Etymotic ER4-XR

These are very impressive earphones. Bought in June 2025 for Amazon sale price of £193. I have not heard as accurate, exciting, detailed sound from any portable source before (in ear or over ear). They reveal everything about the music. I think they have enough bass (the ‘XR’ bit seems to deliver). The isolation is good, not as good as active noise cancellation but with ANC you get strange artefacts and a kind of ‘wash’ over the sound. With these, you just hear less of the world because the fit is so snug. On the fit. If you read some reviews you will probably be a bit scared (I was). In reality, they don’t go extremely deep. A little deeper than usual earphones but not uncomfortable. Takes a small amount of getting used to. Because music sounds so good, I kept putting them back in! So they can’t feel that bad. Soundstage is narrow because of the fit. But you can hear everything in its proper place in the stereo field. I’d 100% recommend. If money was no object, then they are still very much worth it at full price. They have lots of excellent box candy too, including a graph showing how well matched the two individual earphones are. Bravo.

The journey to finding "the perfect" headphone is filled with lessons, hardships, heartaches, loss of income, joys, celebrations and special moments. Truth be told it's all subjective isn't it? Everyone hears sounds differently, and everyones ears are shaped differently. If you didn't cross that rubicon of upgrading the earphones that came with your smartphone, you probably wouldn't know any better what you're missing out on, and probably save a lot of money in the end. But perhaps not your hearing. And protecting my hearing is what led me to the Etymotics ("Etys" hereforth). I will caveat my review for any audiophile reading, I am far too much of an imbecile to understand concepts such as Frequency response, impedence, sensitivity and maximum output. Neither do I have the audiophile vernacular to use terms such dark, bright, sibilance et al. What I am though is a simple man that can recognise something good when he sees it, errr hears it. Speaking of seeing. What you can immediately notice with the Etys, is that they do look impressively built. I received them in the office post, and my workmates (who aren't in any way inclined towards audio) chirped: "They look fancy!". So well done Etymotic on building something that looks top notch. And this is a reassurance, whilst there are definitely a lot more expensive IEMs out there then these. It is still a pretty big outlay for a lot of people. It is therefore somewhat of a comfort, that given the money you have spent, that they will probably outlast you. In terms of hearing. The XR, as the Amazon blurbature will tells you, stands for Extended Response (why they didn't call it ER I have no idea...). The Ety XRs are widely touted on forums galore as the earphone for those who want uncompromising accuracy but appreciate a bit of boom boom pow in the bass department. I listen to a variety of different types of music (cliche, I know) from Jazz, Classical to Hip Hop and EDM. My previous IEMs were Sennheisser IE80s and RHA T20s, which are quite literally bass monsters (if you want them to be), were easy to drive and were quite forgiving of the source material (amp not needed). By all means they aren't bad earphones at all, however I was incessantly annoyed at how mediocre the isolation was. On the tube I would keep having to wack up the volume, and I was worried about inducing early hearing loss. Which was what led me on a quest to find the most isolately isolating IEM of them all, and taking the plunge on hitting the buy button on these. I was slightly worried they may not be able to do justice to some of the commercialised nonsense I listened to, because that simply isn't the Ety way. But I needn't worry they do a stellar job playing Earl Hines as they do Kendrick Lamar. Yes they aren't bass monsters, but if thats what you're after there are a lot better IEMs for that. What these are, are two tiny brain ticklers (they go in very deep) that give you the sound as it was meant to be, but perhaps a bit more fun then their sisters, the SRs. Don't get me wrong these are still very detailed, I remember having a "WOW" moment with these, when listening to a song and noticing rain drops in the background that I had never heard before. And for these wow moments, you will need to use a high quality source of music and hardware to get the absolute best out of these, don't believe forum posts, Spotify extreme still sounds good out of these, but yes something like Tidal HiFi will lead to more magical goosebump moments. I run these via a Topping NX2 amp-dac at home and in the office, for me, this set up is very good (until I can afford an Oppo HA-2SE I assume). Out and about on the streets, on the bus and on the tube, they sound just as good straight from my S7, just for the pure fact they isolate so much more ambient noise than anything else I've had in the past. What about the other stuff? Well off the top of my head, 1) the included tips are crapola. The triple flanges are excellent for noise isolation but ache after a while, and are too much of a hassle to put in and out. I'd recommend these if you're likely to be uninterrupted for a long time (also be prepared to get intimate with ear wax with these). After testing, I can recommend the Shure Olives and SpinFit CP800 as good practical every day useage tips. They block out just as much noise sound as the triple flanges, and sound just as good (the Olives have a wax guard too). Please note, they won't block out 100% of all background noise, but they will dramatically most noise (even more than active noise cancelling); in the office I can't hear much at all apart from the shrillest of people, and on the tube, the annoying low frequency sounds are dramatically reduced, and I can't hear people conversing around me at all. (2) The included carrying case too is crapola. It's far to cumbersome to carry around for practical purposes. Get a smaller case for day to day useage. (3) The wire can be very fiddly, the use of the included shirt clip is a must to avoid the uncomfortable feeling of the cable pulling on your ear canal. Some people have said they've managed to wear it over the ear, I dunno, it feels odd to me. To conclude, as I stated this all very subjective, however from the majority of 5 star reviews on here, it seems a few people feel the same as me too. It's not a small amount to pay for those not deep in the IEM game. However if you are looking at this page, I will assume that you have the moolah, and willing to part with it on an item like this. For me, in my limited IEM experience, whilst the Etys are not without flaws, they delivers on enough fronts to be my best IEM purchase thus far.

I don't think I can add much to the reviews already posted. The earphones are, of course, superb. The sound is absolutely clear, you can hear everything across the range. Bass is emphasised enough for me (I want to be able to hear everything and not be in pain whilst doing it!), but, if you're looking for eardrum shattering beats, these may not be for you. I did not get a 'wow' moment when I first used these (they're not designed with that in mind), what I did do was smile. I smiled for a full 40 minutes, while I listened to one of my favourite albums burst into life in my ears. I could hear EVERYTHING without straining and the vocals sounded as though the singer was standing next to me. Priceless. Each subsequent experience has been the same. They can be uncomfortable as they sit so far into the ear canal (and the supplied ear buds are a swine), but, if you're looking for sublime listening, don't want oodles of bass and are prepared to search for alternative buds, these might be for you.

I've been an audiophile for over 40 years. I am 64 and my first taste of music came when I was 7 in Omaha's Orpheum back when Leonard Bernstein conducted the Young People's concert and since then, I loved music (who knew classical could nock you off you seat!). If you've played a Steinway, you know the sound of the keys when you press and the sound of when the key hits the bottom with it's 'earthy fundamental sound, and the strike against the strings. This cannot be heard in most any system. I can hear it with the Lavricable update. I've had Sennheiser HD-600, HD-700, Stax 727 amp and Lambda headphones. I've also had the older ER4 Etymotic back before 2010 and after these I gave to my son in law, I've tried what are now Sennheiser IE-800s, and a host of others and they never gave me the fit, or sound of the original ER4. These new ER4 series are outstanding and unlike the bulky and filled with dips and peaks of other headphones and IEMs are engineered correctly with the Fletcher Munson curves and are actually tested for each ear piece just as the best cartridges (I have the Benz Ruby Z cartridge which has gone through voicing and also the B&K measurement tape). The ER4XR does an excellent job in producing bass with accuracy, the fundamental and the overtones rather than a thud as what the best REL subwoofers used to do with 6' or larger bass drums, large tympani drums and the accuracy of differentiating the metal vs wooden lowest registers of pipe organs and grand pianos. This was a big surprise for me as only my tri-amped Accuton/Focal & Rel have performed this well. I can hear the voices distinctly, the instruments individually can be followed and the nuances of analog playback are not lost. In the digital realm they are a bit bright in the mid to upper midrange but they are still new. Being IEMs one is not going to get the depth of the sound stage and give a good 3 dimensional characteristic of what is being reproduced (from the older 1 take recordings of Classical and Jazz are the best and the Direct to Disc are a very rare treat (Thank you Doug Sax). The dynamics and width / breadth of the music is as recorded. These go to the upper frequencies with no problem either. I have Lavricables on the way from the UK and by then I hope to have them broken in. I am not a fan of any digital hand units and almost all convert DSD to PCM with only one exception, that being AK4499EQ which has the ability to process DSD in it's correct form without conversion as all others claim it but always convert to multiple step higher frequency PCM. See diagrams of each and one finds the difference quite easily as DSD is very simple 1 bit processing at very high megahertz frequencies when DSD 256, 512 and 1024 are used. With no crossover, I can understand why Louther, Mark Audio, Phy-hp and others at the top of their ranges are so sought after. GET THE LAVRICABLE!!! Huge difference and puts the IEM into the higher end territory of open back overpriced headphones. The sound of individual instruments is excellent even in PCM Rock and the older recordings on vinyl are able to distinguish not only each instrument, but the fundamental from harmonics and the higher harmonic nuances. One can hear the background activity of the live recordings of Jazz, Classical, Blues along with conversations. The impact of the bass is very tight and stronger, string instruments sound like what they are supposed to and separation of instruments I thought only available from the better headphone that are made in-house and air between them is very good. Listen to the different filters too. I have never heard ANY IEM come close to this EVER and the fit and isolation are exceptional compared to bulky poorly engineered, over the ear and pathetic ear inserts of any other IEM maker. These people are experts in fit and IEMs as they have been around since 1984 and are also experts in audiology the science of how the ear hears.

O produto em geral é muito bom. Todavia, as espumas dos fones que acompanham estavam amassadas e duras quando abri. Deixei elas aerando para ver se recuperavam a forma... mas elas continuavam deformadas. Testei um par, mas a dureza da espuma machucou o meu ouvido e a espuma simplesmente se soltou do tubo interno quando fui substituir pelas flanges de silicone. O certificado mostra que o produto é de 2019/2020, sendo vendido em meados de 2024... parece que envelheceu na caixa e o Amazon está desovando o produto velho no mercado brasileiro. Fiquei constrangido e decepcionado.

What can you say about Etymotic? I currently have two pairs of the ER4S, and owned the ER4B in the past. I have been using Ety products for at least four years non stop, and I absolutely love the ER4S, and consider if one of, if not the best headphone ever. Decided to try the ER4XR after reading the impressions on the forums at head-fi. At first I thought the ER4XR had slightly too much bass compared to the sound of the ER4S that I was accustomed to. They still have the classic Ety sound, but with a very slight bass boost. Because I was used to the sound of the ER4S, I cringed when I first heard the ER4XR. My immediate first impression, after hearing a couple of tracks I was intimately familiar with, was that the bass drowns out a very small amount of midrange detail (Compared to the ER4S). I immediately started thinking "oh no... what is Etymotic doing??". But you know what? After a few tracks, my brain adjusted and I absolutely love the ER4XR now, even on those tracks where my initial reaction was negative. I probably won't ever get rid of the ER4S, as I feel that on some recordings the ER4S is a bit better, but on other recordings, the ER4XR is clearly better. I was stunned when some tracks produced a lot more realism than the ER4S was ever capable of. When certain background vocalists would come on, or a certain instrument would kick in, the ER4XR's imaging and warmth really adds to the realism, and produces a sound much more natural than the ER4S. This isn't true across the board, but on a good 60-70% of the tracks I listened to. Some Etymotic fans, and other fans of neutral headphones may say that the slight bass boost makes these headphones "less neutral", and I honestly thought I would think the same thing, but I was surprised by the added realism, and now I can't help but think "if it brings more realism and texture to certain tracks, how can that be a bad thing? how can that be "less accurate"?" I've read some people who claim that the classic etymotic sound wasn't really neutral, but clinical. Now that they've provided a very careful, slight bass boost, it produces a sound much more akin to what the human ear expects to hear. According to this viewpoint, it's the ER4XR that is the first truly neutral Etymotic headphone. I haven't spent enough time with them to settle on a viewpoint, but I suspect there may be something to this. Something about these headphones just sounds more REAL than the ER4S, even if I know it's less "neutral", the overall effect this headphone produces tricks my brain into believing it's more real. There is so much music out there, all mastered using different studio monitors, by mastering engineers of various ages and skill levels. In my experience, the ER4S seems to be a better match for some music, while the ER4XR is a better match for others. Who knows why. Maybe it has something to do with the studio monitors used to master the tracks. Studio monitors are supposed to be neutral, but there are many models out there, all with slightly different frequency response curves. So if the engineer masters a track on a slightly warmer monitor, it might be better to play it back on a slightly warm speaker or headphone, and vise versa. I feel that, for some truly wonderfully mastered music, the ER4S is better than the ER4XR (I haven't tried the ER4SR), but for other music, the ER4XR brings out more realism and texture, without losing any detail. That's not to say that the ER4XR is a "forgiving" headphone, not in the slightest. It just has that slight bit of warmth that really bring an element of euphonic texture to the music.

Mit dem tiefen Sitz im Ohr kann ich mich anfreunden. Dazu allerdings nicht mit den 2-flange Aufsätzen. Ich nutze meist die großen 3-flange oder die großen gepolsterten Aufsätze. Der Klang ist für mich mit das beste, von dem, 'was ich mir leisten kann'. Sie sind recht neutral und müssen mit etwas mehr Power angetrieben werden. Bei mir ist das der Fiio BTR7 und der Khadas Tea Pro. Beide meist als DAC über USB-C am Android Phone angeschlossen. Als Musikdienst habe ich vornehmlich TIDAL im Einsatz. Der Klang ist 'flach', im positiven Sinne, aber unheimlich detailreich. Meine bisherigen Favoriten bei InEars sind die Tangzu Wu Zetian und Shanling MG100, wobei ich die MG100 angenehmer zu tragen finde. Die ER4 sind, wenn sie denn mal richtig und tief im Ohr sitzen klanglich sogar noch besser und der von vielen bemängelte Bass ist dann auch da. Ich würde mir dieses Modell auch wieder kaufen! Leider war das Kabel bei meiner Lieferung defekt und hatte DropOuts auf dem linken Kanal, wenn ich den Kopf bewegt habe. Also habe ich mich an den Support von Etymotic gewendet und ohne weitere Nachfrage ein neues Kabel zugeschickt bekommen. Jetzt kann ich die InEars richtig geniessen.

The Etymotic ER4XR are my first dive into the world of high-end IEMs and I consider myself to be very lucky as I feel that I have reached the endgame. I've dabbled into midrange IEMs as I've always preferred these over other forms of headphones. Another testament of these headphones is the packaging and the amount of accessories that come with it. The fit of these takes some getting used to but once you do, they become extremely comfortable to the point that you forget you have them on. The audio quality is incredible and the imaging is some of the best I have ever heard. The XR has more bass than the regular ER4s however these IEMs are DEFINITELY NOT FOR bassheads. The bass however is very clean and fast and it never muddles the sound. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that once these bad boys are placed correctly in your ears; the isolation is just mind blowing. This is a completely different ballpark to ANC. It basically creates a vacuum chamber in your ears where even playing music at 30% level will cut out almost everything. I wore these on the plane and at 40% volume from a DAC-powered phone, I could NOT hear the plane at all. Just be wary that the fit is not for everyone, these IEMs will physically violate your ears for the first 10 days of you wearing them. Start slow and slowly your ears will adapt to the feeling.