Etymotic In-ear Kopfhörer blau

I love these earphones for on-stage monitoring. I've used them for perhaps 8-10 hours total.... The sound quality and clarity is excellent, and the noise isolation is amazing: I can sit at an acoustic piano and not hear what I'm playing if it's not miced. Wearing the cables up over my ears and the cinch ring snugged up to the back of my head, the fit is solid and microphonics (noise from the cables rubbing) is nonexistent. The included carry case and cable clip are appreciated, and work well.

The sound clarity is excellent: I can easily pick out every instrument in the mix. Note that the bass isn't as heavy as it is on typical headphones (Skullcandy, Beats, etc.) This is generally a good thing. Overall, the sound isn't as "smoothed over" as it is on many other speakers and headphones. They let you hear exactly what's going on, and don't fill in what isn't there.... Music sounds a bit different. On the down side, listening to these 'phones has pointed out just how poor my old cheap earbuds are... I may have to invest in some upgrades.

Note that the isolation is a bit *too* good for general use: you're essentially deaf to everything around you when wearing these 'phones. You wouldn't want to wear them jogging or biking, because you couldn't hear traffic. I'm looking forward to trying them with a lawn mower or snow blower, though.

As other reviews and Etymotic's own website emphasize, the sound quality is directly proportional to the quality of the seal with your ear canal. Try different tips until you find the ones which fit your ears best. The included foamies seem to work best for me, followed closely by the rounded "glide" tips. I couldn't get the flanged tips to work for me at all. But that's a personal fit thing: everyone's ear canals are different. If the fit is bad, the bass is weak, and the sound is thin and tinny. With a good fit, the sound is great.

These are my favorite earphones and I would love to give them a 5-star review but they just aren't built to stand up to everyday use. From a glance at my order history, this last pair lasted six months; before that, just four months. The weak spot is the area where the cable turns from the plug to the cord. At a certain point it suddenly begins cutting out in one ear or both ears. It's clear what's happening because I can get the audio back by manually bending or otherwise fiddling with the plug. Not in a way that I can continue to use them, because as soon as I move it cuts out again. I'm just making the point that it's clear where the failure is (audio will also cut out in one ear when a filter gets clogged but I know how to fix that).

Maybe I will call them again for warranty repair. I don't want to take advantage--and it's not fun calling, then waiting many weeks for the replacement--but it doesn't seem right to have to purchase new ones two or three times a year.

If they were more durable, they would be excellent. Great sound, super lightweight, extremely comfortable for long use, block outside noise for use in public, or in windy conditions, etc.

I bought these very recently, but it doesn't take long to formulate a thorough review. Overall I would give these a 4.5/5 if I could, but you must also take into consideration I'm a bit of an Etymotic fan. I can't claim to be an audiophile, but I like my music to sound good. I'll try to do a normal review, and then compare them to the Etymotic ER-6i headphones because a lot of people have those or might be considering them seeing the similar price.

What you get:
Etymotic MC5 headphones with 4ft cord and removable shirt clip
1 carrying case
2 large tri-flange ear tips
2 small tri-flange ear tips (already on the phones)
2 foam ear tips
2 easy glide ear tips
1 filter changing tool
2 filters

Review:

If all you're used to is the ipod headphones or something cheap you will absolutely be blown away by your music. Putting these in adds sounds you didn't know existed. This depends on the quality of your music though. If you have music files at low bit rates it's still going to sound bad. Personally most of my music is 192, but varies between 128 and 320 kbps, and while there is a difference, it's not too bad. Just know that if all your songs already sound muffled and off they probably will continue to do so, but if it's CD quality or itunes quality it should sound just fine.

If you're new to in ear monitors these things go inside you ear rather than just sitting on top of the ear. I mean way inside. For some people this is painful and awkward, and it definitely takes some getting used to. When I first tried it with my old Etymotics it hurt and I couldn't figure out why people liked them. Once you experiment with the different ear tips and find what works best for you, you'll start to get used to the feel and eventually you won't notice it's there.

Sitting so far in the ear is what gives these buds their isolation. You cannot hear a thing with them in. I use the large tri-flange tips but the foam ones are supposed to give better isolation. I often use my ipod at the lowest or second lowest setting and can hear just fine. Sometimes this is problematic when you want to go back and forth from listening to music to doing something like having a conversation. It can also be dangerous if you try to use them while driving or something like biking near roads.

One thing that is definitely different from other headphones is that the sound feels like it's coming from inside your head. It's kind of hard to describe, but you probably won't feel like you're surrounded by sound like you would with the large over the ear sets.

Bass is something everyone mentions with Etymotics. This set was supposed to be their response to everyone's constant criticism that their products don't have enough bass. While they have ramped it up a bit, if you're a bass addict like most people you will find these unsatisfying. As someone explained, we are addicted to bass. It's common to turn up the bass in the car or on the speakers. These phones play the sound as it was recorded, not necessarily how you're used to hearing it. One of the first songs I listened to with these was Satellite by Guster, and I noticed that the bass seemed to just fit right in with the music and blend rather than stand out. This might not be what some people are used to. One of the next songs that came up on my shuffle was by In Flames which has heavy bass driving the beat and it managed to come through alright. Not the level you might expect, but definitely acceptable. After listening through the shuffle a while I came across some Ben Folds songs and they sounded absolutely amazing. Styles of music that don't rely on heavy bass should all sound this way.

Overall this is a great item for the price point. The isolation is wonderful when you need it, though sometimes annoying when you don't. Once you listen to ears with sound quality like this you'll wonder how you ever went without them.

Comparison:

I used my ER-6i's for about 18 months before the cord cut out to one ear. The cord is very thin and fragile and it ended up being the downfall. I loved the ears, they sounded great; but with just one side working it was time to get new ones. Apparently it's common for this kind of fault to happen with the ER-6 series which is why they only get a 1 year warranty instead of 2. The MC5 has a much stronger cord and is firmly fastened at the headphone. Definitely something I was glad to see. The cord on the 6i's also made a whole lot of noise. Any small movement was amplified to the ear and would overcome the sound of the music (I believe it's called microphonics). The cord on the MC5's must be made out of something different because it's much less noticeable (though still present).

Another thing is comfort. I found the 6i to be much more comfortable than the MC5, probably because the MC5 is much larger and protrudes out of the ear while the 6i fits pretty well in the ear. This isn't to say the MC5 is uncomfortable, just less so.

Smaller differences include the carrying case for the MC5 feeling much cheaper than the 6i. The 6i had an L and R very visible on the side while the MC5 has it small and on the bottom. The MC5 has better bass response than the 6i. The MC5 uses much smaller filters that I feel like I'm going to lose. The MC5 ear tips sit more snugly on the phones and don't feel like they're going to fall off as easily. I think the 6i has a 5ft cord instead of 4ft. The MC5 plug is a 45 degree angle, and the 6i is 90 degrees.

I like both pairs of phones. I think the MC5s have a little better sound and it's nice to get a choice of color. I think the 6is are a little more comfortable though they have a tendency to break more easily. I really loved my pair of 6is but with how easily they broke I'd have to favor the MC5 over them. Hope this helps someone out.

Finally something that fits well my ears. If you have small ear canal, these are for you. I would even prefer slightly narrower fit.
Sound reproduction detail is simply excellent. The noise isolation is superb. In fact I would *not* recommend to wear these if you are looking after small babies or doing something that requires your periodic alertness to outside sounds. They isolate really really well (it has to do, I think with fit and the design to be trully in-ear).

I find that these headphones will not compensate for poor quality music record or for poor quality music reproduction equipment.
I have used them to listen from 4 different sources
[1] mp3 player: iBasso DX50 (uses WOLFSON WM8740 192kHz/24-bit DAC Chip. )
[2] mp3 player: Kenwood MediaKeg MG-G608
[3] Dell XPS13 laptop
[4] generic gigabit (circa 2008) desktop audio

iBasso with 256 kpbs bit rate and above recordings -- sound the best.
For example, listening to Pink Floyd 'Time' piece -- the first couple of seconds, where they have different types of clocks ticking, you really fell with the Etymotic, like you are sitting inside the clock. It really sounds this good.

Any kind of music with strong human voice component (especially acoustic recordings) -- sound very good.
Listening to Sara Brightman or Alexandro Safina, lets you appreciate the nuances of their voices, that are hard to pick otherwise.
These Etymotic headphones really isolate well different components of the musical composition.
So for strong vocal performance, or strong instrumental performances -- these are just exceptional.

The detail is so good, that you can easily separate the different tembr of voice of background singers vs the main singer.
Also some artists take noticeable deep beadth between passages, and you can hear that well in these.
Basically you are going to hear the sound as if you are 20 meters from the performers, if the recording is good and your player/amplifier stack delivers.

Etymotic's ability to deliver this level of clarity and details do not come for free
a) you need to have good quality recording
b) my listening equipment [1], [2], [3] -- sounded very good. But eqipment [4] does not.
So you you are not going to enjoy the sound if your computer/motherboard audio chip is average, especially if your recordings lack base.

Basically these headphones do not improve the perceptive quality of otherwise bad recordings or equipment.
They are not horrible in those situations, but you need to play with software-based equalizers and have to have different settings for different types of bad recordings.
Because these ear pieces will not compensate for bad quality (therefore, need to use equalizers).

I prefer detail, clarity, noise isolation and comfort of these headphones over anything else I had ever tried sofar in in-ear headphones department.
And they perform better than a number of my over-the-ear headphones, in my view, as long as the recording and player/amp electronics is good.

I did realize that some of my other headphones (the ones attached to my desktop [4] ) tended to compensate that much for below average sound processing equipment there, so I do not use Etymotics there.

These do a decent job subduing noise from surrounding environment. This enables me to lower volume output. Was looking for ear buds that I could use on walks through noisy neighborhoods. I like listening to talking books on long walks, but spoken word can be especially hard to hear with loud environmental noise. Passing traffic, jackhammers, airplane noise often swamped sound output from the device, it couldn't play spoken word loud enough to be heard over environmental noise. These Etymotic MC5s have solved that problem. My perception is that environmental noise is reduced by ~15-20 decibels, which enables me to lower volume on my device and still hear what I want to. I was concerned that the noise isolation might be too effective so that I wouldn't hear approaching cars, bikes, etc, which would be a safety hazard. That did not happen. These don't silence all other noise just deaden it materially.

When really exercising they tend to work loose, not fall out, but lose much of the sound isolation and perceived response of speakers. As they work out the bass falls off steeply and the overall volume a bit as well. They need to be re-inserted several times during workout. Even fully inserted, bass response is a bit weak, though otherwise these have overall decent response characteristics for music and spoken word. Compared to Bose noise cancelling headphones/earbuds I prefer the noise isolation approach as it is more effective at deadening sound across the spectrum from low to high. While the Bose have stronger bass response, the noise cancelling earbuds are very expensive and fragile, so not a good choice for exercising unless you have money to burn.

These earbuds are a good value compared to more expensive options.