General Thoughts

04-06-2000 06:33 PM ET

There is probably no way headphones can ever produce the same spatial characteristics as speakers. I've done an informal mapping of how the soundstage of loudspeakers seems to translate with really good headphones. The Etymotic ER4S and Koss A200 seem to be the most spatial of the headphones I've used. The ultra-neutral Jecklin Float Model 2 and the Stax electrostatics are also supposed to be extremely "open" sounding, as it is put.

Sounds that are directly between loudspeakers tend to image inside the head with headphones. Sounds that are just outside the loudspeakers instead image outside next to the ears. Sounds that fall behind the loudspeakers tend to image just in front of the head, maybe slightly high, or if they are way into a deep soundstage they can image out in front of you several feet. Headphone listening has been described as being an "in vitro" experience where the soundstage is compressed, starting from inside your head and stretching out ambiently. The experience can also be more intimate than with speakers on some material. In addition, headphones are a lot less expensive means of achieving tonal accuracy than loudspeakers. However, loudspeakers have the spread-out, intended soundstage and can be just as accurate as headphones given they are high-end enough. There is also the fact that loudspeakers allow you to feel the music on the rest of your body -- something especially important on the bass end. Headphones can sometimes fool you into thinking the vibration is going down to your stomach, but that just goes to show you how much the brain expects the sound to be perceived body-wide.

Thus, the spatial characteristics of the two are totally different, as is the cost of accurate tonality.

Sony MDR-E821V Earbuds

Price: $15 @ Fred Meyer

I owned these for several days at the end of December 1999.

They sound a little bright and lacking in bass. My ears aren't big enough for them and get sore after just a short while.

Denon AHD-950 Headphones

Price: $160 @ Good Guys

I didn't purchase these. In the store I quickly concluded that while nearly perfect, they unfortunately have fizzy, almost overly bright treble.

Sony MDR-600 Headphones

Price: $99 @ Good Guys

I owned these overnight around the date of 01-02-2000.

The V600 is not the consumer version of the 7506. And though it is meant as a replacement for the V6, all indications are that it isn't. After several hours of listening, I returned the V600's. The only time they sounded correct was on cold sounding equipment, or really bright recordings. The rest of the time they were overly warm and almost sounded muddled. The muddy sound was probably a result of the over-warmth. On a normally bright sounding Panasonic portable, the problem was very noticeable. I can only imagine how much worse they would have sounded on the Sony ESP2 portable I took back. With my HDCD home deck the warmth was not as bad but still a bit overdone, even with ultra detailed HDCD electro-industrial albums. I'd like to get the V6's, but can't find a single pair. I might just go for the 7506 Professional version. Sony says it weighs less than the V6 and has a parts listing, but is otherwise identical to the endangered V6. We'll see...

JVC HA-D727 Headphones

Price: $75 @ JVC Parts and Service Center

01-25-2000 09:21 PM ET

I ordered these direct from JVC over the internet but was later told over the phone that they are in no way related to the HA-D700's. They'd already been shipped, so I figured I'd give them a listen since they would end up at my apartment anyway. My first thought was "cool headband". It's self-adjusting and actually does work. Once I started listening I was stunned at the neutrality, clarity, and dynamics of the sound. If the 727's held up, I just might keep them. Unfortunately they did not. There was this strange lack of really high-end treble information. Not trusting myself, I put on a Test CD and played the tones. Sure enough the extremely high pitched 15khz tone was absent as was the nearly unconscious sensation of the 18khz tone. Well, I'd read the 700's lacked much of 13khz and I'm assuming above that -- so big deal, right? Wrong. I had this unhealthy urge to keep turning the sound way up to give it that special air and high-end extension. I just couldn't resist. To make matters worse, the "Direct Sound Delivery System" was starting to hurt the top edge of my ear. The foam pads are very shallow and not the most effective at relieving the pressure of the driver from off the surface of your ear. Finally I just had to yank them off and be done with it. Now I just have to be home at a convenient time of day to get a product return ID number from JVC and send these buggers back.

Additional Note: The HA-D800 appears to be the HA-D727, but with a more traditional headband.

Sony MDR-7506 Professional Studio Monitor Headphones

Price: $109 @ Musician's Friend

02-09-2000 06:16 PM ET

Pre Burn-In:

I went out of my way to find the Sony MDR-V6. Having found no success after a week of searching, I went for the 7506 professionally marketed version through Musician's Friend. Two days later, I came across the V6 at DJmart. A little upsetting...

Anyhow, I received the 7506's from UPS yesterday and listened for hours. I must say if I was involved in production and recording I'd use these headphones. The high frequencies are very extended. Using a test CD, I experienced 18khz through them. I wasn't even sure I was capable of hearing that frequency. I feel like bragging. However, while this may be a recording engineer's dream come true, I found the high end bright and slightly fatiguing when the volume was up a sufficient level to enjoy the wonderfully low bass and transparent midrange. This reminds me of Etymotic Research's original decision to have two different versions of the ER4. The ER4B is flat in the high frequencies and is designed to be used with binaural recordings that have slightly rolled-off treble. The ER4S has the roll-off and is designed to mimic the absorption of those high frequencies by one's body and surroundings when listening to loudspeakers. Some people love bright sound. Last week I found out my older brother has owned the V6's for eight years and loves them. It's an interesting experience hearing all the details of the music, as if you have a direct connection to the live microphones the musicians were recording through. Nevertheless, it's something I had to force myself to do, and wasn't a totally comfortable experience.

Perhaps burning-in the 7506's will make a difference.

02-09-2000 07:46 PM ET

DJMart is easy to search and the prices come out the same for the 7506 when free shipping is taken into account.

02-16-2000 05:38 PM ET

By the way, I sent these back today.

02-19- 08:54 PM ET

Additional Note: The rather comfortable V6 is a standard in production and radio. They're not the sound system a CD was mastered on (high-end loudspeakers are), but many people seem to prefer the recording-engineer-styled very slight brightness, and hence increased detail, of them. The discontinued MDR-V6 is the original, consumer version of the more expensive but identical professional MDR-7506. You'll often see *these* pro phones on Howard Stern or Fraiser.

Etymotic Research ER4 MicroPro Earphones

Price: $275 @ Headroom

02-06-2000 08:22 PM ET

I checked around and the impedance of the ER4S is almost as good as that of the old Koss TD-65 phones I use for test tones and burning in CD players. I think I'm going to get the er4s's from Headroom and give it a try.

02-11-2000 01:09 PM ET

I am now using the ER4S and have absolutely ZERO problems driving them. They are actually *perfect* sensitivity for my home CD player and only need to be turned up to 5 or 6 on my portable. I don't have a Headroom amp, so the sound is a shmidget (no offense to the little people out there) brighter than it would be otherwise. The ER4S does reproduce audible 40 Hz, but I think it should be a tad louder down there. This also seems apparent on my Panasonic 361 portable without super-base. I feel the urge to give the ER4P a go.

02-15-2000 05:50 PM ET

It is interesting that Headroom amps have roll off in the high frequencies to compensate for most headphones' overzealous very high frequency response. I've been using the 4S for almost a week without any amp and they sound wonderful. Maybe a little too much treble and not enough bass on non-classical recordings for my taste, but I'm not exactly sure yet. I'm probably going to order the 4P today and compare the two. If you have an Airhead, I assume you'll want the 4S. If you don't like the resulting balance, use it without the amp. The 4S runs fine on my portable at only half volume.

02-16-2000 01:19 PM ET

I ordered the er4p last night then spent the next few hours messing around with the 4s I have. I came across some directions in the manual on how to correctly insert the Etymotics. Assuming they were over thinking the matter I tried it just for kicks. I would like to type everything right now in capital letters to express my amazement, but I won't. This morning I called Todd at Headroom and he canceled the 4p order. The er4s must have been sealing the wrong amount of air in my ears, or something. All previous complaints I've made about them should be ignored.

02-16-2000 05:33 PM ET

It has taken me almost a week to get the right seal in my ear canal with these. All I had to do was follow the instructions in Etymotic's manual and everything fell into place, or took off into outerspace depending on whether I'm just talking about the ER4S or actually listening to them. Before last night, I was just pushing them into my ear canal until it was uncomfortable to push any more. The sound was still better than any other headphone I'd used before but was still lacking. The treble was every-so-slightly overemphasized. The bass seemed a tiny bit lacking. And the midrange lacked some body and bloom.

Then I finally read the manual and got the seal right. There was an immediate drop in the volume, but an increase in the Bass. I turned up the volume and WOW! There was ZERO over-brightness to the treble; the bass was deep, loud, tight, and dynamic; and the midrange was gorgeous, palpable, and in full bloom. My words: AY CARAMBA! These phones had better balance and tonality than any headphone *or* loudspeaker I'd ever heard. At the time I was constrained by the short cord connected into my Denon DCM-370 HDCD Player, but right there I danced and grooved like a crazy fool to Econoline Crush's album "The Devil You Know". I couldn't help it, man. Then it got to the final sample on the track 'Home' and I heard textures to that sound effect that my auditory system had never even had a hint of before. This is coolness, in spades. As the philosopher Hobbes would put it, I'm a happy camper.

02-16-2000 07:29 PM ET

Oh, I forgot to mention how great the people at Headroom are. Etymotic didn't package all the filter tool parts and filters in some of the ER4S boxes and Todd immediately knew what I was talking about on the phone and shipped the missing pieces to me. I'm very pleased with how they handled it.

02-17-2000 06:24 PM ET

I'm starting to second-guess my claims that most CD portables can run the 4S. On an early eighties classical CD I have there was a noticeable click/cracking distortion to a few very powerful bass sounds on some of the percussion. The CD itself is much lower in volume than most of my others I own and needed to be turned up to *at least* 8. There was absolutely no need for extra bass or less treble. The amp on my Panasonic sl-361 just seemed to have a lack of sufficient current for the er4s. This has only been noticeable on that one CD, since learning how to seal the 4s properly in my ears, and having to compensate for the resulting drop in volume. I probably should have tested this out before I posted the review on audioreview.com. I don't like the idea of worrying about batteries for an amp and the Airhead has that high noise floor to worry about. However, the 4s sounds so amazing out the headphone jack of my Denon, I don't want to move to the lower fidelity 4p just so I can play a few old CDs on my portable. I'm considering eventually getting an Airhead when they fix the noise problem.

02-19-2000 09:17 PM ET

I've been noticing an incredible amount of spaciousness with these. I'm hearing stuff in front of me, outside my ears, and on top of my head -- and this is just with modern panned mono recordings. I don't yet own any binaural recordings, but with true stereo microphone recordings I'm hearing a 3D, spherical sound field with a circumference as big as my arms making a circle over my head (think ballerina). I even hear ambient sounds and distant front instruments that sound like they are several feet away in a miniature concert hall. These sounds have a very physical, 3D shape to them. It is extremely weird and wonderful to experience.

02-21-2000 06:52 PM ET

I used to have a plugged up feeling after using the ER4S. But since I've started following the instructions that doesn't seem to be a problem. You might also want to slightly wet the rubber tips with water or saliva (SNL earwax jokes aside). That seems to quicken the insertion of them. Above all else, if the Etymotics feel weird take them out and put them back in again. Keep trying until you can't take it anymore. If you still aren't satisfied, go get the custom ear molds. Greg Smith of soundstage.com told me he just got the customs and finds they relieve you of the insertion hassle and make them sound even better.

Of course, all of this is for not if you listen at too high a volume. On Friday I danced the night away at a club called The Beach here in Vegas. My ears have been ringing ever since, and I've put off all things loud for a week. The Etymotic ER-20 musicians' earplugs I just ordered ought to keep that from happening again. DON'T BE LIKE I WAS! PROTECT YOUR EAR-HOLES ;)

02-22-2000 07:17 PM ET

Greg Smith says it costs around $80 for the whole shmeer, but he didn't have to pay that much because he attended some show where the impressions were being done for free. He says to call Etymotic to get an audiologist recommendation.

02-23-2000 04:53 PM ET

I've tried that one early 80's classical CD on both my Denon 370 and my Panasonic sl361 players. After using a variety of headphones and speakers on both, it now appears that the distortion I was hearing in the low end is in fact present in the recording. My portable just seems to exaggerate it a little at high volumes through the Etymotics. The CD is Star Tracks and the biggest culprit was the rendition of Star Wars' "Imperial March".

02-28-2000 08:59 PM ET

Yet another correction: The ER4S does cause my portable's amp to distort on more than just that one track, but it is usually very subtle.

Also, the tonality and volume of the earphones is highly dependent on how far in they are and, what seems to be, how much air is sealed inside your ear canal. Whatever reason it is, if you reinsert them, these two qualities alter each time. The goal should be ideal tonal quality that is identical between the two earphones and heard at the same volume so that the sound is centered. My favorite way of checking for this is with The Ultimate Test CD. The left, right, and center vocal channel tests are perfect for checking to make sure the tonal characteristics are correct and matched between the two ear pieces, and also matched in volume so that the center channel is indeed centered. It takes some trial and error to get it right. Of course, it's almost impossible without following Etymotic's insertion directions.

03-06-2000 06:00 PM ET

I am continually amazed at the sound of these. Last night I listened to The Cranes "Population Four" and Moby "Everything is Wrong". I was 100% content with the tonal character of the two albums. I am convinced they were reproduced with the frequency responses the artists had intended. The Moby disk, a favorite of mine for several years, sounded totally amazing.

I'll also mention that the ER20 Musicians' Earplugs I bought are a great product. There is just a tiny bit more reduction of the treble than the rest of the frequencies, but nothing even close to the awful sound you get from other 12dB plugs. They're definitely worth the $18.

The rubber eartips on the ER4 fit a long and narrow tube. In contrast, the *very* comfortable rubber eartips on the ER20 musicians' earplug are fit for a short, wide tube, but otherwise look identical to those on the ER4.

03-09-2000 06:15 PM ET

Last night I listened to Curve's "Doppleganger" and Garbage's first album. I was freaking out at the spatial characteristics through the ER4S. I wonder, with so much production done on headphones, if some of these artists are recording some of the samples binaurally, or adding analog crossfeed, or using digital headphone psychoacoustic processing on portions of the music. Some of spatial stuff I was experiencing had never been apparent before on loudspeakers and had a definite artistic flavor to them. I find it hard to believe it's just coincidental they are only noticeable through extreme fidelity headphones. Of course, it could be that my Bose integrated loudspeakers just suck that much.

Maybe there is also a coorelation concerning burn-in of the ER4S with XLO/Reference Recordings' CD. I noticed a moderate increase in ambience after burning-in my Denon CD player and Bose speakers. Then again, maybe I just hadn't listened to enough of my CD's to hear the effect on the Etymotics pre-burn-in.

03-16-2000 08:11 PM ET

I have something to confess. Once when I was too lazy to get some water, I wetted the rubber tips with saliva. Gross, yes. Successful, no. It made the inside of my ears itch. The tried and proven means is to get some water on your fingertip and moisten the tips that way. This also seems to alleviate the need to shove the Etymotics so far in it feels like they interfaced directly with your brain. The accumulation of earwax may also be responsible for my recent easy-seals. In addition, I've started using alcohol wipes to clean the eartips when on the go.

Yesterday, I bought the Radioshack model 42-2492 8ft headphone extension for under $7. It's beige color, heavy-duty, shielded 24 gauge cable with only 1/8" ends. I think it is for multimedia use but is the best the Shack has. It would be interesting to compare it to those $90 high end ones.

It's hard to tell, but I think there might be less transparency to the overall sound and more coarseness to the treble than without an extension cable for the ER4S.

03-30-2000 06:21 PM ET

"Unreadable Communication" from Curve: Cuckoo -- totally amazing through the ER4S. Unreal midrange air, super intense, even through my Panasonic 361C portable right now.

04-17-2000 08:39 PM ET

Another good match for the ER4S: Pixies: Trompe Le Monde

Another great match for the ER4S: Baz Lurman's Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack CD1 --Hot damn that's good production!

Koss A200 Studio Professional Headphones

Price: $55 @ J and R

03-24-2000 05:51 PM ET

Nice headphones!

They are almost as neutral as the JVC HA-D727, but very extended highs, unlike the D727. There is no excess warmth with the A200 that sometimes occurs with the Etymotic ER4S. While those ear canal phones' warmth is always transparent and never really bothersome, the A200 is exactly the opposite in midrange frequency response. The Koss almost seems to have a microscopic deficiency in some of the midrange. With the extended highs, this produces an equally slight brightness to the upper half of the sound spectrum, yet is rarely fatiguing at normal listening levels. As I remember it, the Sony MDR-V6/7506 had significantly sharper, more tiresome treble.

The sound from the A200 is not as smooth as the ER4S, nor does it have the same level of fineness to the air. However, I didn't notice annoying grain, hash, or fizzy-ness to the treble. With the A200's good transparency, there was very nice detailed, open audio. Ambience is very good. While not as wide around the head as the Etymotics, it is surprisingly capable of wonderful forward distance, as well as width out there. I noticed a reasonable amount height from time to time, too. Bass is *very good* -- deep, not boomy, but definitely loud enough. The A200 has great speed -- very taut and fast. The overall sound reminds me of the Denon 950, but with better ambience and none of the fizzy treble that one had.

The Koss A200 is comfortable and well made. Great cloth ear-pads. Awesome four wire cord -- sort of like on the Koss ESP/ 950 electrostatic. There is no need to worry about the crossfeed associated with single-ground-wire headphones. Static electricity shocks are much more bearable than on the ER4S, V6/7506, or D727. They zap your ear helix instead of inside your ear and are less frequent, as well. The headband comes off with the push of two buttons, and while not making this ultra-portable it does make for nifty storage options. Like most Koss products, it has a lifetime warranty. If it ever wears out through normal use, send it to Koss with a $5 check and they'll refurbish it for you.

To me, without a doubt these sound nicer than the Sony V6/7506, V600 and JVC HA-D727. It also seems much better than I remember the $140 Denon 950 to have been. The discontinued Koss A200 was origionally meant to compete in the $150 price range, but can currently be found on www.jandr.com for $55 or less. It is a great bargain. Many thanks to Van for bringing this keeper to my attention.

03-25-2000 08:21 PM ET

The A200 is a little brighter than I'd originally stated. Metaphorically, there is a microscopic lack of midrange and microscopic excess of treble. Together it makes for a macroscopic brightness. In contrast, the ER4S has microscopic excess of midrange and microscopic lack of high frequency treble. Together this makes the ER4S macroscopically warm on a significant portion of my CD's. Now, this isn't *that* bad. Every other bright headphone I've used was either very fatiguing or hashy, and the Etymotics are the only slightly warm phone I've used that wasn't also muddy. Actually, the ER4S is as transparent as sound seems to get.

With this in mind I had a brainstorm -- my VCR, the Sony SLV-988HF is slightly warm. Since the Koss is easy to drive, I should be able to hook it to the RCA outs on the VCR. I popped on the necessary cables and a Koss volume control and tested the Plexi "Forest Ranger" purchased video and the Garbage Home Video. The VCR did indeed warm up "the sound of Koss". The only imbalance left was the super-slight excess treble. However, it was so slight, with the midrange warmed, as to be nearly insignificant. In fact, I bet most of you audiophiles would consider it the optimal balance. Regardless though, the Koss has as good or better balance through that VCR than the ER4S does on many of my CD's. The sound of the A200 still isn't as smooth, nor the air as fine and totally real as the Etymotics. Yet, with that extended treble and nice transparency, the sound of the Koss is extremely open and clear. I don't have any particularly warm sounding CD players. As such, I'm still stuck leaving the volume at or below normal listening levels on about half my CD's in order to avoid *any* hearing fatigue during long sessions. I'm certain the slightest equalization would make the Koss A200 a perfectly balanced headphone at normal to loud volumes. So, my gripes are rather petty ones. I can't wait to get home and listen to more VHS tapes!

03-30-2000 05:35 PM ET

CD's that are great to test the Koss A200:

Cranes: Wings of Glory -- The entire disk has great clearity, tonality, and external imaging with the A200.

Test CD 4.1 by Opus 3 -- Ditto.

The Ultimate Test CD -- Especially track 26 "Imaging, Depth, and Directionality". This is similar to the XLO/Reference Recording Disk's "Prof Johnson Does Something Spacial". The A200 is the *only* headphone I've used that doesn't make Michael Fremer sound like he's walking behind your head. I can actually hear the ambience out in front of me, and if I relax, his voice, too.

04-03-2000 06:00 PM ET

I spent about 4 hours on Sunday experiencing a bunch of VHS tapes that I'd recorded with a JVC Hi-fi. Through the Sony there was no excess treble of any kind. The bass was amazing. Definitely the most full, neutral, and spacious headphone listening I've come across yet. Taped music videos and specials from MTV and Muchmusic blew me away. I sat in awe through 2 hours of Tribal Gathering '97. At times there was so much sound outside my head and just in front of the TV that it didn't even sound like headphones at all!

04-09-2000 08:10 PM ET

Vangelis: Portraits sounds extraordinary on the A200. I'm really starting to notice the utility of activating a room's acoustics with instruments, or in the case of electronic music, using light hiss and other noises to create a perceived space. Not all of this CD is stylistically or vocally what I wish it was, but "Conquest of Paradise", from the film 1492, and several instrumentals are wonderful. There was so much super-low-end bass that I could feel my moosed hair vibrating. It's pretty amazing what kind of production was put into this album, and it's not even HDCD.

What's really strange is how XLO/Reference Recording's disk allowed me to actually visualize the shape of the recording space. I could almost see it. One of the rooms in particular sounded or looked distinctly like it was in a half-domed concert hall. Before hand, though, the headphones' fit has to be adjusted on my head and around my ears during depth testing tracks to make sure the balance is correct. But after this there is a crazy level of precision in the imaging.

Curve: Cuckoo also sounds hypnotically cool on the Koss.

Koss SportaPro Headphones

Price: $18 @ Buy.com

05-05-2000 03:17 PM ET

Strait out of the packaging I hooked them up to my HDCD Denon player. They've got great highs and mids. I must agree with others that the bass is a little exaggerated. However, I've not experienced discomfort yet from their use. The bass is just noticeably overdone in the 30-80HZ region -- the lowest you can pretty much hear with headphones. This never *seems* to muddle the mids, which is often a problem with bass-heavy phones. It doesn't seem excessively boomy and there are oodles of low-end dynamics, which I did not expect. They remind me a lot of the Denon 950's, but without the Denon's tissy-fit highs. When I hooked them up to my Panasonic 361C portable, I was surprised even further. With Curve: Doppelganger, the bass didn't seem even the slightest bit exaggerated. Unfortunately, when I moved over to extreme low-end intensive music like Massive Attack: Mezzanine, there was still a little too much bass, but slightly less than on the Denon. Econoline Crush: The Devil You Know kind of had too much bass, but most people would probably prefer it that way. You'd never be tempted to use bass boost with these guys! Spatially, the SportaPros have a nice open sound.

The SportaPros fold up and this is where the other caveat comes out. When using the headband behind your head, the little fold-up hook can start rubbing against my head, behind my right ear. This only happens when the band slides too far down, though. All Koss had to do was have the hook facing the opposite direction to avoid this. They’re still the most comfortable headphones-that-press-on-the-ear that I’ve ever tried, and I do love how they fold up; it returns them to a nice, taught shape. The Koss has a good, short length of cord for portable use that also has a mute button on it.

I’ll keep the SportaPros as a portable and bass-y alternative. If used with bass turned down a tad, they would be even better.