Etymotic ER4P v.s Shure E4C

[tvuong]

Hi all,
I'm torn between these two models Etymotic ER4P and Shure E4C and do not know a place to try and compare them. Which one do you think is better? Which one has more bass? They are about the same price. Thanks.

[Macromedia]

If you like a bassy sound go for the Westone UM2. As much as I love the Ety er4p, it just doesn't have enough bass for some types of much (rock/rap). Fairly cold too. The Shure E4c is good but doesn't have a lot of bass either. Treble is a bit rolled off too. I'd say go for the UM2.

[Jokieman]

I had a chance to test all of these out today and I have to agree that the UM2's had the best sound of the bunch for my tastes.

[ubiquitous_andy]

I just got some Shure e4cs.. I love them, but have nothing to compare to. The shures have a real personality, a kind of warm synthetic clean airy sound which is so refreshing. Bass is honestly really huge if they are in really deep, but sometimes it feels like it's a tiny split second slow if that makes sense. Not sure if i buy the 'burn-in' stuff but if it changes will let you know.

[Trager]

Personally, I MUCH prefer the ER-4P over the E4c. The Shures did have a nice bass sound, but the rolled off treble made everything sound dead. I wouldn't pay 75$ for the shures, let alone the 2-300$ they normally go for. I went back to my ER-6i phones gladly after the Shures, and then went up to the ER-4P out of curiosity. I love the ER-4P sound -- great detail and nicely controlled bass. It's not booming, but it's pretty solid. I occasionally miss the Shure's bass on certain songs that I feel should just have OVERWHELMING bass, but for 95% of my music (which includes a lot of rock and electronica), the ER-4P are just what I need.

I'm not sure, but I believe the Apple Store has a money back guarantee on their phones, so you could pick up a pair and take them back if you don't like them. I know that I got my Shures from Brookstone (which also have a 100% satisfaction guarantee), and since the headphones pretty much sucked, I took them back with no problems at all.

[MrT-Man]

Yeah, I own both the ER-4P and E4c... ER-4P sounds better, hands down. The E4c aren't bad, but compared to the ER-4P it sounds like someone's put a curtain in front of your speakers. The only advantages of the E4c is that they look cooler, have a thicker cable that is less prone to tangling, etc., and has almost no cable microphonics (with the ER-4P you get a bit of a thumping noise transmitted through the cable to your ears, if the cable hits against something... like your body, if you're exercising etc.). But between the two I'd still go with the ER-4P.

[n2xe]

I think both sound pretty much like crap. I find the Sennheiser CX-300 sounds more like high quality headphones and they only cost $50. But if you're really hell-bent on blowing $300, the Shure is better built than the Etymotic.

[Jackonicko]

Super Fi 5EBs for bass.

The V-Moda Vibe sounds better to my ears than either Shure, Ety, or Westone, despite being a fraction of the price.

[ZOOM ZOOM]

I think UE Super.Fi 5pro are good for who like more bass but don't want to miss details in mids and highs. Also these are easy to wear than shure and etymotic in earphones. Iam using these with SAMSUNG YP-T9JAB and 5G IPOD. To me these shows more details in highs and mids with SAMSUNG T9 than ipod(depend on source). BTW i have E4c too but i like sf5pro(because more bass). Recently i placed order for UE TRIPLE.FI 10PRO and waiting for these. I hope i will like these more because these have dual woofers and also these shows more details in highs and mids than 5pro. ilounge recomand these(tf10pro)for those who likes ER4P details but want more bass.

[Step666]

Personally, I've tried any of them. But, I've been looking into them for a while and as far as I can tell, the Shures seem to come out very well.
They do require a good seal to get decent bass but when senior members of head-fi say they sound better than the E5s (which are dual-driver IEMs), you know they're good.

I would recommend that you head over there (Head-Fi (http://www.head-fi.org/)). I mean, surely the best place to ask these questions is the forum the experts frequent (no offence to anyone here, but this is an iPod forum, Head-Fi is a forum that leans more towards the audiophile area and it's reputation is founded on being the place to go to find out about headphones).

[tvuong]

Thanks for all the replies. I bought both the ER4P and the E4C to try them for myself. Seriously, I like them both. The ER4P has more overall clarity compare to the E4C but the E4C is warmer and fits my listening style better. The E4C is much more comfortable in my ear than the ER4P which lead me to keeping the E4C. You can't go wrong with any of these. Both sounds much better than my Sennheiser PCX250 which I just sold.