Etymotic earphones, impedance, distortion and all that jazz!

The Etymotic ER6i has an impedance of 16 ohms so the distortion on the Ipod photo will be present all the time but less notisable because the volumn will be set lower as they are in ear phones.
The ER6 has an impedance of 48 ohms so the distortion will be reduced by how mutch I am not sure because I have not tried them.
I use Sennheiser PX200 32ohms impedance and for me the distortion is reduced but still not good enough.
please report back if you get the ER6 as I would like to get them also.

My 2 cents on in ear phones: After reading all the hype I tried the ER4P's . I didn't like them at all, too tinny and bright, no bass or mids, no warmth, harsh on the ears, and yes I had a good seal with the foam ear inserts.

Then I tried the Shure E3's and was blown away, I love them, way better then any of the Etymotics. Warm sounding, good bass. Worth the extra $

Ed

so can i just ask, this is the first time i have herd of these
ER6i but they look nice and review well, im in australia, so i will be paying ALot to get them here, is it worth it?

Has anyone got a pair and can vouch for their quality?
I listen to alot of dance and ministry of sound, will these ER6i do anything good for me?

or shall i just stick with the boring standerds?

I can't tell you how many headphones I've been through. From Bose, Sony, Sennheiser, Etymotics and Shure.

I've owned both the ER6 and 6i's. Great sound throughout the tonal range. I had my 6i's stolen, so I replaced them with the Shure E3c's. I never looked back.

The Shure's, in my opinion, sound better than the Etymotics, especially in the lower ranges. Last week, I bought an iPod Photo and I wanted a new set of phones. I decided to pony up to Shure's E5c's.

You do get what you pay for with these. The entire range seems to be extended with the 5c's The bass is phenomenal! My only complaint with the 5c's is getting them in your ear the first couple of times. It's a little difficult, but once you get used to it, becomes easier.

Again, it all comes down to personal opinion. I love the E3c's and E5c's from Shure. I'm from the US and most of our stores will let you return something even if the product was open if it's in resaleable condition, minus 15%.

A little long-winded but hope this helps

Well, I received my ER6i's today... and they're going back tomorrow! I'm a pretty discerning guy, and I'm smart enough to know how to get them in my ear the right way... and I think they sound awful. Tinny, no bass at all. I was amazed when I first put them on in my car - I mean they really sounded like an earphone on an old transistor radio. So I came home and spent half an hour comparing them to by stock Apple buds - back and forth, song to song. My conclusion: the Apple buds don't sound that great - muddy, boomy, not much definition... but the ER6i's sound worse. So I guess I'm going to try the Shure's. What a disappointment.

While I haven't heard the ER6's I'm using the ER4P (and with the adapter they become the ER4S) and feel that they are some of the very best phones I've ever used.
I'm a pretty serious headphone listener and own Sennheiser HD600 (with the Cardas cable upgrade) for home listening, Sennheiser PX200 for travel, Grado SR-80's for office listening. But since getting the ety's ER4 phones I haven't felt the need to use any of the above for months
I use the ER4p when I don't feel like taking along my Porta Corda headphone amp, and then switch to the ER4S cable when I want a little higher sound quality and less fatigue and have the amp. At home they work fine with my ASL MG Head OTL32 and are so close in performance to the HD600's that it's scary since they are about 1/100th of the size!
One thing I have read is that the ER6's don't fit every ear properly. you may know how to put them in, but that doesn't mean that they fit you properly. the shape of your ear my be causing some of these issues.
I found that the ER4's fit really well with the standard white tips but won't fit at all with the black foam inserts.
It's just something to think about...

I've read that earphones need a break-in period of a few hours before they reach their optimum output. Apparently some people will hook them up and let them play for a while before they listen to them. Maybe you should give that a try before you go through the hassle of sending them back and ordering new ones. Just a thought.
Good luck!
Carole

benji...if you are buying from Australia I suggest checking out www.headphones.com.au
I have bought from this guy before over the last year or so, he has a good range of products (both shure and etymotic), offers free shipping, and knows pretty much everything about headphones...
what more could you ask for!

http://www.headphones.com.au/prod.php?search=&productCategoryID=1#top

I think this page has the ones you are after...I have been thinking about investing in some of these more portable headphones myself...still not convinced they can produce sounds as good as the closed models.

good luck

How do the E3c and 5c's sound with the ipod photo, relative to distortion on piano and such?

I've been wanting the E3c's really badly to go with my 60gb new color ipod, but I've been hearing terrible things about these phones being too sensitive and the distortion ruining the experience. What's your opinion?

Benji,

In Australia you can get earphones cheaper than you think. Try e-bay and search under Shure* E3*. You will come across some people selling Shure and Etymotic as well. Just scroll at the bottom of the page of those who sell Shure E3, and you'll see other earphones that they sell as well. Please note that I'm not endorsing using e-bay, and that I have no idea what you will get. But that goes with everything with e-bay, doesn't it? Of course, if I had plenty $$ I would pay the extra and get it from a dealer, such as http://www.headphones.com.au
I'm in the same boat as you. I listen to Dance music mainly. after doing some research, it will be the Shure E3 or. if you have more $$, the E4 (they look better with iPod, I think!). The Etymotic Er6i (NOT the Er6) probably would not cut it for that kind of music if you like BASS from what I read - plus, there's the low impedance issue: Etymotics Er6i is 16 Ohms. The Shure is 29 Ohms. It's a better bet, given the controversy about sound quality with the iPod colour.
For some general info on earphones, I found a great US site that sells great earphones. Very informative also: http://store.earphonesolutions.com/beeaforip.html