[Deezel177]

great! I look forward to your write-up. my first taste of the laylas have left me entranced. I don't know what it was about them but I clicked with them immediately. What's a good place to find a pair of used or new AK Laylas? I'm not buying until summer next year, and I'm worried they might "run out" per se

Well, I bought mine off of Carousell - Singapore’s no.1 go-to for used audiophile gear. But if you’re nowhere near Singapore, you could probably check out Head-Fi’s classifieds.

 

[deafdoorknob]

been too busy at work to go iem auditioning lately, but a friend of mine heeded to my recommendation to audition the phantom, but he ended up getting the shure se846 instead, saying that it gets 90% of what phantom does at 45% of the price... i just realised i have never auditioned the se846 myself, now i my interest is piqued...

 

[491326]

Well, I bought mine off of Carousell - Singapore’s no.1 go-to for used audiophile gear. But if you’re nowhere near Singapore, you could probably check out Head-Fi’s classifieds.

Does Carousel ship to other parts of Asia?

been too busy at work to go iem auditioning lately, but a friend of mine heeded to my recommendation to audition the phantom, but he ended up getting the shure se846 instead, saying that it gets 90% of what phantom does at 45% of the price... i just realised i have never auditioned the se846 myself, now i my interest is piqued...

it's not that great tbh... either that or all the demos I've heard are broken.

 

[Raketen]

been too busy at work to go iem auditioning lately, but a friend of mine heeded to my recommendation to audition the phantom, but he ended up getting the shure se846 instead, saying that it gets 90% of what phantom does at 45% of the price... i just realised i have never auditioned the se846 myself, now i my interest is piqued...

Me either...Nathan/shigzeo's farewell post at Headfonia mentioned se846 as his favorite (or 'most impressive'?) of the IEMs he'd reviewed there, in spite of it not being his preferred signature- always assumed it was too warm for me as well, but now I'm kind of curious- also, have lately learned to appreciate some warmer signatures, maybe I am ready to try it.

 

[Deezel177]

Does Carousel ship to other parts of Asia?

it's not that great tbh... either that or all the demos I've heard are broken.

Carousell is nowhere near as large as eBay or Amazon. It's essentially a platform/community where buyers and sellers can meet, rather than a full-fledged service with shipping and payment policies and what-not. So, whether or not the item can be shipped out is fully dependent on the seller.

 

[deafdoorknob]

Me either...Nathan/shigzeo's farewell post at Headfonia mentioned se846 as his favorite (or 'most impressive'?) of the IEMs he'd reviewed there, in spite of it not being his preferred signature- always assumed it was too warm for me as well, but now I'm kind of curious- also, have lately learned to appreciate some warmer signatures, maybe I am ready to try it.

now’s a good a time as any, at least for those living in HK, as they are marked down from 7.8k hkd to around 5.5k.

 

[Mimouille]

I think the 846 is special. I owned it for a while and sold it. I really love the bass, the tone and the ergonomics. Nonetheless, whatever you do in terms of cable, filter, source, etc. the treble remains claustrophobic. Just no air. If they put out a 846 v2 with the S-EM9 treble for instance it would be awesome.

 

[davidmolliere]

it's not that great tbh... either that or all the demos I've heard are broken.

It’s been a good while but I owned them for a year and a half, it was actually my first 1K IEM

Take that with a grain of salt as it’s far away in the past but I’d say the SE846 is quite darker than the Phantom in fact I ended up using the white filter (with more treble) all the time with it and I am not a treble head... Overall from memory the SE846 is nowhere near in terms of clarity, bass is probably the area where they are the most similar but you don’t have a boost in the upper mids like the Phantom so it’s much less articulate. I recall more lower mids as well or maybe that’s because of the upper mids dip... Still maybe with my current sources the SE846 would do better at the time I had a ZX2.

 

[491326]

It’s been a good while but I owned them for a year and a half, it was actually my first 1K IEM

Take that with a grain of salt as it’s far away in the past but I’d say the SE846 is quite darker than the Phantom in fact I ended up using the white filter (with more treble) all the time with it and I am not a treble head... Overall from memory the SE846 is nowhere near in terms of clarity, bass is probably the area where they are the most similar but you don’t have a boost in the upper mids like the Phantom so it’s much less articulate. I recall more lower mids as well or maybe that’s because of the upper mids dip... Still maybe with my current sources the SE846 would do better at the time I had a ZX2.

I've never heard the phantoms but my impression of the se846 sounds similar to your description. It was too dark without the resolution to compensate. I heard it again on Monday and thought "where'd all the details go?" It sounded amazing the first time I heard it a few years back but the deeper I went into audio, the more it became just okay. I guess there's just been so much improvement in the iem world since its release

 

[subguy812]

I never "got" the sound of the SE846. I really wanted to like it. It was at a time where I was buying a lot and spending a ton of money. When I purchased it I was super excited but the SE846 holds the distinction of being the IEM I sold or returned the fastest. Some of the others I was using at that time were Nuforce Primo 8, Fidue A83, JVC HA-FX850, Earsonics Velvet Black and Astell & Kern Layla. The Velvet received the most head time. I really liked where EarSonics was going with their sound at that time. I was also disappointed with the Layla, another one I truly wanted to love, the one to stop my buying spree. The huge size and fit killed that one for me because I could rarely achieve a good seal, not to mention I fiddled with them constantly in my ears. I think a large part of me messing with them was the cable locking design. When I did get a good seal the Layla di sound incredible.

 

[Toom]

I have the se846 and love them. No issue whatsoever with their treble.

 

[papa_mia]

I have the se846 and love them. No issue whatsoever with their treble.

Cool, but you can't have an issue with something that isn't there.

 

[Mikey99]

I used to quite like the SE846s. I went back to listening to them after leaving them aside for a while. I have to say they now sound terrible to me. Thin and lifeless is the best way to describe it. I actually thought there was something wrong with them, but I listened to another pair and it was the same. My tastes have clearly evolved.

I therefore went IEM shopping as I needed them for office and travel. For IEMs I now listen to the LCDi4 for the office, and Inear SD5 when I need isolation. Both far more satisfying to me than the SE846.

 

[bobeau]

I therefore went IEM shopping as I needed them for office and travel. For IEMs I now listen to the LCDi4 for the office, and Inear SD5 when I need isolation. Both far more satisfying to me than the SE846.

Keeping to the Shure fam, have you listened to the KSE1200? Same fidelity class as the LCDi4, isolates to a very high degree (so high that I sometimes opt to not where them if co-workers that sit nearby might need to get my attention), don't have to be concerned about amping needs, and here in the US I was able to pick up an open-box/like new unit for $1500 from an authorized retailer...

I've been in the head-fi game since 2003. Best damn purchase I've made in audio.

 

[Mikey99]

Keeping to the Shure fam, have you listened to the KSE1200? Same fidelity class as the LCDi4, isolates to a very high degree (so high that I sometimes opt to not where them if co-workers that sit nearby might need to get my attention), don't have to be concerned about amping needs, and here in the US I was able to pick up an open-box/like new unit for $1500 from an authorized retailer...

I've been in the head-fi game since 2003. Best damn purchase I've made in audio.

I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to them as there was not a retailer nearby. I did hear them briefly a year back but it was not the best setting. I would have loved to give them a full audition as by all accounts they are amongst the best IEMs.

I am quite happy with the LCDi4, a big part of this is that they are open, plus I like the planar magnetic sound. I had the same issue as you in the office — the LCDi4 addresses this, plus sound leakage is minuscule so they don’t do disturb office mates.