Etymotic Research ER6 Noise Isolating Earphones

I began an extensive over-analysis of earphones which included a study of the comfort and safety of these things as well. I even contacted the customer service people at Etymotic who are very friendly and forthcoming with product knowledgre, free of self promoting hype. This only added to my interest in Etymotic. When it finally came time to buy, and Etynotic affirmed my decision to go with the ER-6 as opposed to the iPod intended ER-6i, I found a good dealer. After speaking with the dealer briefly, I ended up deferring to his recommendation. He did carry the Etymotic line but he suggested the Shure E2c. Knowing a bit aboutg Shure's presence in professional audio, I conceded to get the E2s.

Withih minutes of listening to the E2s and getting the hang of putting the phones in my ears, I was immediately a fan of earphones. I was hearing detail that even my well regarded Grado SR80s was not retrieving. I did hear a bit of darkness in the midrange and the highs seemed recessed behind the rest of the presentation. In summary, I was enjoying these things immmensely and hated having to take them out of my ears.

Now that the portable experience was approaching that of a true audiophile experience, I still retained interest in Etymotic. According to the response curve published on their site, consistent with what I have read elsewhere, these phones were very faithful to the audio signal. In fact, they appeared to be amongst the most neutral (in theory at this point), so ther refence minded audiophile in me just had to find out for himself. Especially since I now had a reference point with the E2s, I decided to orderf a pair of ER-6s as well.

Upon receiving the ER-6s, the first thing that struck me was just how small they were even in comparison to the already small E2s. The rubber flanges were attached and were much softer than the Shures. The earphones themselves, though appearing delicate, had a very high quality feel to them and very encased in a soft rubber jacket that is part of the earphone itself. For my ears, these inserted very easily, but I already had some experience in this regard. Finally, I noted that the cabling was very frail looking, unbefitting an earphone of t his price and quality. It looks like something you might find on a dollar store blister packed headphone. Let me not belabor this point. Etymotic knows what they are doing and I am sure what's inside the wire jacket is respectable. It certainly does not detract from the audio experience.

Listening to the ER-6s first dispelled the myth I heard regarding the lack of bass response on these. Bass was very present and more importantly, very well defined. Highs were crystalline.Gone was the veiling that I heard in the Shures. The overall impression I gathered was one of purity. The sound almost reminded me of the sound of early planar and electrostatic loudspeakers such as the Quads. They were known for their outstanding midrange where most of the music happens. If the lowest bass notes are not emphasized, that is a negligible observation with respect to how the sweet spots of the audio spectrum are presented.

I have since purchased a portable headphone amp. While the ER-6s (and E2s as well) are very usable straight out of a computer or portable player, the ER-6s reach another level with amplification. Bass is noticeably improved, in volume moreso than quality. The whole presentation just has more power and presence.

There's a bit of irony in an earphone designed for portable listening that has such resolution. The source sound, in most cases, is highly compressed and often sonically compromised. With these phones (and the E2s as well) every nuance including digital glitches and compression artificacts are rendered as well. This does not make the phones less enjoyable for me as I expected that consequence, but be forewarned that having such resolution can actually work against the audio experience if your sources are not well ripped and encoded or if hearing the limitations of compressed audio are just not pleasing to your ear. On the other hand, as with the best loudspeakers, you can hear the pinpoing placement of intruments and vocalists and you can almost hear how studio recordings were assembled.

For the detail crazed listener looking for a revealing, sophisticated earphone experience, the ER-6s come highly recommended.

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For home use, I had a pair of Sennheiser HD600's, which are wonderful. But as most people who use them know, they're bulky, and aren't really designed for use when you're out and about. They're also "open air" headphones, so ambient noises are clearly heard while wearing these, so they aren't really meant for use in noisy environments such as subways and airplane cabins. Their clarity, frequency response, and accuracy are excellent, however.

I've stayed away from in-ear models up until now, since the thought of shoving something deep into my ear canals and leaving them there for long periods has never really appealed to me. But, since I travel a lot, finding something comfortable that can both reduce the loud roar of a jet engine, while at the same time providing good audio fidelity for hours at a time, had become of paramount importance.

So, after reading a whole slew of opinions on Etymotic's ER-6 Isolator Earphones, I decided to give them a chance. The ER-6's come installed with clear, rubbery double-flanged eartips (pictured below), and also includes a pair of black foam eartips, 2 extra filters (which prevent debris from entering the earphone enclosures), a filter changing tool, instruction manual, and carrying case.

The earphones themselves employ a gold-plated stereo mini jack interface and come with a shirt clip to keep the cable from flopping around if you use them while exercising (similar to the shirt clips that come with earbud-style headsets for cellphones). The black wires are thin and lightweight, and the entire package, for all intents and purposes, weighs nothing.

With the default double-flanged eartips, I simply could not get a good seal going on my right ear. When I finally did, it felt like the edge of the larger flange was digging into the walls of my ear canal, which was extremely uncomfortable. It also took some time getting used to having something so deep inside my ears.

Despite this, I listened to a few songs, starting with acoustic and jazz offerings from Norah Jones, Diana Krall, and Paul Taylor. I then moved to more bass-heavy dance music from Sander Kleinenberg and K&D. Afterwards, I just had fun with some of my favorite 80's songs from Information Society, When In Rome, Paul Hardcastle, and Afro-Rican. Mids and highs sounded wonderfully clear and well-defined through these earphones with the flanged eartips whether the original source was analog or digital, but bass was decidedly lacking. This was made pretty obvious with Afro-Rican's bass-heavy classic, "Give It All You Got".

I chose to employ a "real world" test using my Panasonic SL-SV570 CD/MP3 player, since this is what I use when I travel, and in all cases, I had to turn the S-XBS system (Panasonic's version of Sony's "Mega Bass" technology) to its maximum setting of S-XBS+ to get decent bass reproduction. On the default and off settings, bass was virtually nonexistent. Unacceptable if your music covers a wide range of instruments and styles. Ambient noise also seemed to be somewhat high.

Disappointed, I decided to try out the foam eartips. To get them inside your ears, you have to compress them a bit, insert them into your ears, and give them a few seconds to expand and fill up your ear canal. When they do, ambient noise is said to be reduced by 27 decibels (dB).

I believe them. With no music, I could hardly hear a thing. I couldn't hear anything else besides the music, which is great, because I work in a noisy environment.

The foam eartips are also much more comfortable than the double-flanged ones, and I am able to keep them in my ears for hours on end with no discomfort or fatigue. My suggestion is that if you buy these earphones, stock up on the foam eartips (an expensive proposition @ $14 for 10 of them through Etymotic's website), since I have read that they lose their elasticity after a month or two of consistent use.

Also, due to the superior seal the foam eartips create, bass reproduction is improved, although they are still inferior to most headphones I have used. I would be interested in finding out if similar offerings from Shure perform better in this area.

Overall, the ER-6 Isolator Earphones from Etymotic Research are an excellent alternative to more expensive active noise-cancelling headphones, and their size and fantastic noise isolation make them a strong candidate for those who travel a lot or are in noisy environments throughout the day.

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The wax catcher works well and you have to remember where you put the itty bitty tool to remove the filter. I bought several replacements for both the filters and the silcone canal buds but after a year, I have only replaced them twice. They last much longer than I thought they would.

No matter well built they are, if the sound sucked, it would not be worth it. But, the sound is very good but a bit lacking in the bass side. The midtones are full and crisp and the treble is good but the highest suffer from a lack of clarity. Then again, when one is running or flying on a jet, high notes and clarity are not the big concern. Keeping the noise out is and they excel at that.

I bought a pair of the new Bose buds and they suck compared the ER6 earphones.

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Albums: "Speaking of Now" by Pat Metheny Group. "Feels like home" by Norah Jones. Both are original CDs (not MP3, mind you. :)

Player: CD-ROM from DELL laptop and default setting of Windows Media Player (no sound enhancement turned on). Volume set on 11 for WMP and 1/8 for main volume.

Burn-in time: over 100 hours on both.

Physical Build: E4c wins hands down.

I have a deep canal and didn't find moisten ear tip necessary. In fact, ER-6 sit so firm that the rubber jacket sealing the ear plug on ER-6 was ripped in my first attempt to remove it. E4c clear-up the usability issue from ER-6. E4c is easy-in and easy-out.

Noise reduction isn't as great as my pair of real ear plugs, 3M's 1100. I put 20,000 miles on my motorcycle and wear the 3M 1100 ear plugs with full face helmet daily. I know the importance of noise isolation as well as am able to identify good noise isolators. :) I can’t differentiate how E4c could be better noise isolating than ER-6 or vise-versa. With either one slipped on, I can hear typing or phone ring form my neighbor's cube. Different sleeves may make a big difference in this regard.

Packaging of E4c is better presenting than ER-6. Opening E4c takes a bit of effort. When opening the ER-6 package, it offers no thrill from your 100 bulks. Packaging is liked those for Xike underwear. The packaging of ER-6 however is about 3 times smaller than E4c. Sending it as a gift to oversea friend is less bulky. ER-6’s is much easier to open and to close.

The small and hard pocket case for the E4c is better design. It’s got a circle thing in the center making it won’t be as easily tangle up as the ER-6’s soft pouch.

For those fashionable sensitive, E4c is white. ER-6 is black.

For those hygiene conscious, E4c is sealed in box. ER-6 is not temper proof.

Portability: ER-6 wins.

The cord is about 1/2 as thick as the E4c. Once you row it up, ER-6 is liked a little hair ball. Very portable. :)

Sound: E4c wins for the rockers. ER-6 wins for the jazz.

Sound wise, E4c is brighter than ER-6. Since I like warmer tone, ER-6 is welcome. A bit brighter would be nice so the difference in high notes can be clearer. To me, E4c is too bright and too sharp for my hearing (and my hearing may already have damaged by my motorcycle?:). It sounds way better than the toy, E2c. If you enjoy the tone with the loudspeaker by Infinity better than the JBL, then, the sound from E4c would be appealing to you. E4c has better separation in the high notes and the vocal.

Clarity wise, E4c reaches a bit further on both ends. If you have heard the same music using a reference monitor, you might find ER-6 is a somewhat dull on the two extreme. Sound of ER-6 at those extreme is audible, it is just not as pronounced or enhanced. E4c is bright and colorful, yet may be artificial for some. E4c reminds me of the Sennheiser RS65 and even a bit brighter. ER-6 reminds me of the accurate and flat response from monitor headphones Yamaha RH-5Ma.

E4c is highly efficient. I had to turn down the volume switching from ER-6 to E4c. Listening to E4c doesn’t need much of equalizing. ER-6 sounds great for pop and classical (and E4c is probably good for rock, rap, and techo music).

Recall from the Etymotic site, ER-6 (not the 6i :) is 90% accurate and ER-4s 92% accurate. I wonder how accurate the E4c is. May be 91%? :) Reason is that another review site states E4s as less accurate than ER-4s. I guess I won’t know until I get a loan and folk over the $ to compare them side by side. :)

Price: ER-6 wins.

At street price of ~ $100, ER-6 is the best bang for the buck for ear plug style headphone for serious listener, liked part-time musician. If you have the $, like bright sound, and ear plugs works for you, go for E4c. As far as E2c or ER-6i, don’t waste money on it. They sounded FM radio-ish. A low budget Sony MDR-EX5 can easly do better than the E2c does.

Country of birth:

On the box, E4c is born in Mexico and ER-6 is born in China. :) Since Chinese currency may be more expensive in the future, buying ER-6 now would be a good investment. :)

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