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Input:
Question: Wire strength? I have a set of Sony in-ear headphones and after repeated use the wire starts to fray where it inters into the ear bud. This is happening now with my second set of the same Sony phone. What I'd like to know is, before I spend twice as much on these Etymotics phones, will these phones fall apart like the Sonys have?
Document: I bought these black er6i in-ear phones to replace a set of white er6i phone that broke. Here's my comparison between the two:  Other than color,  the two major differences between the earphones are the flexibility of the wires and the jack.The white ones seemed to have stiffer wires. The black model's wires seem more pliant. I think I like the black models wire better... The other difference is the jack.
Nearly $90 is alot for ear phones with only a marginal improvement over the standard iPod headphones, that does not justify the greater cost than regular $30 Sony or so ear phones. Probably I need to use them more thean the once or twice that I have so far. I will update my review after further use.
They fit my ear really well, great on long airplane flights (block out a lot of unwanted noise, eg crying baby). Slightly concerned about pulling the wire out from the ear bud but so far that they have been great. Much more worth the money than Shures lower level earbuds, at least in my opinion. The bass isn't going to be thumping like regular headphones if thats what your looking for, but if you want more crisp treble and midrange. these are worth it
I just received my new ER6i Isolator headphones. I was pretty anxious about my purchase, because I tried ear bud phones before (Koss - The Plug) and had some very painful experiences with these, not to mention lousy sound.I really like to listen to my Ipod Nano and even the normal head phones supplied did hurt me after a short while. Luckily, since I am music junky, I also have a set of Bose Quiet Comfort 2 to back me up.
With the er6i's you either have to have a bud or two dangling on your shirt or held in your hand (both kind of disgusting options because of the earwax holding plastic). I guess you could hang the earphone wire over your ear, but it seems a little flimsy for this use, and looks ridiculous.All in all these are very good headphones with a few minor issues. Still, minor issues like these would have made up my mind to stick with Superfi so maybe they will help you.
I have never been able to use ear bud headphones, due to my ear shape, until now. These buds insert securely into your ear canal and somehow block outside noise better then any noise cancellation phones I have used. They do take some getting used to. They come with a number of different flanges that you can try, based on your ear shape. I went through most of them and eventually wound up with the default set that they show in the pictures here.
This is not true of my other phones, e.g. the Etymotics ER4 or the Shures. * The cord is fragile. Although it took two years of heavy use, I did short out one channel. I'm on my second set! * The price is excellent for the sound quality and background noise isolation.These phones are amongst my favorite possessions.
I loved the sound, they were pretty comfortable, but the clear plastic coating ripped and started coming off one of the earbuds after not too much use, which made that bud work only sporadically. If you're going to spend that kind of money on headphones, they should be better built. I had maybe 3 months of good use out of them before they broke.
This time when I called Etymotics they told me that I would be able to buy a new pair for the discounted price of $75... the price of a new pair on Amazon. Thanks but no thanks, I'd prefer to spend my money on a quality set that will last more than a 12 months.
Ok, i've heard lots of different things on these, finally picked them up. After some Sony Fontopia's, then some Shure e2c's, these are the best.So, the bass isn't incredible, but still good. Vvery good with an amp, but I use these with my ipod mini and don't like the hassle of an amp.The response however is simply amazing, crystal clear, full of depth, and makes me wonder why I had to spend so much on the Infinity Kappas in my car.
Answer: Disclaimer: I've spent quite a bit of time forcing these puppies into various depths and angles to try to find ANY angle where they produce any sort of bass, and I've failed miserably.I'm sure it's too late for these folks, but for anyone else in the same boat...To answer your questions directly, no - the design is COMPLETELY different from the Sonys, and I can't imagine anything like that problem would happen to these (it's pretty much all hard plastic (except for the interchangeable plugs.) However... as I'm also moving on from my previous two sets of the Sony headphones you guys are talking about, I should warn you that I'm thoroughly disappointed with the Etymotics. You should be forewarned that the Sonys you've been listening to, though not nearly as high quality a can as the 6i's, are rather bass-heavy. You probably already knew that, but as almost every review will echo, the 6i's are VERY light on bass. This equation will probably have you in the same boat as me, ready to return them because they HAVE TO BE BROKEN to sound that 'top-heavy'! I know, I know, bass isn't everything - but when you're going from a Sony to one of these it's just too big of a loss, no matter how much more 'accurate' they might be. And I'm sorry, but 20Hz? No way. Using test sources I dont' notice anything until 64Hz, and for an in-ear phone that's simply unacceptable. Only when I set my EQ to +12dB on 64Hz, with an even slope such that it's flat at 250Hz, do things ALMOST sound natural. Final recommendation: Don't buy them unless you've had a chance to listen to them, or know you can return them. And go ahead and SCHEDULE the return trip in your planner.