Quick decision needed: Sennheiser IE8 or Ortofon e-Q7

I need a simple response to those who have heard (preferably own) both. Which of the two -- Sennheiser IE8 or Ortofon e-Q7 -- would you recommend? Or are they different enough to justify owning both? Thx!

P.S: Yes, I have gone thru most of the related topical posts at this site and other sites' reviews. But still feel that a binary decision to the subject query has been, thus far, unclear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucozade 

@headphone , i have both and they are totally different sounding ,ortos are more mid focused with a bright lean bass and ie8 is bassy , warm and silky thick sounding so it depends what sound your after.

Folks, this is an ideal & extremely useful response! Thx, lucozade! BTW: have you compared w/ Westone or Shure? Reason I ask .... you noted "ortos are more mid focused with a bright lean bass". This sounds like more like my impression of Westone/Shure breed (similar lineage of these two brands). I have done SE530 vs IE8 (I own  both, so lots of empirical data via my notes). SQ-wise, no contest: IE8s win. Crude analogy: SE530's sound like AM radio while IE8 like FM.

Uh... please keep the feedback comin'...

Thx again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucozade 

@headfone,  well yes the ortos do share a certain similarity with the shure iems, maybe a tad more mid focused and with a lighter more polished treble but my only westone iem is the w3 which leans more towards a bass ,treble sound although the midrange is not recessed in any way.

 

I also have the SE530 and i actually prefer it to the ie8 ,but that is just personal preference as i prefer ba phones over dymanics anyway.

 

I like your analogy comparing the SE530 and IE8 as mono and fm except i would have said it was the other way round.

 

Oh and the ortos are way more transparent in there nature than the IE8 

No, not "mono and fm". I was only comparing the sound fidelity (quality) between the two radio formats  -- one that was only meant to convey magnitude. IAC, a very crude analogy on my part. [some trivia: AM stereo did become a reality in the 80's; FM mono was/is higher fidelity than FM stereo because of the 19khz pilot and other reasons].

Have you compared with Westone UM3X?