In-ear headphones are generally a compromise between convenience and quality; short of some royal sized ears no one will be introducing a 40mm driver into their ear canal.  Etymotic does not follow this assumption however, the $180 ER3 series is not their high end earphones, a set of ER4s would set you back almost twice that much.  TechPowerUp have tried both, and sing their praises so it seems there must be something to this design.  Check out their full review of the ER3XR here, if you feel your ears might be worth of such ostentatious treatment.

"Etymotic's ER3-series in-ears aim to bring their ER4 design into a lower price category. Priced at $179, the ER3s are nearly half the price of the ER4-series in-ears, and their specification sheets show that they are not far off. We take a good look at the new in-ears to see how they fare against their bigger brethren."

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Audio Corner