Everyone wants to be an insider, and you can be one too! Choose your poison: sign-up for our Newsletter, join us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. Do all three and you'll be swimming in the the latest news, reviews, videos and more gadget goodness!
DT Newsletter Sign-Up
Sign-up for the Digital Trends newsletter and find out about the latest contests, the hottest content, and the most popular videos. Let us keep you up-to-date!
Our Facebook
Become a DT soldier! Join us on Facebook and share the best news, guides, videos and other cool information directly with all your friends. Some might even thank you for it!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Facebook.
That’s Right, Sign-up For Our Monthly Random Prize Drawings and You Could Be That Winner.
Awful
By: Tom Buur
October 12, 2009 @ 11:00 AM
Just got these and besides agreeing about durability, I think the sound is awful. I have cheaper earphones sounding a lot better. The review says it all, poorly represented mids, earfatigueing highs. If I hadn’t bought them over at eBay from the USA I would return them immediately.
Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Fantastic sound but durability is suspect...
By: LOWIM
June 18, 2009 @ 4:09 PM
I bought my first pair last year and for a year I would lose myself in the crisp highs and rich mids that emanated from the ER6is. Unfortunately, I was brought down to earth abruptly one morning when the left earphone went silent and it was only with a lot of random cable mashing and twisting that sound was restored. The problem degenerated and led me to a futile search for phones which sound as good but would last longer. In the end, I simply bought a replacement set, nothing on the market (for the same price) could match the sound quality coming out of these guys! So far so good with the second set… keeping fingers crossed.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Good earphones but there is better
By: james
May 26, 2009 @ 4:46 PM
If you listened to this earphone in isolation then you would be a happy bunny. If you listen to this earphone after you have heard the Soundwise A1 then you would be a bit miffed. The Soundwise A1 is less than half the price and sounds a good deal better. On a positive note they do look cool.
Rating: 6 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Nice sound, unbearable usability
By: Joe Joe
March 23, 2009 @ 4:22 PM
I can’t really recommend these, despite all the pros, because of one overwhelming con: their cord is so flimsy and tangle-prone, it makes them about 500% more accident-prone than any headphones I’ve ever tried, even though I am 600% more careful with them!
I scream at the cord and its designer in anger at least once a day, so I’m forced to give it 2 stars.
Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Excellent sound, easy to insert.
By: Joe H
November 29, 2006 @ 12:05 PM
Prior to purchasing my ER-6 IEM’s, I spent a good bit of time on the net reading reviews and comparing products. While most every one, myself included, will agree that these sound incredible, a few people wrote negatively regarding the fit of the plugs, as well as, the thinness of the wire. I would say I was a bit conflicted prior to buying based on those negative comments. You might as well disregard those concerns. The cord is neither too thin, nor is it difficult to get the earphones in and sealed properly. While I can’t speak on behalf of the ER6i’s which have the three flange insert, the ER6’s with the two flange insert went in and sealed right away. I found it neither uncomfortable or awkward to get them in (just use a dab of water to wet the rubber). Granted, I do generally wear ear plugs frequently (day sleeper) and may just be accustomed to having things in my ear. But, I’m not a big person and don’t think I have larger ear canals than most people, so I don’t anticipate that many people will have difficulty getting them in.
As for the quality of sound, I’m sold. I’m hearing things in my music that I didn’t before. Also worth noting, I’ve not had to adjust the equalizer on my device to achieve a balanced sound, as was necessary with my previous circumaural earphones.
Lastly, I did read a comment or two indicating that the cables would resonate alot of sound back into my ears when it rubs against clothing. The plugs come with a shirt clip permanetly attached to the cord just below the Y. As long as you clip onto your clothing up high you will not have this problem.
Also, to wet the ear plugs, I find that putting a drop of water into the palm of my hand then rubbing the rubber flange in the water will get a decent coat without risking immersion of the ear piece. Ie, don’t run these under the tap to wet them…or dip them in your drink. Also, avoid using your mouth…unless you like putting funk in your ears.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Etymotic Research has got it right!
By: DCM
July 15, 2006 @ 1:41 PM
Preliminary review with a detailed one to follow.
In short, these In-Ear-Phones are perfect for the iPod. Spacious sound field and the right balance of bass, midâs and highs. If you prefer a bunchier bass (which is fine) then you must realize that either you have lost your low frequency hearing or you prefer a boomy colored bass. What is being evaluated here is accuracy in reproducing the original sound as mixed. As an audio engineer, I rarely adjust tone in playback. âWould I add all kinds of spices to a dish being served by a talented chef?â Etymotic Research has got it right!
[They come in Black or White]
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Won'tRockEars-ButClearCrispSound
By: Salar M.
June 29, 2006 @ 5:48 PM
It won’t produce glorified sound. So if your idea of the self proclaimed audiophile you are is a powerfull base response that will shake the foundations of your ear, you will be dissapointed en mass.
On the other hand, it does clearly deliver pure tones without them distorting each other and getting lost in each other. You can clearly hear the bands that make up the music. Having said that it won’t impress you right away if you are new to Hifi. It will take time until you hear the little intricacies that make this earphone a legend!
You will at some point hear the guitarist’s pick hit the guitar, or feel the pationate female vocalist privately sing into your ears.
Leaving the bad for last, you will be spoiled and bothered by the little artifacts you hear in 128K MP3. You will be better off with FLAC, Level 3+ OGG or 192+ MP3.
Also the 3flap and foam eartips(Medium/Lare) that come with the device, although not as bad as everyone says, are not that comfortable. I would recommend the small foam eartips available as an accessory. They do as good of a job of noise muffling as the others do. By that I mean you will feel wiered and like something is missing. But it will be fun to ride the subway with them once you get over the unusual feeling.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
great product but...
By: Bear
February 7, 2006 @ 12:58 AM
I just got my black ER-6i.
the new version comes with three different rubber flanges. So you don’t need to cut them your self because there is a three flap flange, one with the two small ones and another one with the two bigger flaps (hope you know what I mean…) ety just reacts to customer needs and I love them for this…
I just licked the flanges (yes, just pop them into your mouth) and I had a good seal right away with the bigger two flap flange.
the ER-6i is very sensitive… SO MUCH louder than my Sony EX71. clearer on every frequencie. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if the disstortion was my EX71 or the bad MP3 compression… now I know it was the EX71.
Yes, some people may think there is not enough bass with the ER-6i but that are mostly ipod owners that can’t set their EQ’s.
I have a Cowon iAudio U3 (best flash player ever imo) and that thing can be tuned in whatever preference you like. I just turned any BBE, bass and EQ off and the sound was very disappointing… flat, like some other user reviews said it sounded like a can. The EX71 sounds better imo in the standard flat settings but that’s just because of the stronger bass. And I’m used to tweak settings so I would never listen to music with a flat EQ etc.
Now that my ER-6i had several hours of burn-in and I tweaked my iAudio U3 settings… this is simply the best in-ear phone I’ve ever heard (sony EX51, Sony EX71, Shure e2c)
and they just stay in your ears… no need to push them back into your ears every 10sec like the Sonys. they have less microphonic (the thing when you hear your footsteps or the cord is touching something) than the sonys… the EX71 is very bad in this aspect because the cord gets very hard after a few weeks and is breaking.
The sony EX71 compared to the ety 6i sounds like a cheap Disco box compared to an audiophile loudspeaker.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Awesome phones, prob best in class.
By: T Coughlin
December 22, 2005 @ 11:52 AM
I am very happy with my new Etymotic ER 6is and would recommend them unreservedly to anyone on the market for some phones for their iPod. They offer very significant improvements over the standard iPod buds in almost all areas and they give significant enough improvements in other areas for me to recommend them over the Shure E2cs despite their price premium. Etymotic are onto a winner with this one.
I have a full review on my site here:
http://timcoughlin.typepad.com/tim_coughlins_blog/...
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
New World
By: Bruce
November 3, 2005 @ 5:44 PM
Once I put these 6iâs in I was removed from the rest of the world. I was amazed at what I was missing in my music compared to other ear-buds, other headphones. I really like the performance of the bass. I use a iPod Shuffle and rarely need to adjust the volume from the initial on-setting and often I have to turn the volume down. I purchased these initially to give my ears a break from cheaper headphones, ear-buds that I found myself blasting the music so I could hear the music instead of competing noise from the surrounding environment.
I would not recommend these or other in-canal phones that seal so securely, if the purchaser was going to use these while running. I think these phones are great for static listening, but moving around, waking, almost any movement is transferred into the ear-canal. Try it yourself, just plug-up your ears and try walking around on a hard surface, you then will know what to expect.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Great for travelling
By: Steve
May 16, 2005 @ 12:22 PM
Buyers’ should be aware of their intended use. I use these primarily for air travel. On my last trip, they were in my ears for 14 hours straight – both with and without a sound source. Short of Business Class, you can’t beat the benefits of these things for air travel. Super small and light, no external amps, no batteries – FAR better sound than the Bose.
I have the ER-6’s and have used them extensively for over 3 years. No durability issues unless you are careless (like standing up from your seat with the Ety’s plugged into the arm rest!).
As ear plugs, they can be EXTREMELY unfortable for people that don’t like ear plugs – so buyer beware.
Lastly (and this relates to noise transmission due to physical contact with the wire), NEVER bike, motorcyle, drive, ski, run, walk, etc. with these things in place and music playing. You will get injured or worse because you can’t hear anything but the music.
Fantastice product for the right use.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Something overlooked...
By: Miyuru
April 13, 2005 @ 12:10 AM
It’s not really talked about, I guess people just forget, but sounds are transmitted VERY easily through the cords of the ER-6is. So despite the isolation, if the cords come in contact with say, you’re moving body while walking, you will hear that sound through the cords unless your music is high enough.
It’s not exactly the greatest concern, but when you’re buying a higher-end product, you don’t expect such flaws.
Etymotics could have addressed this issue quite easily – by adapting a Y-style cord over the V-style (Y’s are better in general anyway). What this would do is have a node along the cord, just much higher up than you find in Vs. A node will absorb any vibrations in the cord, thus you won’t hear such extra noises.
The other thing Etymotics should have done is used thicker cords. The cords are already way too thin, and tangle very easily. My stock Sony buds never did :P Using a thicker cord would impede vibrations in the cord.
Just thought I’d point out these facts that are often overlook. Once you have a pair of ER-6i’s, it’s not such a problem…though it is a pet peeve, and certainly not something I would expect from “20 years of research”. You’d think they would’ve noticed.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Increase listening pleasure by 5x
By: Terry
April 11, 2005 @ 7:19 AM
My wife HATES these earbuds! Once you “twist” them in to provide a good seal … you can’t hear anything that isn’t coming thru these earbuds. No outside noises–you are in your own cocoon.
I recommend two things to everyone I see with an iPOD: (1) ER-6i earbuds and (2) subscription to audible.com for listening to books on your iPOD.
A definite must over the poor quality earbuds provided by Apple. I had the ER-6 and now have the ER-6i. The ER-6i provides a better bass and volume. The downside with the 6i is it comes with a 3-flange rubber ear piece vs the 2-flange with the ER-6 (Etymotic states that they aren’t interchangable). I personally like the 2-flange as they are a bit wider … the 6i are longer and narrower and don’t fit my ear well. Thus I now use the foam for my ER-6i … waiting for an additional option of a 2-flange rubber tip!
Word of caution …. if you buy these, NEVER pull them from your ears with the cord. This seems convenient, however, the connection can be broken (and you won’t want to be without your earbuds while Etymotics provides a repair).
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Great Stuff
By: Dan Wesnor
April 6, 2005 @ 7:02 PM
I have the ER-6’s and have used them for years, but will be buying the ER-6i’s for use with my iPod. The ER-6’s are just not sensitive enough for the iPod, and driving them to a satisfying level requires turning the volume up so much the iPod’s analog section goes into distortion.
I just wanted to make a few comments about these plugs. First, you can buy extra tips, either foam or rubber, about $15 for 5+ pairs. The rubber tips last forever, but you’ll still want to replace them for the obvious reasons.
The “earwax removal tool” is actually a filter removal tool for pulling out a tiny plastic filter in the plugs. Maybe you do this because the filter gets clogged with earwax, but it’s never happened to me. Didn’t want anybody to think they were supposed to clean their ears with this tool!
I use the ER-6’s on airplanes, and they provide more isolation than noise cancelling headphones. You must remove them to hear someone talking to you. I do find that they become uncomfortable after 2 hours or so. The 6i’s use the same tips, so I assume the same would be true for them.
If you want the isolation or need something ultra-portable, these are great. But for sitting-around-the-house use, a nice pair of Grados would probably be best for most.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No