The Ety ER-4S are also still my preferred IEMs, at least until I try splurging on custom Ultimate Ears. I tried the ~$300 Westone UM2s a while ago, and they just sounded bloated in the lower-mids and rolled off treble, overall a very muffled sound compared to the Etys. It was also difficult and painful for me to keep a seal, the Ety triple flange tips work best for me and aren't painful at all although my ears do get tired after they've been in for several hours. One of my non-audiophile friends recently bought Ety ER-6i and prefers his Apple iBuds for exactly the opposite things that I don't like the sound of the UM2s. I have always taken the reviews on Head-Fi of newer IEMs with a grain of salt as I suspect most of them have never tried any of the "obsolete" like the Etymotics.
I also hate how ridiculously sensitive most of the new IEMs are. They just make amp design/building more difficult, requiring SNRs that are impossible with current technology to completely avoid hiss, mis-matched volume controls, and difficult to use them on planes and on gym equipment because you have to be at the lowest volume setting and then if the equipment is reset remotely and comes back on a higher volume level you get blasted