[thefitz]

Rejoined the IE800 train off a great Amazon warehouse deal....

If my observations are correct, and I'm positive they are - I got a fake CABLE but a real IE800! Is that strange, or what? I called and complained and got $25 off the replacement cable with remote!

They sound just like I remember. Maybe better? But the cable thing is funny - it's like someone bought it, switched out cables, and returned it.

Another giveaway is that the real cable hit one of the case plug holes when rotated to the right, and the fakes lined up when rotating to the left. This cable fits neither!

 

[Rob80b]

Rejoined the IE800 train off a great Amazon warehouse deal....

If my observations are correct, and I'm positive they are - I got a fake CABLE but a real IE800! Is that strange, or what?............

Definitely strange....you may want to post pics.....to be sure.

 

[thefitz]

Quite confident in the IEMs themselves. Check out the cable.

The backwards logo is a giveaway, but you can see the cable on the right is a fair bit greener.

 

[thefitz]

Here are pics of the proper drivers. You can see the crisp ear tip, beveled grille, and (hopefully) the textured, etched logo.

 

[zeddun]

Yeah I often thought about purchasing a pair of ie800s from Amazon Warehouse Deals but when I called them they told me they can't guarantee the product I end up getting isn't counterfeit but obviously if that turned out to be the case I could always return it for a full refund. It's a shame such a wonderful earphone is so heavily counterfeited. Wonder if any other high end earphones are counterfeited.

 

[thefitz]

Yeah, they suggested I return it and get another. But that's a pain, I'm unconvinced it'd not happen again...
...
..

and I kinda wanted that cable. I have an Android phone and everything.

 

[zeddun]

I'm sure many of the items sold on Amazon's Warehouse deals are used items that folks sell to Amazon as I often see Amazon's banner ad that says if have one to sell we'll pay up to X. I doubt Amazon verifies if the item counterfeit or not unless it is so obvious from looking at the item. They merely test the item to see if it is fully functional before selling. IMHO, best to buy the IE800 from a Sennheiser Authorized dealer or on the head-fi classifieds.

 

[Rob80b]

Yeah I often thought about purchasing a pair of ie800s from Amazon Warehouse Deals but ..........

I’ve had excellent experience with their warehouse deals until last month when I order some open boxed “Very Good Condition” HD650s, well the box had a sticker that was covered over saying “MISMATCH” and indeed it was, the boxes were fine but there was a cheap $50 Sennheiser in the box instead of the $500 HD650s…lol

Amazon’s customer service were amazing though, I ordered through Canada but I got a their rep in Seattle and even though it was the July 1st weekend here , 4th in the US he arranged same-day/overnight shipping with a new unopened pair of 650s….

 

[Rob80b]

Quite confident in the IEMs themselves. Check out the cable.
...............
The backwards logo is a giveaway, but you can see the cable on the right is a fair bit greener.

Unless the counterfeiters improved the ear pieces yours look fine....odd about the cable though....you're probably right about someone swapping due to having a defective one and switching with the fake....Sennheiser may have exchanged it even out of warranty...always worth a try.

 

[thefitz]

I got the cable with the remote and am happy. The IE800 is one of my favorite overall headphones, up there with the HE-1000 for me.

Now, if any unbiased owner of fake IE800 IEMs could answer a question (none of these "I got a deal and they sound good so you're all suckers" people). What happens when you close the top vent of your IEM and leave the bottom open? And what happens when you close the bottom vent and leave the top open?

 

[les_garten]

I got the cable with the remote and am happy. The IE800 is one of my favorite overall headphones, up there with the HE-1000 for me.

Now, if any unbiased owner of fake IE800 IEMs could answer a question (none of these "I got a deal and they sound good so you're all suckers" people). What happens when you close the top vent of your IEM and leave the bottom open? And what happens when you close the bottom vent and leave the top open?

What's supposed to happen?

 

[Rob80b]

.......
Now, if any unbiased owner of fake IE800 IEMs could answer a question (none of these "I got a deal and they sound good so you're all suckers" people). What happens when you close the top vent of your IEM and leave the bottom open? And what happens when you close the bottom vent and leave the top open?

Not an exact comparison but this thread might be be enlightening. : )
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sennheiser-ie800-iems-modding-issues.812757/

hmm. I noticed that with the top bass port, i could go in like 3-4 mm (and I could have gone in more but I stopped because I didn't want to risk even getting close to the driver) but with the bottom bass port I could only go in 3mm or so before I hit something hard. So they could be for different functions. Also, "unclogging" the bottom ports has no effect because if I put my finger over them the sound doesnt' change.

What's interesting is that if I use a little tissue paper, half-clogging the top port, it reduces the bass a little, but not as much as putting my fingers over the top bass ports.

I'm glad I figured that out though, because I had zero absolutely zero evidence of a fake and I didn't want to accuse the seller baselessly. There's no way someone in this thread isn't suffering low bass due to clogged bass ports.

edited to give exact measurements of how far I went in

 

[thefitz]

What's supposed to happen?

If you cover the bottom port an leave the top open, not a whole lot happens. Maybe you loose a bit of sub bass extension. If you cover the top port and leave the bottom port open, everything under 100Hz completely disappears. Closing both is the same as closing just the top. I bet the fakes don't do that.

 

[Rob80b]

If you cover the bottom port an leave the top open, not a whole lot happens. Maybe you loose a bit of sub bass extension. If you cover the top port and leave the bottom port open, everything under 100Hz completely disappears. Closing both is the same as closing just the top. I bet the fakes don't do that.

Sounds about right..as for the fakes...it's been about a year since I passed on my "copies" to my bro after getting a legit pair but I seem to remember them behaving the same way as their sound was very close to the originals...I'll need to ask and get back.

 

[csglinux]

Just for fun, I recently picked up a couple of pairs of "IE800" IEMs that I knew would be a bit sketchy...

To be fair, the **** IEMs didn't claim to be IE800s, and they don't try all that hard to copy the originals. They come with a mic (could be handy?) and also take standard tips like SpinFit (could also be handy?). They cost me $8 including shipping:

The pair that bothers me is the fake IE800 that tries really hard to pretend to be the real thing. These cost me $23, including shipping, and if you didn't have the genuine article to compare against, well, they're fairly convincing copies:

As has been noted in some previous posts, the fake copies have cables that are a brighter shade of green and you can see the seams on the eartips. Also, the eartips didn't fit tightly on these fakes. This turned out to be due to the eartips - the buds themselves are rather convincing. They look almost identical:

The packaging is almost identical:

The biggest clue here was the smell of the case. The real one smells like leather - the fake has a nasty, plastic/chemical smell This particular box came with a serial number, but no hologram:

Another give-away that others have noted is the reversed Sennheiser logo on the plug and y-split (apologies for my lack of photography skills):

Apart from the logo and some visible seems in the plastic molding - this one does have the little gap in the connector, just like the original.

Anyway, here was the real purpose of this little investigation. I wanted to know how good the fakes sounded:

To be honest, all these IEMs are a little peaky in the treble But the original IE800 at least pushes that peak out to above 10 kHz. The **** don't seem too offensive on first listen, but that 8 kHz peak gets pretty strident after a while. The fake IE800s are just awful, with a large peak around 6 kHz - and I'm being kind to them here, because the tips they came with were so loose I couldn't get a seal in my coupler, so the fake IE800 IEMs were measured here with genuine IE800 tips - otherwise things would have been worse still.

In conclusion - these fakes are junk. They're not even worth the postage. If anybody out there disagrees and is willing to send me the postage cost via PayPal, just send me a pm and I'll happily send you a pair of fake IEMs for free