Etymotic ER4XR Noise Isolating Earbuds Earphones - Black

These are very impressive earphones. Bought in June 2025 for Amazon sale price of £193. I have not heard as accurate, exciting, detailed sound from any portable source before (in ear or over ear). They reveal everything about the music. I think they have enough bass (the ‘XR’ bit seems to deliver). The isolation is good, not as good as active noise cancellation but with ANC you get strange artefacts and a kind of ‘wash’ over the sound. With these, you just hear less of the world because the fit is so snug. On the fit. If you read some reviews you will probably be a bit scared (I was). In reality, they don’t go extremely deep. A little deeper than usual earphones but not uncomfortable. Takes a small amount of getting used to. Because music sounds so good, I kept putting them back in! So they can’t feel that bad. Soundstage is narrow because of the fit. But you can hear everything in its proper place in the stereo field. I’d 100% recommend. If money was no object, then they are still very much worth it at full price. They have lots of excellent box candy too, including a graph showing how well matched the two individual earphones are. Bravo.

The journey to finding "the perfect" headphone is filled with lessons, hardships, heartaches, loss of income, joys, celebrations and special moments. Truth be told it's all subjective isn't it? Everyone hears sounds differently, and everyones ears are shaped differently. If you didn't cross that rubicon of upgrading the earphones that came with your smartphone, you probably wouldn't know any better what you're missing out on, and probably save a lot of money in the end. But perhaps not your hearing. And protecting my hearing is what led me to the Etymotics ("Etys" hereforth). I will caveat my review for any audiophile reading, I am far too much of an imbecile to understand concepts such as Frequency response, impedence, sensitivity and maximum output. Neither do I have the audiophile vernacular to use terms such dark, bright, sibilance et al. What I am though is a simple man that can recognise something good when he sees it, errr hears it. Speaking of seeing. What you can immediately notice with the Etys, is that they do look impressively built. I received them in the office post, and my workmates (who aren't in any way inclined towards audio) chirped: "They look fancy!". So well done Etymotic on building something that looks top notch. And this is a reassurance, whilst there are definitely a lot more expensive IEMs out there then these. It is still a pretty big outlay for a lot of people. It is therefore somewhat of a comfort, that given the money you have spent, that they will probably outlast you. In terms of hearing. The XR, as the Amazon blurbature will tells you, stands for Extended Response (why they didn't call it ER I have no idea...). The Ety XRs are widely touted on forums galore as the earphone for those who want uncompromising accuracy but appreciate a bit of boom boom pow in the bass department. I listen to a variety of different types of music (cliche, I know) from Jazz, Classical to Hip Hop and EDM. My previous IEMs were Sennheisser IE80s and RHA T20s, which are quite literally bass monsters (if you want them to be), were easy to drive and were quite forgiving of the source material (amp not needed). By all means they aren't bad earphones at all, however I was incessantly annoyed at how mediocre the isolation was. On the tube I would keep having to wack up the volume, and I was worried about inducing early hearing loss. Which was what led me on a quest to find the most isolately isolating IEM of them all, and taking the plunge on hitting the buy button on these. I was slightly worried they may not be able to do justice to some of the commercialised nonsense I listened to, because that simply isn't the Ety way. But I needn't worry they do a stellar job playing Earl Hines as they do Kendrick Lamar. Yes they aren't bass monsters, but if thats what you're after there are a lot better IEMs for that. What these are, are two tiny brain ticklers (they go in very deep) that give you the sound as it was meant to be, but perhaps a bit more fun then their sisters, the SRs. Don't get me wrong these are still very detailed, I remember having a "WOW" moment with these, when listening to a song and noticing rain drops in the background that I had never heard before. And for these wow moments, you will need to use a high quality source of music and hardware to get the absolute best out of these, don't believe forum posts, Spotify extreme still sounds good out of these, but yes something like Tidal HiFi will lead to more magical goosebump moments. I run these via a Topping NX2 amp-dac at home and in the office, for me, this set up is very good (until I can afford an Oppo HA-2SE I assume). Out and about on the streets, on the bus and on the tube, they sound just as good straight from my S7, just for the pure fact they isolate so much more ambient noise than anything else I've had in the past. What about the other stuff? Well off the top of my head, 1) the included tips are crapola. The triple flanges are excellent for noise isolation but ache after a while, and are too much of a hassle to put in and out. I'd recommend these if you're likely to be uninterrupted for a long time (also be prepared to get intimate with ear wax with these). After testing, I can recommend the Shure Olives and SpinFit CP800 as good practical every day useage tips. They block out just as much noise sound as the triple flanges, and sound just as good (the Olives have a wax guard too). Please note, they won't block out 100% of all background noise, but they will dramatically most noise (even more than active noise cancelling); in the office I can't hear much at all apart from the shrillest of people, and on the tube, the annoying low frequency sounds are dramatically reduced, and I can't hear people conversing around me at all. (2) The included carrying case too is crapola. It's far to cumbersome to carry around for practical purposes. Get a smaller case for day to day useage. (3) The wire can be very fiddly, the use of the included shirt clip is a must to avoid the uncomfortable feeling of the cable pulling on your ear canal. Some people have said they've managed to wear it over the ear, I dunno, it feels odd to me. To conclude, as I stated this all very subjective, however from the majority of 5 star reviews on here, it seems a few people feel the same as me too. It's not a small amount to pay for those not deep in the IEM game. However if you are looking at this page, I will assume that you have the moolah, and willing to part with it on an item like this. For me, in my limited IEM experience, whilst the Etys are not without flaws, they delivers on enough fronts to be my best IEM purchase thus far.

My first in ears. Own two types of Fostex on ear closed backs and Sen. 800s. Out of the box great. Can't wait until they've burned in. Genuinely impressed with them. Really didn't think in ears could sound this good. Playing them via JRiver and Chord Mojo. Don't think I'm going be doing too much talking at work from now on. Just listening to Porcupine Tree Arriving Somewhere.... and really enjoying it as I write this. Great clarity and separation and dare I say it: I'm actually hearing bits and pieces that I haven't heard before even with the above kit. Went for the "X" for the bass extension and it really is very subtle but right on the money. Pleasantly surprised by this. I'll update after further use but out of the box I would recommend this product. Update 17/08/2018 OK so well burnt in now and really happy with these. As stated by previous reviewers of this type of in ear you do need to get the right fit for long term listening comfort, but once you do it's all good. I suspect that detractors have simply not persevered with this aspect of usage. Now using S9+ with 400 gB SD card into my Mojo and out to these. Love it. Here's the thing: I haven't used my on ear cans for months now. Think that's endorsement enough. Haven't told the wife that though. She'd kill me.

O produto em geral é muito bom. Todavia, as espumas dos fones que acompanham estavam amassadas e duras quando abri. Deixei elas aerando para ver se recuperavam a forma... mas elas continuavam deformadas. Testei um par, mas a dureza da espuma machucou o meu ouvido e a espuma simplesmente se soltou do tubo interno quando fui substituir pelas flanges de silicone. O certificado mostra que o produto é de 2019/2020, sendo vendido em meados de 2024... parece que envelheceu na caixa e o Amazon está desovando o produto velho no mercado brasileiro. Fiquei constrangido e decepcionado.

I got this etymotic at a special discount which made it all the worthwhile. This earphone is all that reviews described and promised, full range detailed sound with just enough base to give it a good support and brings life and imagery to the sound stage. Music especially classical music comes to life in a very real way. This sounds very close to my sound system and I am awestruck. It's indeed a great bargain.

Als ich im Sommer von 1986, auf dem Bau zu arbeiten begann, gab es noch nicht so viel Aufhebens wegen Gehörschutz, dadurch wurden meine Ohren a bisserl beleidigt, ich brauche seitdem gute Kopfhörer, und die sind teuer, ok! Seit ich diese Kopfhörer benutze, ist das Rauschen ( Pfeifen ) in meinen Ohren nicht mehr so stark , und ich kann es nicht anders beschreiben, die ER4XR geben mir sehr wohl bekannt, wenn die Lautstärke zu hoch eingestellt ist, der bis dahin geschmeidige Klang wird schrill und ich kann wirklich schnell darauf reagieren und ein wenig leiser drehen. Ich liebe diese Präzision, diese Inear sind wie für mich gemacht! Ich habe sie am ersten Tag mit den original aufgezogenen Silikon „Stöpsln“ betrieben, der Halt und der Klang im Ohr sind spitze. Hab jetzt die Foam Eartip aufgezogen, der Halt und der Klang sind fantastisch!

I purchased it when it was a 450dhs sale. I mean this earphone is well-known for its superb sound quality. Although it is old, it still outperforms other IEMs in the market. Highly recommended.

Every instrument, vocal is separated. Great to listen to tracks to observe minute details. Using with a Dragonfly Cobalt DAC and have been greatly impressed. Fit to the ear canal is right and as a result gives passive noise cancellation. Recommended for music enthusiasts. Bass not the most punchiest but quite acceptable.