Etymotic MC5 or Klipsch Image S4? I'm back with a 70$ Question :)

[KonfuSed]

Now I am confused considering that you mentioned that you are not willing to buy Chinese earphones howsoever go it may be.
Head-direct is importer of Chinese quality stuff.

Somehow my stance against Chinese brands is due to the M2 experience I guess. I heard so much raving about the M2 and bought one for myself. But I'm somewhat disappointed(might be that sound signature is not for my taste) and what I felt is that probably some of their earbuds are pretty good and some others are not (due to QC or something) and I've ended up with a not so good piece. It's just my theory and might not be true and somehow I'm unable to get that out of my mind and hence I'm hesitant to buy another Chinese brand.

I do not know where you are located(India or USA) there is difference between buying in USA and buying from USA.
Head-direct products are available from their US website so no need to buy through Amazon.
I think we all(esantosh,Amarbir and myself) presumed you are in India and buying earphones from USA.

I'm very much in India only. But a good friend is in US and asked a favour to get me few small things like earphones, camera filters etc.

 

[rohit3192]

It just happened that I was reading user impression at another forum and he reported that his M3 got opened while changing eartips(esantosh know about that).
There were also similar complaints for some batch of PL50 (which I think is now rectified).
...............
Regarding signature: one may read hundred reviews but it is difficult to know "signature" unless one try for self.
........................................
As it is going to be investment for considerable time gather information as much as you can.

 

[esanthosh]

rohit is on the dot about reviews.

No matter how many reviews you read (and that includes mine), you won't be able to know exactly how it sounds unless you've heard it yourself. I am somewhat lucky because Joker has a very similar preference to mine and we tend to rate IEMs somewhat similarly. Unless you have the same sound signature preference + you know enough about the reviewer to judge what he's describing, it is very difficult to know how exactly an IEM sounds.

Most of the stuff gets made in China anyways. It's not that top brands which charge $400-500 do not have complaints or failures. But, Chinese brands like Head-direct, SoundMagic, VSonic + OEM re-brands like Brainwavz (re-branded Visangs), Hippo, MEElectronics, Xears tend to have less quality control. In their cases, failures are common, but it's the level of service (quick reply and replacement) that makes people stick with a brand.

Back on recommendations, if I were experimenting, I'd go for SE215 or even iM590 (don't think there are many around in India + it's cheap) with preference to the former.

Or you can aim for this

 

[bottle]

Not sure if you have already ruled out the MC5 but I for one really really liked them a lot. I'm someone who isn't really a fan of bass that drowns out the rest of the music and MC5 fit the bill perfectly. It wasn't overly bassy nor bright and pefect mids.

One thing to take note really is the kind of source you use. It sounded totally rubbish with the Sansa Clip and overly bright with decent bass with an old ipod mini.

I usually listen to music on my phone and it gelled perfectly with that. The iems are now with ROC now.

My initial impressions too were that it seemed a bit muffled and hard to drive but after a couple of weeks of listening it broke in and when you actually took a bit of effort to understand what was coming out of them and actually listen to the music , it was really brilliant

edit: disclaimer: of course my tastes in what I want from my equiment may differ from yours

 

[KonfuSed]

@Rohit, yeah, I'm trying to gather as much info as possible. From my listening preference I feel that I like to listen to my headphones much more than the IEM's (atleast the current IEM's that I've). I liked the ER6i except probably for the comfort and the lack of bass part. I normally listen to Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Eagles and Metallica kind of music along with some filmi music. So basically it's soft Rock and Pop that I listen to most.
@ Santhosh, he he don't have that much budget for that IEM. Yes, I might end up buying the Shure 215 but if I can spend that much than why not an Alessandro MS1 headphone itself What say?
@ bottle, thanks and dreadfully my source is also are Sansa Clip+ and iPod only. So I guess I should not thinking too much about the MC5's. No plans to change the sources as of now. ER6i's worked pretty well with iPod and I thought it would be same for MC5 too.

 

[rohit3192]

OT: there was a time I had AIWA and Sony Walkman and I used to play cassettes, at that time there were no mp3 files ,Cd's were non existent and I did not know that there is something called IEM. BUT I used to enjoy my music with supplied buds (whether its ABBA,Michael Jackson or Hindi movies like Maine Pyar Kiya and nostalgic 90's other movies).
Now I have used some of best player like Cowon J3,itouch 4g,Samsung R0,P2,P3,Clip,Fuze+ and I have much more clear music but I think whether the details make any addition to our liking of music?
and to quote Konfused's signature: Technicalities kill the music

 

[esanthosh]

^ Strange! I was thinking the same a couple of days ago when I was switching between 8 of my IEMs.

 

[KonfuSed]

OT: there was a time I had AIWA and Sony Walkman and I used to play cassettes, at that time there were no mp3 files ,Cd's were non existent and I did not know that there is something called IEM. BUT I used to enjoy my music with supplied buds (whether its ABBA,Michael Jackson or Hindi movies like Maine Pyar Kiya and nostalgic 90's other movies).
Now I have used some of best player like Cowon J3,itouch 4g,Samsung R0,P2,P3,Clip,Fuze+ and I have much more clear music but I think whether the details make any addition to our liking of music?
and to quote Konfused's signature: Technicalities kill the music

^ Strange! I was thinking the same a couple of days ago when I was switching between 8 of my IEMs.

Very true, that feeling is mutual. Those were the days when things were not available in abundance for us. We had to wait, save on pocket money and then buy those cassettes. Probably only 2 albums a month, nothing more than that. They probably were not the best of the recordings, neither the best of the reproductions by the walkmans. But we still loved that music. Even today when I went out to buy some music I was thinking exactly the same thing.

PS: I guess buying these IEM's and headphones are becoming kind of like a hobby for me now. May be I'm trying to find that old charm that I've lost long back. May be I'm trying to find that music in new IEM's or headphones or speakers. I don't have an answer. And strangely enough this is one blog that I've written couple of years back on a similar topic (almost forgot about it) -> http://kaushiksaikia.blogspot.com/2009/07/where-music-gone.html

Yes, technicalities did kill the music

 

[esanthosh]

We all think plenty of choices is better. But I think limited choices makes us anticipate, wait and appreciate and focus on making the best use of what we bought. I still remember the days of good old DD where I used to sit and watch serials and even learned a bit of Hindi due to it. Right now, I have many more channels with wide variety of content, but I simply just channel surf.

With IEMs too, I was very happy for 2 years with my Creative Zen V+ stock buds. I know now - it has only mids, rolled off heavily at both ends, no sound stage to speak off - but, I was enjoying music. I listened to music over and over again. These days, I've 'diversified' into plenty more genres, have 7 players, about 30 odd IEMs, but it's like "water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink" - "Options and music all around, but no mood to listen". Every time, I end up analyzing signatures, think about which IEM would be more suitable for the album rather than enjoying music.

 

[Amarbir[Lynx-India]]

Well,
Whats is Finally Going to come .

 

[rohit3192]

@Amarbir
I like that you are involved in your business(there is element of hobby).
Very few people are there who take interest in business beyond working hours.
Cheers

 

[esanthosh]

So, what happened? What did you end up with?

 

[KonfuSed]

Hey, no man, didn't buy anything. Suddenly other things came up and took the priority. Also this will give me some time to save some money and get something even better in later point of time.

 

[KonfuSed]

Hi All,
I've an update here to put. Well, thing is that Etymotics are back in my music world and how. Yup, I got a pair of Etymotic MC5 and all thanks and my heartfelt gratitude to our very own Earphone Guy, i.e. esanthosh. Thanks a ton mate, for sending these earphones to me. I think whatever I say is not enough for this gesture.
And HFV rocks!!!
Regards,

 

[iaudio]

Konfused, so Ety iems back in your life eh? Congrats!

 

[esanthosh]

It must be mentioned that it was actually a great gesture by James444 on head-fi to send the IEMs to me and ask me to give it to whoever I wanted. I was merely passing it up to Konfused. I am happy as he's happy now