SE-5 is a true marvel of engineering, one of a few headphones/IEMs I can say brought a new level of detail and presentation to music and is truly high-fidelity, that is directly comparable to live performance given a high quality recording.
Important caveat: many amplifiers and sources (even many dedicated headphone amps) cannot drive SE-5 correctly - very low output impedance is required.
As a workaround, an impedance adapter can be used to reduce the impact of this on sound.
When improperly driven, they sound dull and dark due to exaggerated cut around 5-8kHz, unevenness above and lowpass. They're relatively dark in the highest registers anyway, which is the reason for 0.5 mark off the sound; but they're no darker than most dynamic driver IEMs.
(No, you don't really need a Benchmark DAC1 for them - FiiO E7 will do.)
Also, I had to wait about 4 months for them to be made, then had to get a refit, taking another month.
Of course the price is very high even for custom IEM standards, however you do get unparralelled quality for it, especially in lower registers.
Important caveat: many amplifiers and sources (even many dedicated headphone amps) cannot drive SE-5 correctly - very low output impedance is required.
As a workaround, an impedance adapter can be used to reduce the impact of this on sound.
When improperly driven, they sound dull and dark due to exaggerated cut around 5-8kHz, unevenness above and lowpass. They're relatively dark in the highest registers anyway, which is the reason for 0.5 mark off the sound; but they're no darker than most dynamic driver IEMs.
(No, you don't really need a Benchmark DAC1 for them - FiiO E7 will do.)
Also, I had to wait about 4 months for them to be made, then had to get a refit, taking another month.
Of course the price is very high even for custom IEM standards, however you do get unparralelled quality for it, especially in lower registers.
My etymotics already sound a lot weaker on iphone 5.
thank you