Just a quick followup on the earphone comparison I put up in February. For the past few months I've been using the Etymotic ER-6i earphones exclusively over the V-Moda Vibe due to the ER-6i's better performance on the high and mids which made it a better choice for the classical music that I've been listening to. Interestingly enough, when I started listening to Linkin Park's new album, Minutes to Midnight ripped at 320kbps, I was surprised to hear that the bass on the ER-6i's seemed to be a LOT better than I remembered it to be. A quick subsequent comparison with the Vibe confirmed it. I'm not sure what the hell happened to my ER-6i's but its bass performance seems to be much better than it used to be. So much that now if I take everything (high, mid, bass) into account, the ER-6i's simply blow the Vibe away. Either the ER-6i has now fully been broken in or ripping mp3s at a higher bit rate minimizes the loss of data on the low end so that the ER-6i has more to work with.
As for the microphonics and occlusion effect on the ER-6i, I guess I've used it for so long now that I don't really notice it anymore. So I guess what I'm saying is that for the price, the ER-6i is really damn good, provided you're willing to wait a coupla months for it to hit its stride or you rip your MP3s at higher than 192kbps.
