Etymotic ER2XR Extended Response Earphone, Multicolored

The headphones are just amazing. They work very good with many of my genres, in particular electronic music (psytrance) and pop. Extremely well defined sound, and although a bit intimate stage the definition and separation is just another level, especially for a single dynamic driver. The big breaking point is the fit, but i got used to it fairly quickly and the obvious advantage is superior noice cancellation that you wouldnt get without this type of fit. It does make the stage a bit intimate, but for electronic music this isnt something i care that much about anyways. It turns it as an advantage in that genre, atleast to my preference. Getting a good seal and deep fit is absolutely crucial for these iems to come alive and show what they are capable of and it may require some perseverance to get used to them. But if you manage, they are very hard to stop listen to. They are almost addicting.What isnt that good is basically all the rest. Some of the ear tips was literally broken(had holes and leaked sound/didnt isolate external sound) right out of the box. Even if the earphones are fairly priced, things like this shouldnt happen at this price point. Now i have to spend extra to be able to explore other potentially more optimal tip fits.The cable is also pretty lacking in many areas, and the clip is absolutely essential to avoid the pretty apparent microphonics the cable brings. It also feels cheap and it seems like the plug core is of some steel/iron alloy, and not copper(or atleast brass) since its magnetic. Not really ideal, but thanks to the stellar earphone itself it doesnt have that much of an impact on the general performance, although no fair comparison with an adequate cable has been done so far.If you dare to take a gamble on the fit, these are the absolutely best iems you will find in the ~100$ category. I have the hexas and olina se which are also heavy hitters in this category, and the er2xr beats those two fairly easy to me in most categories (excluding staging, but not to say er2xr staging is "bad". Its just intimate and special). I can however see how rock genres/electric guitar songs sound better on the hexas but for me that is not something of weight since i rarely listen to that type of music.

ER4XR: Balanced armature driver gives insanely technical performance at the cost of being less enjoyable to listen to. One-note bass. Bass quality and impact isn't as good as the ER2XR. I would recommend this model only to audio professionals who need raw technicality more than enjoyment from what they're listening to.ER2SE: Very little bass; the frequency response curve is flat in the bass region. Otherwise it's identical to the ER2XR. Good technicalities but not as good as the ER4's due to the use of a dynamic driver. Without the extra bass though, the sound signature doesn't sound balanced to me.ER2XR: This is what I would recommend for 99% of people. It follows a pretty neutral frequency curve with a little extra bass. The bass is present, but not overwhelming. Like the ER2SE, it's less technical than the ER4's but are much more enjoyable to listen to music with. Very balanced and non-offensive sound signature overall. I recommend using brown filters or upping the 8 kHz range by 3-5 dB to give a little extra sparkle and air to the treble range to compensate for the "dip" in that range.All of Ety's earphones seal very deep. If the included tips don't work for you, try any tips for Shure or Westone which also work. I've found Shure medium silicone tips work very well and seal a little shallower, but I mostly use the included grey foam tips.The cable is mediocre and probably costs them $3 to make yet they charge a lot for replacements. I've had the cable of my SE's start to come loose on one side after years of heavy use, but your mileage may vary.Other comparisonsVS Moondrop Chu: Chu has similar bass, brighter treble, poorer resolution and accuracyVS Moondrop Chu II: Chu II has higher bass, brighter treble, poorer resolution and accuracy, but is arguably more "fun" to listen to because of it's V-shape sound signature.VS Shure 215: Another "budget" default recommendation. Frequency response in the mids and trebles is a little wonky and the driver isn't as technical as the ER2's. The 215 is completely outclassed by the ER2's and lots of sub $50 Chi-fi IEMs.