Drop + Etymotic - ER3SE / ER3XR

I normally had decent to medium headphones but for reasons I wanted to switch to IEM and my first IEM that I got a few days ago are an etymotic er-3se My experience has been mixed, I like the sound and the feel but I haven't adjusted to how deep they go in my ear and Haven't managed to get that right fit for better passive noise cancellation lol

I love Etymotic! Made me fall in love with IEMs. My first was the ER3XR, and I had tears and giddiness hearing it.

I know, I just personally disagree with "If IEMs are expensive, then they're not worth buying." But that's just my opinion amongst yours and many others. To each their own. My first pair of Etymotics was an extraordinary experience. Teary eyed, laughing my head off at what I heard in music I thought I knew inside and out. It took me a foolishly long time to realize this subreddit isn't mostly audiophiles. And I'm still adjusting. I assume everyone into IEMs is looking for the same things. And it's for a much larger range of reasons than I thought. Happy listening!!!🙂

If any "audiophile" here says that a 100 dollar iem doesn't sound better than a 20 dollar Iem, they are completely deaf. It is true that higher price points have diminishing returns, but they still give you returns. Sweet spot is somewhere between 100-400 dollars for sound quality per dollar. Especially around the 100 dollar price point. But, for anyone saying you don't get more quality when you spend more is likely trying to convince themselves that what they can afford is good enough. And fair enough. My first pair of Etymotics blew away anything I had heard before. People need to try good values at higher price points to really go "ohhhh so this is different"

When I'm out & about on daily walks I wear my Etymotic ER3 SE IEM's, connected to a FiiO BTR5 DAC/Amp, and stream Amazon Music over bluetooth from my Pixel phone. To conserve battery, I use the APTX codec. I have typical ski slope loss from 2K on, and it's severe to profound. I can say the sound is comprable to when I use my Sennheiser HD 6XXs connected to my Aszus Xonar Essense STX sound card with my Oticon Intents on. I have a custom Music program which acheives a very HiFi soundstage. Bottom line, the wired cans with HAs are a step above, but the IEMs w/o HAs are very pleasing, and the passive noise reduction is great!

I got the ER3SE for cheaper than the ER2 were listed on Amazon. If you wanna try a clean reference sound, an interesting soundstage that’s very in your head, and the best passive noise isolation (ER stands for Ear R*pers), get em. I also like using the graph of them to compare to other IEMs I’m interested in (kinda like a neutral reference).

Totally right about a lack of true neutral these days, everything has boosted subbass. People don’t even know what neutral actually sounds like unless they’ve heard old sets or… …Etymotic ER4SR are the most neutral around your price range, $225 on Drop. Or could get the ER3SE/XR or ER2 for even less. edit: my faves that would be considered neutral are the HiFiMan RE600. Only ~$70. https://i.imgur.com/PBeCdF3.png

Any of the the Etymotics (in order of cost): ER2SE, ER2XR, ER3SE, ER3XR, ER4SR, ER4XR. SE/SR models have less bass, XR models have a small bass lift (the ER2XR has a larger bass lift, but is close to Hexa for bass amount). These are extremely neutral, and all very detailed with fast (albeit not heavy) bass attack. Soundstage is tiny though. 

Any of the the Etymotics (in order of cost): ER2SE, ER2XR, ER3SE, ER3XR, ER4SR, ER4XR. SE/SR models have less bass, XR models have a small bass lift (the ER2XR has a larger bass lift, but is close to Hexa for bass amount). These are extremely neutral, and all very detailed with fast (albeit not heavy) bass attack. Soundstage is tiny though. 

Sennheiser HD 280 Pro is basically the only thing I've ever liked. I had the vic firth ones, but they just don't sound high quality. For buds, I use Etymotic ER3SE. Both have a lot of attenuation. Both are transparent enough that I can set up mics while playing and have a decent idea of what I'm accomplishing with my mic/mix adjustments.

I'd be a bit sceptical about ER3XR's neutrality, but I totally get your way of thinking. I own a set, and I really like it, although there are some caveats. Honestly, the biggest one is the lack of upper frequencies and their extension. A slight boost above 5 kHz (3-5 dB) generally fixes it. Without it, the sound could be described as "through a blanket," but it's kinda song dependant. Even though I'd say that ER3XR with some tweaks could be described as my "go-to target." >Totally right about a lack of true neutral these days, everything has boosted subbass. I fully agree with you. Looking for a neutral set (in neutral's real meaning) is a nightmare. I have no idea how 8-10 dB bass boost could be considered neutral, but here we are...

Love those but so bulky when traveling. I use Etymotic ER3SE Studio Edition Earbuds for travel. Not exactly Audio Technica, but close.

Etymotic ER3SE Studio Edition Earbuds.

Be careful... seems to me there are different opinions about "Neutral with bass boost". I suggest Etymotic too, either ER2XR, ER3XR or ER4XR the bass boost against the SR version is very decent. The differences between this 3 versions are not very much, maybe you can't hear it. 7Hz Timeless, should be very neutral too. Sometimes you can get the Etymotic very sheep, maybe you get the ER4XR for £100. If you use it with the silicon eartips, this IEM goes very deep in the ear.

Senhiser hd 6xx/600/650. The gold standard for music production and mixing, and the most authentic tuning for accuracy on any headphone ever, and it’s like not even close. It’s whatever if you use sonarworks, but if your room is poorly acoustically treated, headphones are going to perform better and be less colored. If it is though, you’re honestly fine with anything. Monitoring headphones don have to be good or accurate, they just have to replicate the voice accurately and have decent sound isolation. That’s why you see audio technica m50x everywhere in the professional music world, despite the fact they are horrible horrible headphones for mixing. The fiio ft1 does look promising for the price, but pretty much every closed back headphone is going to perform significantly worse than the hd 600 or studio monitors in a properly acoustic treated room. I actually use iems to monitor most of the time because they have the best sound isolation and I just want to hear what my voice sounds like to the recording, not what it sounds like to me as I’m singing. I’d stick clear of most consumer iems, because they tend to have poor isolation. I got a pair of sure se 215s on ebay for like 30$, (they’re the budget version of the 425 which is an industry standard). The etymotics er2se and er3se also have good sound isolation, and they sound very good. With a budget of 600$, i wouldn’t buy just the best sounding closed backs for that price. Audio already has diminishing returns, and that’s especially true of professional audio, where your needs are a lot more specific than enthusiast stuff, and once they’re met, they’re met. Like once you have a set of iems for live performance. you’re good. Yes there are 1,000 iems that sound ”better”, but they are more expensive, have worse sound isolation are less comfortable, and you’re not going to be critical listening to your own music right under a humongous speaker. I’d get the hd 6xx (try to get it second hand or on sale for $150-$170) the sure 215s (30$) and the fiio ft1s (we‘ll say 160, but ive found them for as low as 130 second hand). (All prices are usd btw. That only comes out 360$ usd, well within your budget, and then you can add Sonarworks Speakers with mic bundle for $299 if you have an untreated room for $660 total, and then you have covered every professional audio need for your music career for quite a while. If you don’t want the hd 6xx because your studio monitors perform well enough for your balanced sessions, ai’d still recommend getting whatever open back headphon you’d use most for personal use, and use that one for mixing aswell. Headphones are like microscope, and they can help you notice little flaws in your mix that you never would’ve seen on your studio monitors, so I still think some part of your mixing process should be with headphone. Even if it’s not tuned great, there’s things like sonarworks and equalizer apo that can turn any headphone into a mixing headphone. Or just learn your headphones and remember it’s about detail, and leave the gain staging for the studio monitors. Anyways, that’s what I had to say on the topic, happy music making!