Sennheiser IE7 Appreciation Thread ~~~ - Page 50

I'm getting mine for $284.00 opposed to the $500 price tag which I would not spend lol. I spend $265 on my first IE8 and $300 for the second pair I just got so I'm always looking for the sales; not into overpaying. From what I've been hearing though it seems a lot of people prefer their Sony's to the IE8s. I'll be comparing them though but I think its gonna be a more different presentation as the Sony's put you on stage while the IE8s put you in the third row. Since I upgraded the cables my IE8s aren't really warm anymore but all 3 spectrum's have been noticeably improved. The shures aren't my cup of tea at all lol they sound very boring, mad sibilance for me and are way overpriced in my opinion. I much prefer the IE7 over the shure's any day. The only good thing about the shures was the vocals and my IE8s beat them in that department (especially since the re cable).

Haha yeah, I was considering buying the IE8 or a so called "big step" from my IE7's (related to my thread I made while ago), but decided to fork out a huge wad of cash for the Westone ES5's which I don't even want to talk about at all here because of the huge investment in those also me being a funds limited college/university student :(

Regarding to the EX1000's, I've had a long good 2hr listen with some burnt-in ones through Graham Slee Voyager amp not too long ago at a audio store here, the EX1000's certainly didn't retain the famous Sennheiser warm signature, but it was more upfront like in a home cinema room, while the EX1000's aim at being as neutrally balanced as possible, the IE7/8 is more fun to listen to. The only Shure I've ever given a high rating was the SE535 which is certainly alike in some perspectives compared to the EX1000's younger brother the EX700 but just tad bit better. I'm curious as to what cable your using for your IE8's, pre-made by a supplier or DIY? Because what I've been wanting to do is to buy a cheap SE215 with the detachable cable, pull that apart, since the IE7 cable housing on the drivers have the same round locking type mechanism, pull the SE215 detachable section out and fit it onto the IE7 cable housing, and turn the fixed cable of the IE7 into a detachable IEM, which would be much more convenient as I'm growing use to the ease of detaching the cables on my ES5's when not in use and storing it away not to mention lack of cable tangling like the IE7.

Here's a quick photoshop of the idea I'm on about for the detachable cable for the IE7.

Original Source: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/463826/so-i-got-some-fake-sennheiser-ie7-s-hq-pics-inside/15

I was hunting for an iem to upgrade from ie7 but hard pressed to do so. The IE8 actually sounded inferior  by being more veiled than already slightly veiled ie7 not to mentioned slower. W4 sounded boring, so was MD. Shure was slightly harsh sounding and the only iem that i nearly decided to get was the um3x. I was not actually convinenced by um3x superiority in clarity being enough to justify the purchase. Despite the extra clarity , um3x was not as sweet sounding as IE7.

I was hunting for an iem to upgrade from ie7 but hard pressed to do so. The IE8 actually sounded inferior  by being more veiled than already slightly veiled ie7 not to mentioned slower. W4 sounded boring, so was MD. Shure was slightly harsh sounding and the only iem that i nearly decided to get was the um3x. I was not actually convinenced by um3x superiority in clarity being enough to justify the purchase. Despite the extra clarity , um3x was not as sweet sounding as IE7.

Interesting.  To my ears, the IE8 is both faster and less veiled than the IE7.

Except for the mids. Well that is different though on recable but in stock the mids are definitely more apparent on the IE7s, they compete with shure mids.

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I agree if no EQ is used.  However, the IE8 with the Cowon EQ is unbelievable.  (or Rockbox so I've heard)  Using the Headroom frequency response graph I was able to EQ the IE8 to a very balanced sound signature in which the mids are even more prominent than the bass.  They are some of the nicest sounding mids I've heard from an IEM.  Extremely musical, fluid and with plenty of detail without sounding clinical.

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I agree if no EQ is used.  However, the IE8 with the Cowon EQ is unbelievable.  (or Rockbox so I've heard)  Using the Headroom frequency response graph I was able to EQ the IE8 to a very balanced sound signature in which the mids are even more prominent than the bass.  They are some of the nicest sounding mids I've heard from an IEM.  Extremely musical, fluid and with plenty of detail without sounding clinical.

Sound  quality straight out of the Cowon's out of the box is better then your average Ipod source anyway. 

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Yes.. but I was referring to how with the Cowon EQ, you can tame the IE8 midbass, allowing the midrange to bloom and come forward.

But yes, the quality of the DAC and amp in your DAP matters a lot as well.