Soundstage is narrow and makes the music sound inside your head, although I didn’t find it to detract from the experience at all. When the notion of value comes up in the IEM world, the word “Chi-fi” is generally what follows – but screw that. Instead, let me introduce to you Etymotic, a renowned hearing-aid and IEM company based out of the good ‘ol USA. I’ve avoided the Etymotic lineup for some time because of their, let’s just say, unique form factor. They insert deep into your ear canals, and I mean real deep. People even joke about losing their ear’s virginity to Etymotic’s infamous triple-flange tips; frankly, the thought revolted me. But I have zero regrets having taken the plunge with the ER2XR – let’s discuss why.

Easily the worst part of these, and, along with the fit, the second dealbreaker. Most of the time, I'm of the opinion that soundstage is a meme, and it only matters when it's either really impressive, or really bad - like here. Everything sounds very 2D, which is a pain in songs like Drinks by Cyn or Letter by Yosi Horikawa, both of which tend to benefit from soundstage. Especially Letter - the whole song is based on a great binaural effect, and the ER2 completely ruins it by displaying it as just a collection of random sounds. Driver Complement: One miniature, full‑range, high performance dynamic (or moving coil) driver per earpiece Still not a particularly large soundstage, but the imaging was pretty good. Listening to Bird on a Wire by Jennifer Warnes did not feel like the typical “3-blob” experience.The ER2XR shells are made of anodized aluminum, CNC machined with extremely tight tolerances. Using a single dynamic driver allows for a very accurate IEM without the added complexity of crossovers, and helps keep the aluminum body small and slim. Included is a user-replaceable cable. This rating is based entirely on sound. I'm trying to make It as objective as possible (transducers that are higher up are better than ones below it), but in a hobby as subjective as this, it of course ultimately comes down to my own preference and how much I like something. There's also two further components to the rating - the tuning tier and the technicalities tier (inspired, of course, by Crinacle). I plan to overhaul this system soon, but for today, it will do. My tier list goes from F to A, with the particular tiers meaning:

The Elk Grove Village, Illinois-based firm Etymotic Research is arguably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, makers of high performance earphones in the world. Long before Apple created the iPhone or iPod and long before Beats by Dre came into existence, Etymotic was building its iconic, high accuracy ER•4p-series earphones. The operative phrase there “high accuracy”; from day one Etymotic was fiercely committed to building earphones that delivered linear, neutrally balanced and true high-fidelity representations of the recordings being played. In sharp contrast to the tonal ‘flavour-of-the-month-club’ approach we so often encounter these days, Etymotic was, is, and probably ever shall be an accuracy-first earphone maker. Of course the big question now remains: how different is the ER2 from their bigger, more expensive brothers? Thanks for reading my long-winded introduction, I hope it gave you a lot of perspective on how I evaluate stuff. So, why did I wait so long with reviewing the ER2, and with starting to review stuff in general? This frequency range in particular makes the ER2XR an optimal choice for musicians. No sharpness, no unnatural “crispness” with respect to percussion. This is a fatigue free listening experience, even for those who tend to listen at dangerously loud volumes. Careful kids! The highs don’t feel blunted or shamelessly rolled off. But let’s just say that Miles Davis is tolerable when listening through these buds. Soundstage Largest and most three-dimensional soundstage among all Etymotic in-ears to my ears (pretty much similarly perceived spatial width as the ER2SE, however more perceived spatial depth, probably an impression that’s caused by the sub-bass-focused elevation in the lows).If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Whatever I write here could apply to the ER2, 3 or 4, since the midrange is pretty much identical between all of these. The Blon BL-03 remains a very strong offering at USD 35.-. Timbre is seductive and the slight V-shape is very enjoyable, also being the easiest to drive from the bunch. USD 35.- is the investment to get the drivers. Getting a decent cable and tips will add min. USD 15.- to the bill. I spent a lot more, namely USD 50.-, but I use them so much, that the USD 85.- has been more than amortized within the last months. Still, the BL-03 is beaten by the ER2XR and the E5000 in every register, sometimes not by much, especially in the midrange. The soundstage is almost on par with the E5000. Very easy to drive. Bassiest Etymotic IEM I've tried to date - this includes the ER4-XR, ER3-XR and MK5. It is warmer and has considerably more sub-bass than its higher-priced BA counterparts (worthy of the Etymo thicc label). That said, as the old saying goes, don't expect a bass-heavy Etymotic and this added bass is all tastefully executed -- well controlled and there's little or no bleed.