Exceptional in Every Detail: Say Hello to the IE 600

[headblid]

No.

We will point you to the announcement about the audiophile business acquisition by Sonova (a part of the "Consumer business"). In principle, the Consumer business and thus all associated jobs were transferred in full to Sonova. No job from the Consumer business remains at Sennheiser and the production facilities (equipment, etc) all change over to Sonova so they can have continuity in developing/manufacturing great new products worthy of the Sennheiser name.

thank you for this answer. Seeing this, I must ask: I am in the process of finding my next stop after the hd800S+hdv820 that has been my daily driver for the last few years. I love many the Sennheisers products and would like to stay with the brand when I go beyond the hd800S.

Should I give it till say Dec 2022 before settling on a non Sennheiser option?

 

[ericpalonen]

thank you for this answer. Seeing this, I must ask: I am in the process of finding my next stop after the hd800S+hdv820 that has been my daily driver for the last few years. I love many the Sennheisers products and would like to stay with the brand when I go beyond the hd800S.

Should I give it till say Dec 2022 before settling on a non Sennheiser option?

Thank you for the bread kitty brand loyalty, we appreciate it! That's a great setup! We can't tell anyone what is or isn't on the way but we'll definitely share any relevant product news here

 

[headblid]

Thank you for the bread kitty, we appreciate it! That's a great setup! We can't tell anyone what is or isn't on the way but we'll definitely share any relevant product news here

Hahaha, why am I even asking, I’m going to end up buying it anyway . Thank you!

 

[ericpalonen]

Hahaha, why am I even asking, I’m going to end up buying it anyway . Thank you!

I just realized autocorrect changed "brand loyalty" to "bread kitty" and I'm dying laughing over here. I just changed it back via edit, even though I didn't want to

 

[Huuko]

I just realized autocorrect changed "brand loyalty" to "bread kitty" and I'm dying laughing over here. I just changed it back via edit, even though I didn't want to

You can buy it at Blue Jean Bakery at the Hotel New Hankyu Osaka in Japan haha, but they only bake 40 loaves a day of their Ironeko Bread! =^.^=


Edited to add: While you're in Osaka, you can show your brand loyalty by buying the Sennheiser IE600 at e-earphone and then listen to your music on it as you enjoy your kitty bread! LOL

Here is an appropriate test track to start off:

 

[rantng]

I just realized autocorrect changed "brand loyalty" to "bread kitty" and I'm dying laughing over here. I just changed it back via edit, even though I didn't want to

I thought it was an inside joke or something.

 

[ericpalonen]

I thought it was an inside joke or something.

Got 'em with the ol' classic bread kitty!

 

[Capyr]

@ericpalonen If you connect the ie600 via 3.5mm unbalanced or 4.4mm balanced. Would you say there is a hearable difference between the two or did you just include the 4.4 to give more dac/amp choices?

 

[ericpalonen]

@ericpalonen If you connect the ie600 via 3.5mm unbalanced or 4.4mm balanced. Would you say there is a hearable difference between the two or did you just include the 4.4 to give more dac/amp choices?

Great question! I've had a lot of balanced listening time on IE 300 and IE 900 (FiiO m11 pro DAP, iFi Hip-DAC), and less (but enough) on the IE 600 to form a confident opinion. All three balanced setups have been with the 4.4mm factory cable.

I quite enjoy the difference in performance of the 4.4mm balanced configs, and hear that difference when I'm A/B'ing (always leaning towards 4.4mm). It's a higher octane experience in all cases. My go-to portable setup (for now) revolves around the Audioquest Dragonfly Red, however, which is 3.5mm single-ended (quick explainer: I have a pretty long rotation of headphones I regularly use on-demand, and can connect to many digital devices with 3.5mm as the common denominator). If my daily portable setup had a 4.4mm balanced out, and my rotation of cans was shorter, I would not hesitate to go 4.4 all day, all the time. While we don't have an official statistic, we know that 4.4mm balanced adoption continues at a higher rate than other balanced types in this community (the boom in portable, battery-op hi-fi drives this) so the reason it is included is both performance AND convenience. If balanced wiring and its resulting performance difference were not a consideration, you'd probably get an adapter to go from 3.5 to 4.4 in the box to use with a single included cable.

TL;DR - it's included (for convenience) when connecting to hi-fi devices that support the preference for balanced.

 

[rwelles]

Actually, it makes no difference to the monitor; signal is signal. It is possible that there is a sonic difference between the included cables. Eric can speak to that.

Any sonic difference would most likely come from the source. If the 4.4 output of a specific device is sonically better than the 3.5 output--which is most often the case. Best answer is to try each for yourself. The one that sounds better to you is the best one to use!

 

[Lightspeed12]

Hope these ie600s come to Australia soon can't wait to try them i just scored a set of ie300 brand new for $229 Australian to see how they fit. Lol If they don't then the ie600 won't either.

 

[ericpalonen]

Actually, it makes no difference to the monitor; signal is signal. It is possible that there is a sonic difference between the included cables. Eric can speak to that.

Any sonic difference would most likely come from the source. If the 4.4 output of a specific device is sonically better than the 3.5 output--which is most often the case. Best answer is to try each for yourself. The one that sounds better to you is the best one to use!

The factory 3.5mm and 4.4mm cables do not have sonic profiles unique to each other outside of the obvious single-ended/balanced wiring.

To experience the best that a true balanced configuration has to offer, one’s entire signal chain should be balanced from the content onward. Side note: The evolution of portable hi-fi has been very exciting— it wasn’t that long ago when balanced setups were largely relegated to the desktop or hi-fi stack in the media room, and “going balanced” was never officially embraced as an option from the headphone companies. Back when the iPod was the only option at the top of the ladder (and then the iPhone came along) it seemed destined to stay that way, but here we are, able to fit world class sound in our pockets with countless ways to configure and enjoy it. It is so awesome to see the enthusiast community squeezing this much performance out of their gear, throwing out the status quo in the process.

 

[karloil]

@ericpalonen

Any idea if the IE600 will be able to make it in time for CanJam SG?

@ericpalonen

Any idea on this one?

 

[VendettaRiich]

Actually, it makes no difference to the monitor; signal is signal. It is possible that there is a sonic difference between the included cables. Eric can speak to that.

Any sonic difference would most likely come from the source. If the 4.4 output of a specific device is sonically better than the 3.5 output--which is most often the case. Best answer is to try each for yourself. The one that sounds better to you is the best one to use!

This is very true. Most of the time the balanced connection is higher quality and thats all the difference. I guess this is also why so many have the opinion that balanced is generally better because its impossible to compare between different devices. Personally i use with my IE900 (and will use next week wizh IE600) a RME ADI-2 on its IEM 3.5mm plug and i have yet to hear a balanced solution that is clearly better

 

[Derivative]

Looking forward to this IEM's UK release. Appreciate it's still early days but are we any clearer on a release date? It'll be my first pricey IEM and from what I've read I think it'll suit my taste.