I think this is an accurate review judging from my experience.
Though the 2 star rating is not representative of what you write in the text.

@fablestruck

As noted before the actual review:

I only give full stars. My ranking/scoring system does not necessarily follow the norm and is about as follows:


5 stars: The product is very good and received the "highly recommended" award from me.

4 stars: The product is very good and received the "recommended" award from me.

3 stars: The product is good/very good, but not outstanding/special enough to get any of my two awards. ["Thumbs Up"]

2 stars: The product is only about average or even somewhat below that and somewhat flawed/flawed in some areas. [neither "Thumbs Up" nor "Thumbs Down"]

1 star: The product is bad/severely flawed to outright bad. ["Thumbs Down"]

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@fablestruck

I would definitely rank my SE846 closer to my 3 stars criteria, but think that they are ultimately not yet there ("good/very good"), as there are definitely areas where they are flawed, especially considering their price range and the competition (already back in the day, but especially nowadays). Personally, I really like them for recreational listening, but apart from the lows where they really are outstanding, they are "only about average"/somewhat better than that when it comes to the rest.

@fablestruck

Anyway, since I don't like traditional rating systems anymore anyway (e.g. since one's opinion may change over time and especially when auditioning newer and/or other gear, even more especially as the IEM market has become so much more crowded over the past years/decade), I'd like to refer to the rest of my pre-review statement as quoted just below:

Link to my review and measurement index thread where one can also find a full review overview, more information about myself as well as my general-ish audio and review manifesto: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/956208/

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