Hey folks,
I got interested in the IE400 because they are on sale for 200€ this month.So I have only a week to decide. This is my first post here, because I'm really not sure if I should take the sale opportunity to get the IE400, the ie 500 or non of them.
What do I want? I'm doing sound engineering part time, mostly electronic music and jazz, and generally like a neutral sound, accurate impulses response, a tight sound with a noticeable bass that is not overwhelming other parts. I like the sound like you hear when played live. I want to use this for listening music on the go mainly, but I want to keep near my 'working sound'. It would be great also to be able to judge sound quality on the go with my future IEM.
I think the IE400 seems to fit pretty good to this needs, according to a lot I've read. I also saw some youtube reviews about them, and one Senheiser product manager said that the IE400 is more suitable as a reference headphone, while the IE500 is more to hear everything loud and clear on stage
. I also had a look at all the frequency measurements here.
But I'm still lost. I still have two big questions. Maybe somebody have an opinion on that.
IE400 or IE500?
On the one hand I envy the seemingly even better impulse response of the IE500, at the same time the frequency response seems to be less neutral on the ie500. What a pitty! This review seems to agree with this too
I tend to the IE400 because there are a lot of voices which say that it's more neutral. Do you agree?
Is the IE400 sibilant or harsh sounding?
I read some reviews,
https://www.headphonecheck.com/test/sennheiser-ie-400-pro/, which said that it can sometimes sound sibilant on vocals. I know some consumer Senheiser IEM that sounds horrible due to treble spikes. I'm allergic to headphones that emphasize this area to sound clearer, with the result to have too sharp S tones in vocals, therefore, I'm a bit worried by this.
On the other hand, when I have a neutral sound and I hear sibilant sounds, I'm fine. I also don't want this area to be suppressed in the frequency response, it just should not be
emphasized to push a seemingly clearer sound. The ie400 seems to be more pronounced in the 6-10k area, which I'm a bit afraid of. Does anyone have an opinion on this for the IE500 and IE400 and maybe have compared it also with other headphones?