[warrior1975]

Been real sick lately but wanted to pop my head in and say hello. Also, wanted to share that I ordered a silver litz cable from Ted, sound is amazing. Some of you know I am a huge fan of Whiplash cables, which are extremely pricey. The sound quality is on par with Whiplash Reference cables. Quite impressed. The wire itself is definitely different, I'm normally a fan of thicker wires, which Whiplash 8 strand are, but sound quality to my ears, are about the same. Aesthetically, I prefer the Whiplash, but that comes at a huge price difference. Also, that's a preference thing, so some would prefer the silver litz cable. Just wanted to publicly thank Ted for an amazing cable, probably the best bang for your buck.

 

[madwolfa]

The only problem I have so far is wearing comfort. IEM body itself is great and I hardly notice it outside (even the cable isn't too bad), but even the smallest foams (while being more comfortable than olives) are slightly too big and putting too much pressure into my ear canals, so I can't wear them for more than 20-30 minutes (even my jaw starts to hurt). I'm going to see if Westone tips (silicone or foams) have better fit. My ear canals are really tight.

 

[csglinux]

I've a question for anybody with an 846, iPhone 6 (Plus) and amp/DAC.  I've been testing the JDS labs C5D and - well, if I had to give my honest opinion on it, based on its performance with the Shure 846, I'd have to say it was a steaming pile of doggy doo doo.  And that's being generous. Firstly, there's a very perceptible noise floor with the C5D; with the iPhone 6, it's totally black - I hear no noise floor at all. Secondly, the bass just disappears with the C5D DAC. Kiss that lovely subwoofer goodbye But wait... there's those bass switches - surely they can save the day?...  Nope. These work great on IEMs like the ER-4S, but on the Shure 846 they don't add bass at all, only a very narrow range of sub-bass. The kind of sub-bass you get when you roll the windows down in your car at high speed causing the resonance to bang in your ears - only more unpleasant than that. So with the 846, the C5D gives you three settings: 1) no bass, 2) no bass, but an unpleasant resonant pounding in your head, or (on the lower/medium setting), 3) no bass, but a slightly unpleasant resonant pounding in your head.  The C5D sounds so much worse than the direct output from my iPhone 6 that I contacted JDS labs thinking I must have a dud.  They said the C5D was never tested with headphones of less than 16 ohm impedance.  Seriously?!?
 
I have not yet heard the Hugo, but am now somewhat nervous about dropping $2500, only to find the output sounds worse than that of my iPhone. (Check out Ken Rockwell's comparison of the internal iPhone 6 Plus DAC/amp vs the Beyerdynamic A200p: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm#measurements). The problem I have with any external DAC/amp is, even if right now we can detect some small nuance of improvement, it will have a relatively short shelf life. There'll be a new iPhone in another 6 months.  Heck, there'll be a new Android phone in another 6 hours. The internal DAC/amp technology in these portable music players isn't standing still. I believe we may already be at the point of not just diminished returns, but no-more returns. I know there'll still be people that believe in 24 bit-depth audio sampled at 240 kHz and other fluff like that, but for those of us not born on the planet Krypton, if the human ear can't hear the difference, or (in the case of the A200p or C5D) if the external DAC/amp sounds WORSE than the internal DAC/amp in our portable media player, what's the point?
 
Sorry for the rant.  I'm just feeling like a sucker now for parting with that $250  If anybody else out there has heard the 846 being driven by a C5D, I'd love to hear your experiences.  If anybody else out there has heard ANY DAC/amp that sounds better at driving the 846 than an iPhone 6 (Plus), I'd also be interested to know what product you were using and how it improved the sound.

 

[ubs28]

   
I think as it was told many times before - it's not better or worse, it's just different. Sound stage is slightly narrower, but I like more intimate sound and slightly more details (probably thanks to superior isolation compared to open-backs). The mids are a bit more forward compared to LCD-2, the bass is definitely on par or even better (it has more weight and body in it, maybe just a tiny bit less texture).

Ok thanks. Well, it's always better to have a larger sample size. I'm kinda surprised by this because headphones like the Sennheiser HD800 are much better than the Shure SE846. 

 

[madwolfa]

  Ok thanks. Well, it's always better to have a larger sample size. I'm kinda surprised by this because headphones like the Sennheiser HD800 are much better than the Shure SE846. 

 
It's subjective. I personally found HD800 awfully sibilant compared to my LCD-2F. So I'd rather complement them with SE846, than HD800.

 

[ubs28]

   
It's subjective. I personally found HD800 awfully sibilant compared to my LCD-2F.

Objectively the Sennheiser HD800 is much better. The only thing the Shure SE846 can do better is a subwoofer type bass. They are not even in the same league. The HD800 I have doesn't have sibilance?
 
All I am saying, i'm surprised about the Shure SE846 performance against the LCD-2F considering how highly rated the LCD-2 headphones are (which is a good thing!!) 

 

[GrindedDown]

Been real sick lately but wanted to pop my head in and say hello. Also, wanted to share that I ordered a silver litz cable from Ted, sound is amazing. Some of you know I am a huge fan of Whiplash cables, which are extremely pricey. The sound quality is on par with Whiplash Reference cables. Quite impressed. The wire itself is definitely different, I'm normally a fan of thicker wires, which Whiplash 8 strand are, but sound quality to my ears, are about the same. Aesthetically, I prefer the Whiplash, but that comes at a huge price difference. Also, that's a preference thing, so some would prefer the silver litz cable. Just wanted to publicly thank Ted for an amazing cable, probably the best bang for your buck.

Welcome back! Hope you get better it seems to be going around. A poster a yesterday was asking about possible impendance mismatching (2 ohm out SE to 9ohm 8s) or possible SQ issues with pairing an AK120ii to the 8s moedawg and i chimed in with some opinions, but i know you use an AK too just not sure which model(s). How do they sound to you? Any other DAP recomendations or comparisons to AK?

 

[madwolfa]

  All I am saying, i'm surprised about the Shure SE846 performance against the LCD-2F considering how highly rated the LCD-2 headphones are (which is a good thing!!) 

 
Yeah well, I haven't even had an urge to compare.. both headphones are brilliant and serve their purpose: 
 
I use my LCD-2F as a general purpose headphone in front of my PC (music, gaming, etc). I intend to use SE846 for more like "relax in a bed after lunch or chill before sleep" kind of thing...

 

[GrindedDown]

csglinux The only thing that i can tell you is that i spent considerable time looking at portable dac/amp combos that i could pair with my iphone 6 plus that were reasonable in price (basically NOT the chord hugo.....yet). I also began looking at DAPs to use. Portability is a must for me.

After digging a lot, i found that while there are dac/amp combos that offer sound improvement, they are pretty minor with these paricular IEMs. I'm sure moedawg140 will chime in and say the same thing, but that's a testament to how good the iphone 6 sound quality really is. Just check out the iphone 6 sound quality thread in the source gear forum. I looked at the c5d and decided to pass even tho i considered it pretty heavily. the only dac/amp that really got me thinking for 500 was the centrance hifi m8. I had to cross several off the list as they dont have an output impedance around 1 or less, which is important with the 8s.

I however did look into DAPs and thought itd be nice to have a dedicated music player for all my lossless files with potential for DSD should i choose and also much large storage options. I looked at everything from the a17, dx50/90, fiio x1/3/5 (7 even), zx1 and eventually landed on the AK100ii. Im glad i did. Has a high quality design, easy to use interface, has a more dac/amp look with the volume dial, and sounds damn good. Also it can be used as a dacp/amp with my mac or any other system. Sure its a tad pricey, but really not too bad when you look at the cost of good dac/amps and DAPs. This combines them in a sense, at least for me and sounds good enough where im not going to need to buy anything additional until i decide to get the Chord Hugo.

I dont think you wasted your money but if your not satisfied, either try to return it or if you cant, try to sell it.

 

[ridicul0us]

Aurender flow + SE846 ... My end-game portable audio rig has been completed ! 

I'm a newbie so I'm not familiar with advanced terminologies for expressing sound. Right off the top of my head, the flow makes the music more resolved by a relatively significant amount. Certainly, your mileage may vary.
As far as the treble is concerned, I can feel a little more crispness on the high notes. Perhaps, because of that, I feel that the music feels clearer/more precise. On the mid range, the vocal feels more lushful out of the flow. It feels like the singer is more forward. Regarding the bass, I can't comment much since I already feel that the bass out of SE846 alone is already perfect. I can't notice much improvement on this area.

The interesting part with the flow is it has truly low output impedance, which is 0.06 Ohm Max. There is no hiss when I use it with 8s.

 

[AndrewH13]

The only problem I have so far is wearing comfort. IEM body itself is great and I hardly notice it outside (even the cable isn't too bad), but even the smallest foams (while being more comfortable than olives) are slightly too big and putting too much pressure into my ear canals, so I can't wear them for more than 20-30 minutes (even my jaw starts to hurt). I'm going to see if Westone tips (silicone or foams) have better fit. My ear canals are really tight.

For me, Stars are far the most comfortable. Not sure you will find the sound best if you like foams. To me the foams added warmth and softened the bass. Personally I love the fast deep bass from the Westone silicones. Great match with both my iBasso 90 and Fiio X5. I was originally getting a Sony ZX1 but have found these cheaper DAPs equally as good, sound wise.

 

[madwolfa]

To be honest, my HTC One (M7) doesn't at all sound horrible with SE846 compared to Schiit stack, except very slight hissing. Hoping it will be resolved in HTC One M9 (coming this spring maybe?). So I don't feel any urge to spend money on dedicated DAP/portable amp or anything like that. Flexibility is great too (I love streaming Spotify Premium on my phone).

 

[GrindedDown]

To be honest, my HTC One (M7) doesn't at all sound horrible with SE846 compared to Schiit stack, except very slight hissing. Hoping it will be resolved in HTC One M9 (coming this spring maybe?). So I don't feel any urge to spend money on dedicated DAP/portable amp or anything like that. Flexibility is great too (I love streaming Spotify Premium on my phone).

Yeah im also really happy with how good spotify sounds on my iphone 6 (extreme setting of course). These 8s are really something else. As long as you have decent source they can sound pretty darn good and improvements appear to be pretty incremental from there on out.

 

[scarfacegt]

Never heard the lcd 2.But had the hd800 a while ago.They w

 

[scarfacegt]

Have never heard the lcd 2.But had the hd800 a while ago.They had an big soundstage,and where extremly detailing.But the lack of bass,and harsh/clinical/cold sound,just didnt do it for me.When listen on them,i got tired in my ears after a while.Almost like some kind of pain.For studio engeneering they must be king of the crowd,but for laid back music session at home the se846 are much better.For me at least.But that is my personale opinion.They are very neautral sounding hd800.The se846 have great bass,and good mids and treble.Maybe they are not that neutral (more colored sound),but i just love the sound.So warm and dynamic.I can listen for them for hours,without beeing tired in my ears And they suits all kind of music,and even good at low volumes.So an exellent allround iem and a good compromise