The Gadgeteer:

Do you consider yourself an audiophile? If you do, then you are familiar with Etymotic. If you’re not that interested in sound quality over musical content, then Etymotic will probably mean nothing, even though they’ve been around for over 30 years. In fact, Etymotic invented in-ear earphones for hearing testing, only later to be used for music listening.

Although there have been periodic upgrades, the basic technology of their ER4 XR earphones has remained unchanged over all these years. The question is: Do they hold up in the ever-changing world of headphones/earphones?

I’m a long time fan of Etymotics and this review points out a couple of things I haven’t seen before — physical filters that smooth out the frequencies and keep ear wax out of the earphone and cords that detach from the earpiece so, if the cord gets broken, you don’t have to buy a whole new set.