Tomo_Ishigami's Full Review: Etymotic Research ER-4S Consumer Headphones
This is the best headphone you can buy along with HD-600. However, some may disagree. I believe this is one of the best headphone I ever listened.
High is limited to below 16kHz but very controlled and wonderful. Mid is very smoothe and liquid. Bass is not like Grado but great in different way: Control!! This is rather controversial since bass is heard thru hearing not felt. Most headphone including Grado punch bass into your mind thru vibration that your earlobe feel. Etymotic does not have that. You will only hear it. I believe Etymotic's one of the important characteristic is CONTROL. You will never be overwhelmed by too much high, mid, or low. You will hear only desireble sound thru this.
Another important characteristic is detail. You will hear everything. Even the breathing of performer and movement of conductor. You will hear exactly what goes into this headphone. Many prefer this over many traditional monitor phones. This is because that even though this is SEALED headphone, this has NO unnecessary resonation. This is probably because it does not have resonation space. Resonation require a certain amoung air space in which resonation occurs. Etymotic has none of such space.
The last important characteristic is that this will shut you out from any noise from outside. 26dB of isolation. You cannot have any better isolation with any other headphones. This is great for monitoring. It is like being in a recording studio alone. You can hear only your breath. I use it whenever I need to be alone to study. Believe me it works.
You should be able to drive this from any sources. However, some portable CD player may have some problem. This is because that it has 100 ohm impedance. This means that:
10~20mW = VRMS ^ 2 / 100 ohms
(at 20mW of sound pressure, your ear should be about to explode)
VRMS = 0.707~1.414 Vrms
This means that voltage output of your headphone jack should be able to output 0.707~1.414Volts. This is sometimes hard for portable CD players. I have no problem with mine ...
For me, this headphone is comfortable. You have to get use to having a rubber stuck in your ears though. For the quality you get, I think this is insignificant factor.
In conclusion:
You should definitely get this one. Quality will take you to different plane of enjoyment. However it is rather expensive. (300 dollars) I had to wait a while for me come up with that money. But It is worth it.
P.S. Only bad thing about this headphone is that this headphone is sensitive to the movement of the cable. While listening, the sliding of the cable makes a bit of annoying noise.
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