Just got my Etymotics. (4S)
I am listening through them to a CD play on my computer as i write
this. The isolation from outside noise is amazing. The computer
internal CD player headphone output will drive them louder than i can
stand to listen. (solo Alto recorder CD)
The other strange sensation is harder to describe:
There is none of the usual feeling of air hitting your eardrums, nor
the usual Brownian motion sound of air on your eardrums. This made me
think at first that the highs were down, but i compared them to my
Stax electrostatics (which i still like better, so far) and the highs
were very close. I wasn't listening to mouse squeaks, cymbals with
brushes, rosin on a violin bow, or anything else extremely high. Solo
Recorder, bluegrass, voice, Vivaldi concerto with recorder and
strings. You can hear the air on the edge of the attack on the
recorder, and the attack sound on plucked acoustic bass strings, so i
think the highs are there. The sensation is one of the sound truly
coming from inside your own body...the head, of course. The bass is
pretty surprising too. If you tense your jaw muscles it interferes
with the sound, as does physical contact with the signal cables.
So far: I like the bass better than the Sennheiser 580 (tighter, and
perhaps lower), and the highs almost as much as the Stax (less
smooth). The physical feeling of using them will take some getting
used to. I have very narrow ear canals, and YMMV.
The Etys sound very sensitive to microphone sibilants and other sharp
edgy transients, and since they don't ring much on the spec charts, i
suppose this is just their own form of accuracy. But it is their most
noticeable characteristic to me. Otherwise, smooth, clear, natural,
very well isolated. I hope not too fragile. time will tell.
In playing a Bartok Concerto for Orchestra on a Sharp MD702 directly
from the headphone output, the crescendos were loud enough to be
uncomfortable. The absence of air sensation, caused by the earpieces
occluding my ear canals makes them seem a little softer than other
phones at least initially. But when you feel your eardrums clamp, you
know you are over 90 dB, and getting into tinnitis territory.
boy are they convenient.
Mine arrived with one defective filter, which made the sound fail on
one side almost instantly. I was pretty pissed off (had to go pick
them up at the FEDEX office after work), but after trying every
headphone outlet in my system, and several different pieces of
equipment, i tried changing the filter, and the sound returned.
I will see what HeadRoom wants to do about this. Filters are $15.
Has anyone else had this problem?
I suppose now i have to consider an AirHead headphone amp, but *not*
because there is too little volume on my Sharp.
Ted Gosfield
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