Etymotic Research Earphones

[Simon Taylor (staylor)]

Just wanted to share with fellow Alembic owners.  I just bought a pair of Etymotic Research ER4S earphones.  These work great for just plugging into my Series II and playing!!  It's not thunder-bass, but the ER4S's are reference quality and they produce clean and sweet bass tone even down on the low B string.  
 
Plus since they are sealed earphones, you get 24db of isolation to help you hear how clean (or dirty in my case ;-) your playing style really is!  The lightest personal practice amp (except for the good ol' body amp . . .) you'll ever find !

[Matt Bulmer (prime)]

Only 24db of isolation? What good are those. Everyone knows that wives/girlfriends nag at about 30!
 
Seriously though, $330 makes for some EXPENSIVE earbuds. I bet they sound killer. I'd probably invest in something like that for a wireless monitor setup if I was ever playing a big enough concert, and I wasn't breaking the bank with a custom Alembic!

[Bob Novy (bob)]

Simon,
 
It's still doubtful I'm going to bother with headphones, but I've been thinking about it. What I'd like to know is where you have the trim pots set for pickup gain, to get sufficient output.
 
I'll have trims on my custom, but not accessible without removing the cover plate (mine also won't be Series, but more info might still be useful). Do you have to crank them up, or is it acceptable around a mid-level setting, or what?

[mica]

Headphones only work directly on a Series I or II bass when the 1/4 jack is wired for stereo, so it won't work with your custom electronics, Bob.

[Simon Taylor (staylor)]

Matt -- I got them from HeadRoom (www.headphone.com) for $269 + $15 for overnight priority shipping.
 
Bob, not sure about your electronics (sure Mica knows what you have though...), but I pretty much have to have each pickup and master gain pots wide open to get a full sound.  I'm definitely considering getting a headphone amplifier, however.  You can get the low-end ones for around $100+.  Of course, by the time you add that to the $284 for the phones, you're talking about close to $400 that you could spend on a lightweight combo amp (not 28 grams like the phones tho...).  For me it's worth it, since I plan to use the ER4S's for personal monitoring in the studio and on stage.  So, I get multiple uses out of the same deal.  Even though I have to have gain all the way up, it still sounds good.  Plus it really gives me an opportunity to hone my finger work -- you hear EVERYTHING when you've got good sealed earphones on.  Of course, Mica has said in the past (and I agree) that you should practice on what you plan to perform on.  For me, I need to move to a setup like this, even for live stuff cause otherwise I'm gonna go deaf from the drummer's thrashing about and the guitarist who thinks that jangly ultra-chorused sound is cooler than anything else on stage!!
 
Mica, I noticed that when I flip my stereo/mono switch to mono, I get no sound through the earphones.  I expected to get a mono sum of the two pickups in either the left or right channel, but nothing?? What's going on here?  Shouldn't a simple stereo to mono adapter solve this problem, or is there something I'm not following with the mono/stereo switch circuitry?

[mica]

I'm no engineer, but my understanding of the Series I/II electronics is that the headphone function only works in the stereo mode, so it sounds like you are experiencing the expected results.

[Bob Novy (bob)]

Well, I'm no (electrical) engineer either, but if I plug a set of headphones into my current bass (10 yr old Carvin with typical active circuit) - I get output in one ear. Haven't dug around for the necessary plugs, but I'd bet money that a mono-stereo adaptor would get the sound to both ears.
 
It's not very loud, but I'm pretty sure that it would improve with lower impedance headphones (maybe down in the 20-30 ohm range, as a guess), and with sealed phones might be quite acceptable.
 
I certainly don't pretend to understand the Series electronics, and can imagine there's a good reason for not getting output from them in mono mode. But I'm having a hard time imagining how the non-Series circuits could actually prevent this.
 
Not a big deal to me, just curious (as usual).

[mica]

Bob, I've asked my dad to join this thread soon and address your curiosity. He'll be the best one to assist you.

[Kent Fossgreen (xlrogue6)]

When you plug headphones into your Carvin, bear in mind that without a mono/stereo adaptor, the right side of your phones is acting as a loooonnnnng jumnper to ground.  Most active systems, including non-Series Alembics with side jacks, switch the power to the actives by connecting battery ground to the ring of A TRS jack, and all the other grounds to the sleeve.  Thus, when a mono jack is inserted, battery ground connects to system ground and away you go.  Plug your stereo headphones straight in and the voice coil of your right driver becomes the path to ground.

[Bob Novy (bob)]

Kent, thanks for the explanation. I hadn't bothered to think it through, but looking at the plugs again your description is perfectly clear. I finally located my mono-stereo adapter, and just as expected, it works fine. So unless someone actually proves otherwise, I'll continue to assume that standard non-Series Alembics would work the same (whether they have sufficient output, etc. is a separate issue).
 
As to what exactly happens with Series, or whether my own electronics will be sufficiently different to prevent this (seems doubtful to me), I'd rather let Ron spend his time finishing them up instead of taking the time to explain .

[David Burgess (dnburgess)]

While on the subject of headphone listening...I can recommend the Sennheiser HD280 Pro (Only $99 from Headroom http://headroom.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=2&subTopicID=15). These are a sealed design (but still light weight) so give about 10db ambient noise attenuation - and don't leak noise. Also they are low impedence (64ohm).
 
I recently had to travel on business for the week before an audition and had a bunch of new songs to learn - so threw the Sennheisers, a diskman and Korg Pandora into my flight case so was able to practice (silently) while away.