Etymotic ER-6i
April 5th, 2005 | by Brandon King
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Average user rating from 10 users |
Etymotic Research has got it right!
by DCM on Jul 15th, 2006 at 1:41 PM:
Preliminary review with a detailed one to follow.
In short, these In-Ear-Phones are perfect for the iPod. Spacious sound field and the right balance of bass, mid’s and highs. If you prefer a bunchier bass (which is fine) then you must realize that either you have lost your low frequency hearing or you prefer a boomy colored bass. What is being evaluated here is accuracy in reproducing the original sound as mixed. As an audio engineer, I rarely adjust tone in playback. “Would I add all kinds of spices to a dish being served by a talented chef?” Etymotic Research has got it right!
[They come in Black or White]
Won'tRockEars-ButClearCrispSound
by Salar M. on Jun 29th, 2006 at 5:48 PM:
It won't produce glorified sound. So if your idea of the self proclaimed audiophile you are is a powerfull base response that will shake the foundations of your ear, you will be dissapointed en mass.
On the other hand, it does clearly deliver pure tones without them distorting each other and getting lost in each other. You can clearly hear the bands that make up the music. Having said that it won't impress you right away if you are new to Hifi. It will take time until you hear the little intricacies that make this earphone a legend!
You will at some point hear the guitarist's pick hit the guitar, or feel the pationate female vocalist privately sing into your ears.
Leaving the bad for last, you will be spoiled and bothered by the little artifacts you hear in 128K MP3. You will be better off with FLAC, Level 3+ OGG or 192+ MP3.
Also the 3flap and foam eartips(Medium/Lare) that come with the device, although not as bad as everyone says, are not that comfortable. I would recommend the small foam eartips available as an accessory. They do as good of a job of noise muffling as the others do. By that I mean you will feel wiered and like something is missing. But it will be fun to ride the subway with them once you get over the unusual feeling.
great product but...
by Bear on Feb 7th, 2006 at 12:58 AM:
I just got my black ER-6i.
the new version comes with three different rubber flanges. So you don't need to cut them your self because there is a three flap flange, one with the two small ones and another one with the two bigger flaps (hope you know what I mean...) ety just reacts to customer needs and I love them for this...
I just licked the flanges (yes, just pop them into your mouth) and I had a good seal right away with the bigger two flap flange.
the ER-6i is very sensitive... SO MUCH louder than my Sony EX71. clearer on every frequencie. Sometimes I wasn't sure if the disstortion was my EX71 or the bad MP3 compression... now I know it was the EX71.
Yes, some people may think there is not enough bass with the ER-6i but that are mostly ipod owners that can't set their EQ's.
I have a Cowon iAudio U3 (best flash player ever imo) and that thing can be tuned in whatever preference you like. I just turned any BBE, bass and EQ off and the sound was very disappointing... flat, like some other user reviews said it sounded like a can. The EX71 sounds better imo in the standard flat settings but that's just because of the stronger bass. And I'm used to tweak settings so I would never listen to music with a flat EQ etc.
Now that my ER-6i had several hours of burn-in and I tweaked my iAudio U3 settings... this is simply the best in-ear phone I've ever heard (sony EX51, Sony EX71, Shure e2c)
and they just stay in your ears... no need to push them back into your ears every 10sec like the Sonys. they have less microphonic (the thing when you hear your footsteps or the cord is touching something) than the sonys... the EX71 is very bad in this aspect because the cord gets very hard after a few weeks and is breaking.
The sony EX71 compared to the ety 6i sounds like a cheap Disco box compared to an audiophile loudspeaker.
Awesome phones, prob best in class.
by T Coughlin on Dec 22nd, 2005 at 11:52 AM:
I am very happy with my new Etymotic ER 6is and would recommend them unreservedly to anyone on the market for some phones for their iPod. They offer very significant improvements over the standard iPod buds in almost all areas and they give significant enough improvements in other areas for me to recommend them over the Shure E2cs despite their price premium. Etymotic are onto a winner with this one.
I have a full review on my site here:
http://timcoughlin.typepad.com/tim_coughlins_blog/...
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Excellent sound, easy to insert.
by Joe H on Nov 29th, 2006 at 12:05 PM:
As for the quality of sound, I'm sold. I'm hearing things in my music that I didn't before. Also worth noting, I've not had to adjust the equalizer on my device to achieve a balanced sound, as was necessary with my previous circumaural earphones.
Lastly, I did read a comment or two indicating that the cables would resonate alot of sound back into my ears when it rubs against clothing. The plugs come with a shirt clip permanetly attached to the cord just below the Y. As long as you clip onto your clothing up high you will not have this problem.
Also, to wet the ear plugs, I find that putting a drop of water into the palm of my hand then rubbing the rubber flange in the water will get a decent coat without risking immersion of the ear piece. Ie, don't run these under the tap to wet them...or dip them in your drink. Also, avoid using your mouth...unless you like putting funk in your ears.