IE8's a disapointment.

Sorry to hear that, I didn't quite feel as bad as you after the purchase. The average mark of complete burn in is a figure around 250hours. The sound does not change drastically, however it does smoothen things out quite a bit.
Have you tried comply foam t400 tips?
Have you tried listening to higher quality recordings/
different sources or even different genres?
Try the above and then we might be able to help you a little bit more.

Hmm... the thick sounding and possibly veiled midrange is to be expected although the much vaunted soundstage should definitely be there. Dunno why it isn't.

Just let it burn in I guess. a couple hundred hours and then see how they are. I don't find the IE8s particularly tip dependent (of the normal tips provided).

Did you get these from ebay or another seller that sells them for cheap and only supplies 3 pairs of tips? I'm just wondering if you got fake IE8's. The connectors on the cable should be translucent grey.

BTW, you really should try to get used to their signature. This has helped me a lot in order to appreciate their warm sound.
I really do not find them to be veiled anymore. They start to sound "more enjoyable" on certain occasions than reality...

i think you have to burn these in big time to get the good sound out of them

As a general rule I usually try to stay realistic about hyped products, their performance tends to be outshown by their reputation. That said, the IE8s, should be damn good, maybe not worth $400 over other phones, but good.

all theproblems that you mentioned is a result of deep insertion.what you should do is position them in the entrance of your ears and then twist them slightly inward so that you have bad isolation then enjoy the sound.As for the veil,well it is present but i guess you can accomodate to it and the ie8 dark sound.by the way what is your source and tips and if you can post a pic with the ie8 in your ears so that we can know if it is inserted right.
cheers.
EDIT:the burn in will change the sound DRAMATICALLY after 75 hours,at least that what happened with me

Yes. IE8s, being dynamic drivers will probably require quite a bit of burn in.

The level of elasticity of the driver will be different now, than when at optimal elasticity. therefore you'll get a different sound...

I also agree with midoo that you may not be aiming or positioning them correctly in your ears.

You're not wearing them right. That's pretty much all there is to it.

The more you believe that, the more the IE 8 will continue to sound horrible and the less justice you'll be doing to them. You should have purchased them with the knowledge that they don't really isolate well, and that therefore a seal is irrelevant.

It'd be much better if you wore them correctly or returned them for a pair more suitable for your "seal" interests (W3, UM3X, TF10pro, etc.) that are IEMs proper rather than spreading this undue negative press.

Yes, that's indeed what you normally want - but not with these. You may try *smaller* sleeves and eq'ing the exaggerated mid (not low) bass down by 6 to 9 dB. I did that with mine on a rockboxed ipod and it removed not only the bloated bass but much of the veil, too.

A leaky seal is a good tool for bass control. Back when I was trying out the NE-7M, I did this to balance out the low end. I don't think it's right, but it's an option. Tip choice will also determine response. An example is Westone's stock foam tips. They're comfortable but soak up a LOT of the high end. Luckily I bought some Shure Olives and the presentation was much better. Just realize that tips do play a roll.

You may want to see what kind of frequency response they have. A quick tool is this website.
Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing

It's not the exact purpose of the tool, but try to set every column at the same loudness across the entire spectrum. What kind of frequency response curve do you end up with? Note, what you set will be the inverse of the response of the headphone. Ideally, you'd like this to be flat or nearly flat across the board. Sloping isn't bad as long as you like a warm or bright tone. What you don't want to see are heavy spikes or dips in the response or an overall ragged, non-smooth response.

How does the IE8 fair?


I would give the IE8 more time too. If the sound signature is quite different then what you're used to, it can be quite hard to wrap your head around the new sound and actually make a relatively unbiased decision. Make an effort to understand them. Try to figure out why they sound the way they do. Understand the skew of your own personal preference. Understand the gearing of the IE8 earphone. Knowing both yourself AND the intent of Shure with the IE8 helps you make a less biased, subjective conclusion that is based more on raw capability rather then just preference.