ER2XR
headphones
$150
Used market: $115*
Specifications
3 of 6 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal Profile
The odd one out in this batch: 96 dB/mW at 15 Ω is about 114 dB/V, some ten decibels quieter than the Chinese dynamics here. Etymotic's deep-insertion design gives 35–42 dB of isolation, so the low efficiency is not the problem it looks like — you are not fighting road noise.
Amplification Warning
This is the rare in-ear where a phone can actually run out of headroom on quiet classical recordings. It is also the rare in-ear that does not hiss on a noisy source.
What the datasheet actually says
Quoted verbatim from the manufacturer’s own page, with the date we checked it. We state what is printed, not what anyone intended by it.
«Impedance: 15 Ohms @ 1kHz / Sensitivity: 96 dB @ 1kHz, 1mW»
Etymotic prints exactly these two figures — 15 Ohms and 96 dB @ 1 kHz, 1 mW — on both the ER2XR and the ER2SE pages. The two models are sold as different products: XR is the extended-bass tuning, SE the flat one. If the numbers were measured rather than copied, a bass shelf of several decibels would be visible somewhere in them. Either the pair really is electrically identical and differs only in an acoustic damper, or one page was filled in from the other. We record the figure as published, on both, and note that it cannot distinguish the two.
checked 8/5/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~77% retained value). · checked on 8/5/2026