Customer Reviews
Best liitle earphones, ever 
2008-04-18
I have a drawer full of ear buds ear phones collected on my journey to the ER6's. Best little earphones ever. They cancel out noise and are just so comfortable. You can sleep with them in, just incredible. Let your search for the perfect earpnones end. Get these.............gym
Great Buds! 2008-04-06
I prefer the fit and performance of these earphones over both my Bose and Shure EC3 earphones. Bose has an uncomfortable fit to my ears outside the ear canal with unflexible rubber tips without any noise isolation and I find the Shure alittle too heavy and bulky. These buds are very light with a thinner cord and fit nice and snug but not uncomfortably tight against ear canal. Great sound quality and noise isolation with proper insertion. Small enough I can sleep with them in my ears unlike larger and heavier Bose and Shure earphones. I like the weightless thin cords. Just follow the directions and gently remove appliance by the earphones instead of the cords to preserve integrity of appliance and I anticipate extended longevity from these terrific earphones. Unlike Bose and Shure, these Etymotics clearly label right and left earphones in BOLD initials. A simple but helpful improvement for ease of use. In addition, Etymotics come with earphone filters that allow the user to change them when they may become clogged with wax or dirt build up which diminish sound clarity and quality. Cheaper than Shure, but just as good if not better sound quality. Great value for the price. Seem to be well engineered.
maybe this could help with the comfort issue 
2008-03-12
i don't own this product but i've demo-ed a few different brands of iems(shures,ultimate ears, westones and ety). i heard these on a CD player with a headphone amp. definitely quite impressive if you're listening to clean music (classical, opera...) and not hip hop or bassy r&b stuff.
anyway, the owner of the shop recommended moisturizing the eartips(flanged sleeves) with body lotion for about a day, before washing them thoroughly. I tried that with my shure triple flange sleeves and they were all soft and nice after. but CAUTION: you have to wash all the lotion off. otherwise, your tips might get stuck in your ears.
don't know if it'll work for any of you. but you could always give it a go.
also, why not try other brands of eartips. you could modify shure triple flanges into double flanges by snipping off the bottom flange. (that's what i did).
Etymotic also has new triple flange tips for smaller ear canals (the blue ER4 ones).
hope this helps in some way.
Excellent Upgrade from standard in-ear headphones that come with most mp3 players 2008-02-26
These are great headphones, i own both the ER6 and the ER4's.
In general i prefer the ER6's as they just seem to fit a little bit better and are a bit smaller so they don't stick out as much from your ear.
The sound difference between these and the ER4's is very slight unless you are using an audiophile headphone amp and even then it is a small difference.
The only thing that keeps me from giving the ER6's 5 stars is the cabling...
The wire(s) used on the ER6's is far inferior to that used on the ER4's.
Mainly the wire on the ER6's is very light and easily damaged if you are walking around with your headphones on and get hung up on anything.
I am on my third pair of ER6's (the warranty is very good and they happily replace them) and if it is out of warranty they have a very nominal fee to replace them.
But if they would just put a heavier wire on the ER6's i would happily give them 5 stars, but the amount of time many people spend listing to their MP3 players, the average user is bound to wind up shorting out the lighter wire(s) that are on the ER6 vs. the more expensive ER4's.
Etymotic ER-4P Portable In-Ear Earphones
$500 (Shure SE530) VS $70 (Etymotic Reaserch ER6) 2008-02-26
I know it will sound crazy that the $500 triple driver is almost equal to the sound quality of a $70 single driver but it truly is.
By accident, I discovered why: I was trying to figure out why I was not happy with my SE530 in comparison to my ER6 so I went to my workshop in my basement trying to rig the sleeves to attempt better sound isolation. (this was 3 days after I recieved it ). I was about 5 feet from my furnace when it turned on and I was wearing the ER6 with foam sleeves. When I took the ER6 off and had the SE530s with the same size foam fittings, I could clearly hear the furnace but when had the ER6 I barely heard it. I haven't had the guts (yet) to open the se530s but inside the round hollow plastic shell is space for the 3 square drives which will leave gaps for air. External sound will pass through the thin plastic shell, then through the gaps of air and straight through the sound channel which explains poor sound isolation. Very bad for a $500 ear phone.
I bet if I crack the shell open and fill it with foam it'll sound better. But like I said, I don't have the guts yet. I may actually just return it..... I'll have to think more about that since the SE530s are actully good in quiet environmets - kinda defeats the whole purpose of having sound isolation earphones.
Anyway, the ER6 on the other hand has the sleeves directly wrapped around the drivers which eliminates air gaps for really good sound isolation. Add to good sound isolation a balanced high fidelity driver and you have a great set of earphones.
The ER6 so far is the best bang-for-the-buck earphones I have. I had a pair of Ultimate Ears Studio Fi 3 that sounded decent but broke in in a matter of months. I also had a hard time figuring out why my UEs wouldn't stay put during workouts when I finally realized that its because the wires were too stiff that it popped it out with slight movements unlike the very soft wires of the ER6s. The ER6s stayed put much better especially when the supplied clip is used on your shirt.
Thats why I was going to rate the SE530s with a 3 for an OK rating but the steep price made me bump it to a 2. ER6 gets a 4 and 1/2 out of five for me.
BTW... my ER6 is actually a step down from the ER6i but I'm still waaaaaaay satisfied with it.
I apolologise if I sounded like an ER6 promo. Just trying to help buyers make a more informed decision.
These are good headphones 2008-06-30
I am headed on a backpacking trip to Peru and I needed noise cancelling headphones that weren't going to take up much space in my pack. These are the only noise cancelling earbuds I could find with a decent review.
I have been very impressed so far. I have not yet taken them on my trip, that will be in September but when I don't feel like listening to TV and my partner does, these solve the problem.
I don't find them to be super comfortable but I think it's just me.
I can see that the thin wires could be a failure point but I'm not really that hard on stuff so I'm hoping to get my money's worth out of them before they break.
I CAN HEAR MY HEART BEAT!!! 2008-06-18
I was looking for an isolating headphone for an 18 hour flight to the Middle East. After reading reviews I decided on the ER-6. The price was reasonable and I really didn't feel like spending the kind of money necessary for the ER4-p set.
Pretty happy with this one. The flanges take quite a bit of getting used to, but they do produce a great quality sound, especially bass, provided you insert them properly. And for all those that say the bass is crap, READ THE MANUAL!!!! If instructions are follosed, especially the wetting the tips, they do go in properly.
The cable is on the thinnish side so make sure you don't pull on the cord when trying to remove them from your ear, or you're likely to trash your headphone. They are labeled L and R, though what difference that makes in the long run I'm not sure.
For me, I am going to use the soft foam ear tip. I found them more comfortable and quite a bit easier to put in.
One of the unpleasant things about in the ear tips is the cleaning aspect. They make replaceable disposable ear tips which are easy to use. Yes, this comes with a tool for cleaning the flange tips, and you then have to wash them with soap and water. Frankly speaking that's lots of constant care if you produce lots of ear wax.
It should also be stated that these are best used when you're stationary. Don't think about using these at the gym, walking or riding a bike. Aside from the safety factor, you will hear every footstep, every rustle in the wind and, as I said in the title, you might even hear your heartbeat or breathing!!! They're that isolating.
In a nutshell, buy these for quality at a reasonable price.
I did rate that at 4/5 due to the cord material being used and because of they're not an all-purpose headphone.
Great sound... ! Durable quality questionable! 
2008-06-16
A purchased an ER6i Isolator Earphones to listen to my IPOD (5G). No question about sound isolator quality!!! What is questionable here is it's durability. The problem is inside the jack, specifically the wiring. The cables in there break, apparently very easy. And this is not a common jack that can be replaced since there is where their sound technology resides. The warranty last a year, mine broke a little over a year with no frequent use (priced at $99.)
Is it possible Etymotic Research Team matches price, quality, warranty period and durability of this expensive but nice product?
Can't expect much more 2008-06-06
Overall very pleased with performance. As advertised noise reduction is on par with good earplugs. Doesn't reach level of quiet described in earlier review talking about almost being run over by construction equipment because he couldn't hear it. Sound reproduction is excellent. Only nit-pick is sound transmitted to ear when wires rub against clothing etc. Not sure how could be resolved, maybe heavier coating on wires? Regardless, I have used in airports, on airplanes and under motorcycle helmet with great results. Have already recommended to friends.
good set of earphones 2008-05-05
I liked the earphones. Sound isolation is quite good. I use them for gym. With ipod earphones, i used to keep my ipod volume to full. But now I keep around 70-80%. Now you can have fairly good idea about the level of isolation that it provides.
Altogether, its a good set. The sound is not as good as professional headphones like Sony MDR 7506 professional.
