable when new.

(duplicate post in ER2XR review)

 

[Soandso]

As regards alternative ear tips for the etymotic ERX-series I adapted to a more comfortable tip after their stock triple flange ones irritated the ear canal lining.

Taking the etymotic foam tips' central core ring out from the enveloping foam and used that core inserted into a different manufacturer's ear tip as a reducer of the new standard bore tip. This allowed the new ear tip to grip the etymotic post and, as it turned out, stay in place on the iem post when removing them from the ear.

Then I used a new scalpel blade ("X-acto" knife or new razor blade would do) to precisely cut off the excess of the foam tip core ring so that when on the etymotic's metal post it did not protrude. This allowed the alternative ear tip once installed over that reducer core to protrude slightly beyond the iem's metal post.

What I got was a shorter ear tip than the stock triple flange, but by using a "small" size alternative tip the ability to get a somewhat deep insertion. The alternative ear tip I used was the brand Tangzu Tang Sancai "wide bore" Small size (yellow band) , which both grip well and have a tapered, not blunt, end point. My impression is their wide bore acts complimenting the iem posts' actual bore and this ear tip brand's taper deliver a beneficial sonic quality distinct from the standard narrow bore etymotic triple flanged ear tip.

EDIT: Below are pictures of this (for me) more comfortable adaptation during extended listening modification. The grey pieces are what came from inside the etymotic foam ear tips and serve as reducers to put on the etymotic post that slide the non-etymotic ear tips over.

Next picture shows one viewed from above already modified with the blue post bore unobstructed. For greatest isolation from external sound on airplanes/trains/buses the triple flange ear tips are probably still better.

 

[Ambient384]

Yeah the ER4XR I've got rates 1.2% at 1KHz/104db which means nothing since It rates 0.58% at 1KHz/94db. It still sounds/performs like planar HP's like the LCD-X and others in IEM form.

But doesn't change the fact I use my ER4SR with 4db 105Hz low shelf(mimics 4XR bass) just because of the extra headroom(<0.39% at 1KHz/104db). Just keeping the ER4XR as a back up IEM than It being my daily driver.

 

[Marantega]

This is a review, listening tests, equalization and detailed measurements of the Etymotic ER4XR IEM. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $300.

View attachment 371943
Perhaps there is no more famous IEM manufacturer than IEM. I think I got my original Etymotics some 30 years ago. The E4XR has slightly higher bass response than the E4SR which I purchased a few years ago.

Different set of tips are provided. For measurements, I used their conical silicone tips which provided a challenge in getting accurate measurements. For listening, I had to use the foam one as the silicon tips have never fit my ear canal.

If you are not familiar with my IEM/Headphone measurements, I suggest you watch this tutorial:

Etymotic ER4XR Measurements
Let's start with our standard frequency response measurements:
View attachment 371945
As expected, we have flat bass response. Compliance then gets good with some extra lower treble response. For EQ development we have the difference between our measurement and target:
View attachment 371946

I was disappointed to see rather high distortion in mid frequencies:
View attachment 371947

We see a large jump at 114 dBSPL with the graph changing shape, indicating limiting. Seeing how we need to boost bass, that concerns me some.

Another surprise was low sensitivity:
View attachment 371948

I expect it to need fair bit of power despite rather low impedance:
View attachment 371949

Group delay was uneventful:
View attachment 371950

Etymotic ER4XR Listening Tests and Equalization
First impression was that the sound was "fine." From experience I know that without a comparison reference, these impressions can be faulty so I developed a set of filters one by one:
View attachment 371951
I first dialed in the bass shelving filter. That added warmth to even female vocals where you don't think you need much bass. I then put in a pair of filters to create the flat top EQ we need for that area. This took away some sharpness that was there without it. Filling the hole at 6.1 kHz is tricky as the two channels don't match so I used a conservative value. With all the filters in place, AB testing shows very nice transformation with EQ, with sound being more full bodied and at the same time, with very nice resolution in higher frequencies. My reference tracks sounded fantastic now. Turning off EQ didn't make the experience terrible but for my preference, EQ made a large, positive difference.

I had to have my RME ADI-2 Pro level where I usually have headphones at some -20 dB. Playing sub-bass heavy track as you see in the above display, causes static indicating that I had hit the limit of performance even though the overall volume was not especially high. Turning volume down most eliminated the static but the notes were clearly distorted.

Spatial qualities with EQ were very good for an IEM.

Conclusions
This is a type of iconic IEM you want to have tested. While some of the performance characteristics such as flattish bass was as expected, the high distortion was not. Nor was the slight treble exaggeration. This is an expensive IEM at $300 with an out of box performance that doesn't satisfy in this day and age. With EQ though it does sound excellent.

I can't recommend the Etymotic ER4XR IEM as is. If you have it, I highly suggest equalizing as it nicely improves performance.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Just one question, are you able to hear the distorsion with your ears, as well as the treble exagerarion? And if yes, how old are you? Can we have a diagram of your earing test? That would be interesting... Measures are useless if you cannot hear what's measured

 

[Somafunk]

 

[Andrei Kirilenko]

I'm pretty bummed out to see this review. I've been using Etymotics for around 20 years, mainly in professional environments -- used them when I was working as a boom op for commercial video, as a live sound engineer for PFL listening in noisy environments, and once when I was on tour with a band I mixed an entire record with the ER4S on the tour bus during drives. Later, after losing my home studio to a fire in 2022, I mixed another record in my crappy temporary apartment on a pair of ER4SRs. The isolation and portability have given me so many opportunities and fun memories. I own 3 pairs of ER4SRs, 2 ER4XRs, and one each of the ER2XR and old ER4S. I had an ER4P and ER6i that I used for so many hundreds of hours that I eventually killed them. I've traveled to 45 countries doing music and have ALWAYS had a pair of Etymotics in my bag.

All that said, just a couple of thoughts here. One is that the insane isolation means that I rarely listen to Etymotics above ~85dBSPL. In studio mixing, it's common to shoot for 85-87dB SPL because "that's where our ears are the flattest." Not a really meaningful statement from a technical standpoint, but 85dB seems to be a good spot to get into a range where you can hear "deeper" into a mix without damaging your ears or creating rapid fatigue that causes you to make bad decisions. I suspect that the distortion inherent to a single BA driver is much less an issue at 85dB SPL than it would seem to be in these tests. Not surprisingly, Etymotic themselves, being in the business of hearing protection, promote the deep isolation as a way to listen at lower SPLs without missing details.

I'll also note that I am not an enjoyer of the Harman IE target, and generally feel it has too much bass. I like the 4XR tuning a lot and am surprised that it measured "flat" here rather than what I *experience* it to be, which is roughly a 3dB shelf above the diffuse field target. That's pretty much my ideal. I *really* like whatever the Etymotic target is, plus about a 3dB shelf below 100Hz. The 4XR gives me that. Harman, to me (after spending decades listening to anechoic-flat monitors in the near field), seems excessively bassy and also missing information in the top octave. (I am 41 and can still hear to 16kHz -- I see an audiologist every year -- this is a result of both careful hearing protection and genetics, apparently). I use Genelec 8351Bs and Neumann KH120IIs for my mix work, at roughly 2m and 1m listening distances, respectively. This is in a treated, medium-sized room (14' x 29'), with DSP correction. I find that the Etymotics are much more representative of what I hear listening to my monitors than any Harman-tuned IEM. I trust them a lot, so it's pretty disappointing to see these measurements.

Wow, 20 years old, that's cool)) I bought the ER4SR myself only in September of that year, and since then my world has changed to "before" and "after" (this would not have happened if I hadn't received the second revision, which already included two flange eartips, as they only fit me). Damn clean and with a great, bouncy and deep bass. They almost perfectly match the curve of the diffuse field in the frequency range declared by the manufacturer, and the channel consistency is generally aerobatic, which few manufacturers can boast of. So, if it seems to a person that Etymotic does not have low frequencies, then he is most likely spoiled by the Harman curve (which, to my young 16-year-old hearing, sounds unnatural and disgusting), or he has low-frequency hearing loss/hearing impairment in general. Speaking of the thesis "our ears are the flattest there", it rather refers to the volume of 90-92 dB. But, it hurts me to listen to music just above 70 dB. In general, if the noise and distortion level of the amplifier is below the level of the masking effect, then a volume level of 90-92 dB/sound compensation is NOT needed. That is, there is no frequency masking effect that occurs at the edges of the frequency range (even before the threshold of human audibility, by the way). This means that (although our human hearing is still the least susceptible to low and high frequencies at low volume), due to the absence of the frequency masking effect, the auditory system will restore the fundamental tone by harmonics, respectively, neither higher volume nor tone compensation is needed. It has also been proven that the maximum volume level that does not damage the hair cells (cells in the inner ear that convert mechanical vibrations into electromagnetic impulses) that's 85 dB for 8 hours. If you listen above, you will damage the hair cells and develop sensorineural hearing loss, which is incorrigible. I won't write too much about the diffuse field curve, the principle, and so on. But I'll just say that there are a lot of misconceptions about it in the audio community, even among the "giants" of this field, alas. In any case, despite the opinions and reviews of illiterate people, the ER4 series is in any case the most accurate among all IEM headphones from an objective point of view. And I'm sad to see such poor-quality reviews. If we talk about the experience of use, and not only about the sound accuracy, then I do not like the microphone effect and memory effect of the native cable, as well as the fact that it is quite heavy. I ordered a Linum BaX G2 cable and a Linum T2 to MMCX adapter. It is the only cable manufacturer whose quality and compatibility is confirmed by Etymotic. And my right ear is different from my left, so I'll order custom Etymotic eartips soon. That's all that bothers me.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

If anyone cares a cable like this works with Etymotics so they can be used as headsets:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001683250014.html

 

[Dazerdoreal]

I'll also note that I am not an enjoyer of the Harman IE target, and generally feel it has too much bass. I like the 4XR tuning a lot and am surprised that it measured "flat" here rather than what I *experience* it to be, which is roughly a 3dB shelf above the diffuse field target. That's pretty much my ideal. I *really* like whatever the Etymotic target is, plus about a 3dB shelf below 100Hz. The 4XR gives me that.

I also perceive the ER4XR and the ER2XR and bassier as they graph, and I have quite a few other IEMs to compare them to. I perceive the amount of bass as vaguely similar to the Moondrop LAN - which, of course, has a very different sound signature.

Besides the higher treble level of the LAN, this might have to do with the deep insertion. I put some work into finding the right eartip, and now they seal extremely tightly.

(I recently lost one of my ER4XR plugs on a train ride. )

 

[andymcbain]

I used the ER2XR for the first time on stage this weekend as a generic fit IEM. I'd be intrigued to see some measurements for them. Absolutely fantastic isolation from background noise and I found them surprisingly comfortable even with the giant foam tips. Only EQ I felt I needed to apply was a considerable high pass filter and a low shelf -as I was basically stood on top of a wall of subwoofers.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I used the ER2XR for the first time on stage this weekend as a generic fit IEM. I'd be intrigued to see some measurements for them. Absolutely fantastic isolation from background noise and I found them surprisingly comfortable even with the giant foam tips. Only EQ I felt I needed to apply was a considerable high pass filter and a low shelf -as I was basically stood on top of a wall of subwoofers.

Those shelves are highly dependent on noise around as it still leaks. So if you are at home er2xr will sound more or less linear. If on stage and noise levels are high then yes, they need EQ.

 

[AnyDave]

Those shelves are highly dependent on noise around as it still leaks. So if you are at home er2xr will sound more or less linear. If on stage and noise levels are high then yes, they need EQ.

To add to this: it basically depends on stage volume and how deep of a seal the user is getting with the foam eartips. The foam offers the most isolation (as high as 42dB), so that should offer as good isolation as one can get.

That said, if the stage volume is really high, sound will leak in via other cavities in the skull, so that's a major factor.

The ER2XR isn't linear in the low end (it's got a pronounced bass boost), so it really shouldn't sound linear at home, either. Hopefully it sounds good, but it's not flat. For that, you'd want the ER2SE.

 

[isostasy]

I've noticed the review measurement is quite different to every other ER4XR measurement I've seen. Here's some ER4XR and ER2XR measurements from oratory and crinacle to compare:

I traced the "original measurement" from the data sheet which comes with each ER4XR which someone posted online.

Also see the review of the ER2XR on this site.

You can see the measurements of all these units show higher SPL below 1kHz (more under 200Hz for ER2XR) and lower SPL between around 2.5-8kHz than the ASR unit.

I don't know if this is due to insertion depth. Listener demonstrated this with the ER2XR:

The large peak moves higher up in frequency and the broad treble response below that reduces in SPL the deeper the IEM is inserted.