In my experience silicone tips are a good medium for balancing iso with awareness of external sounds. Naturally this may vary based on the manufacturer and your ear canal shape. I like the keep things a bit less isolated too since I wear IEM's most of the day, and find that silicone has the...

  Any indication whether these will be priced the same as the current models or priced higher as separate, higher-end IEM's?

If you can push your budget to ~£230-235 a pair of W20's are a good bet.

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  They certainly are bulky, and they were never comfortable for very long periods like Westones are. They also take about as long to get in properly as a pair of customs. That said they are not so unwieldy that they're intolerable.   I'd also note that their bulkiness makes falling asleep...

  I frequently ran and did interval training with the 846's and, at least with the foam tips, they always remained secure and the sound didn't suffer. In that respect they were excellent.   They never had issues with sweating - I was living in south Florida at the time so there was plenty of...

Happy to contribute - I gave my e17 to my stepbrother (who uses cans) because I rarely felt it contributed much and, yes, I experienced occasional hissing (which seemed to come and go without any apparent reason). The battery life was somewhat less than advertised, too. I don't mean to bash it...

  Thanks for welcome and the question, one I should've addressed given it's relevance in my case.   I used a fiio E17 with my iphone when I wanted to really focus on the music. Since I am, as a rule, incapable of sitting still for anything, there is no point in my investing in any devices...

(cont.) My one serious issue with the 846's was their fit and overall ergonomics. I couldn't wear them for much more than 60-90 minutes. At that point, if I still wished to listen, I got around the problem by "perching" the tips on the outside of my ear canals - basically inserting them until...

Hi there, first post and glad to be here.   I purchased SE846's right after they came out since I just happen to be in the market to replace my old SE530's. The 846's were my first "super-premium" audio purchase, the packaging made an impression from the get go, and their sound did not...