CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

Lobby => IEM Measurements => Topic started by: tomscy2000 on December 14, 2014, 02:08:17 PM

Title: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on December 14, 2014, 02:08:17 PM

The MC5 is believed by most to be a bit of a bust; too boring, not revealing enough, with housings too thick for small ears.

The new MK5, priced identically to the MC5, is supposed to be the spiritual successor to the ER6/ER6i, but uses the EtyKids' housing, with resonance peaks more similar to the EK5.

I overlaid the MK5 FR against the HF5 FR, which should be near identical to the ER4P FR. The scale has been standardized to Ety's target curve.

(http://i.imgur.com/BDIypTD.gif) (http://imgur.com/BDIypTD)

If we compare the MK5 to the target curve, and shift the FR above 3 kHz to slope in line with the target curve, it looks like the MK5 will have relatively even treble, but it'll be lacking bass and lower midrange presence.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: MuppetFace on December 14, 2014, 02:19:01 PM

Nice visuals, thanks.

BTW, not entirely related, but have you listened to the Ortofon e-Q8? If so, how would you say it compares to the Rty ER-4? FitEar F111?

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on December 14, 2014, 05:21:55 PM

Quote from: MuppetFace on December 14, 2014, 02:19:01 PM

Nice visuals, thanks.

BTW, not entirely related, but have you listened to the Ortofon e-Q8? If so, how would you say it compares to the Rty ER-4? FitEar F111?

Sorry, no, have not heard the e-Q8. Everyone who has seems to believe it's an improvement on the old models, though.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: OJneg on December 14, 2014, 06:50:03 PM

So is the MK5 meant to replace the MC5? They seem to be identical from a marketing POV.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on December 14, 2014, 07:19:13 PM

I asked Etymotic that question, and they say that the issue is unresolved, but I assume that the MC5 will eventually be phased out. There's no reason for it to stick around.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: OJneg on December 14, 2014, 07:21:55 PM

Actually it seems from the Q&A:

Quote (selected)

The MK5 and MC5 earphones use a different sized dynamic drives: the mc5 is an 8mm driver and the mk5 is a 6mm driver. The mk5 has a smaller diameter housing due to the 6mm driver, which may be easier for some listeners to obtain a deep seal in the ear canal. Both models provide the same isolation (35-42dB depending on the eartips uses).

http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/earphones/mk5.html

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on December 14, 2014, 08:18:04 PM

Yeah, the MK5 really is more of an EtyKids with a low impedance coil. Otherwise, the dimensions are the same, and the driver size is the same. I've heard that there were some minor QC issues with the EtyKids, probably due to low cost, but the MK5 costs a third more, so perhaps it'll have better QC.

The MC5 is just too thick barreled for its own good, especially when Etymotic products are designed to be deep-fitting.

Looks like the MK5 are on holiday discount for $49. Should be a nice pickup.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: hoshiyomi on December 21, 2014, 06:38:05 PM

I've always suspected Ety Kids are no more than low impedance drivers with an in-line resistor.
These looks like surprisingly excellent high frequency extension, and considering the common issue with Etys lies in that it's so difficult to insert them to the reference plane, having a smaller diameter and also good bandwidth to begin with (perhaps also low acoustic output impedance? I doubt it though seeing how Ety tends to tweak response with dampers. So the last piece to this puzzle is how well they behave in the time domain, and perhaps how low of distortion they tend to clock at.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on December 21, 2014, 06:44:24 PM

I've been listening to the MK5 for a few days; my initial instinct is that they sound a little better than the MC5 to my ears, but I'd have to do a direct comparison to be sure. Comfort, for sure, lies with the MK5.

The EtyKids might not just have a resistor. It might actually have a high number of coil winds, with a heavy diaphragm. No one has actually taken apart an EK5 to see what's inside (or at least hasn't taken pictures of the insides).

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on December 31, 2014, 06:56:32 AM

GoldenEars' measurements correlate with those of Ety's below 8 kHz (which is about the limit of repeatable results on 711 couplers)...

http://ko.goldenears.net/board/5384109

After having listened to these earphones for just over a week, I think they're more enjoyable than the MC5. It sounds a little less overdamped in the bass. Like the FR shows, there's not enough lower midrange and too much upper midrange, making some tracks sound a bit shouty, but overall, I like them a lot. Bass extension is pretty darn good.

Ety silicone tips still annoy the f*ck out of me. I've been using Klipsch biflange tips and an over-ear fit.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on January 05, 2015, 11:14:17 AM

(http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/1-05-2015/zA2bBm.gif) (http://www.makeagif.com/zA2bBm)

I overlaid GoldenEars' FR of the MK5 with the same ones they did for the ER4PT with P/S adapter attached.

For the depth that GE inserted the MK5, it doesn't quite have the treble bandwidth of the ER4S, but it has quite desirable bass qualities.

The MK5 and EK5 do not measure that similarly; while they show similar ringing at around 5 kHz, CSD plots show that the MK5 rings less, <1 ms compared to >1.5 ms. The MK5 also shows greater evidence of natural group delay in the bass (though still a little overdamped).

The bandwidth falloff of the EK5 suggests that the high impedance voice coil is prohibitively inductive at higher frequencies, whilst the MK5's 32 ohm voice coil is able to get to 16 kHz (sorta, not quite), at right about the testing limit of these IEC 711 couplers.

My instinct is that the MK5 is in fact a better buy over the only slightly cheaper EK5. It remains to be seen whether a capable amplifier will be able to overcome the inductive voice coil of the EK5, but doing so would essentially defeat the purpose of the EK5, which is to attenuate SPL to safe levels for children.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: OJneg on January 05, 2015, 04:42:23 PM

So looks like it gets most of the Ety sound with a 5dB bass boost below 100Hz. Could be a major winner especially given its price.

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: tomscy2000 on May 12, 2015, 02:32:47 PM

Sorry for necromancing this thing...

I've been partnering with speakerphone (http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1615) to do both measurements and written analysis; the MK5 is one of the first to be done.

This is the link to the finished review: http://wp.me/p3a9vU-X8

Title: Re: Etymotic MK5 Isolator
Post by: speakerphone on May 13, 2015, 04:29:20 PM

http://goldenears.net/board/5384109
Golden Ears has changed their previous measurement graphs.
They measured MK5 wrong, actually MK5 doesn't have bass boosting like the picture above(Tomscy posted on January).