I had the 846, sold it. I tried all three filters, removed the padding from them, even went filterless. Went to the silicon custom made in-ear Sensaphonics. They have great bass and mid texture but I could never get the upper end I wanted. I bought the Angies (1) and found them much more to my liking. Now it also matters what DAP you use, and the type of cable you run (I listen in balanced mode), but I really prefer the Angie. It's just a matter of personal taste, though.
I saw your previous posts. You seem to favor bright signatures, a grainier treble, probably what some listeners would consider sibilant. I bet you'd really like the MDR-CD3000 if you haven't heard them yet.
I tend to share that preference, however a lush meaty midrange is also nice, and the tricky part is combining both, especially with high quality/quantity bass. The 846 does perform quite well in bass and mids, but it's just not ridiculously wide/holographic or sharp/bright on the treble as I would prefer (pretty much a meaty Z1R combined with a bright open HD800, which is most likely impossible with IEMs).
The Angie are pretty huge, but the sit comfortably in ear once you get a good tip fit. I'm using small comply comforts. They aren't discrete due to their size but they look great and sound amazing. I love the bass control - running around 60% at 1 to 2 o'clock. They seem to work well with the Dragonfly Red.
I think I could manage in terms of design. They are huge indeed, but the cable is what annoys me most in many IEMs. In the 846 it annoys me a lot. Very annoying rigid guides which are useless for people that are not moving around like performers or athletes. They slow down setup/insertion a lot. Can't imagine the Angies being any worse overall.
I've got elephant ears so the Angie (1) never bothered me for comfort. They also sit deep in my ears. I love the sound of them! Slightly mid forward compared to the Layla's slightly recessed mids from what I noted when I tried the Layla in comparison.
Don't forget about the adjustable bass attenuators which allows you to tune the Angie with quite a range from more analytical to more bass heavy. Maybe not as bass heavy as the Roxanne or Layla but the range is very usable. I chose the Angie over the SE846 for my tastes.
Yes, the bass... potenciometer-thingy leaves me curious. It seems like a great implementation, reminds me of the IE80, but changing bass also impacts the mids and treble, so there is always a price to pay. It is a plus that at least it can be tweaked.
I just changed the 846 to the brighter filter (white) and have to admit that it did improve a lot. Still far from treble-heavy (I can see why
@olddude didn't find it enough and even tried removing the filters completely) but there was an improvement, also sub-bass seems a tighter and less overwhelming in some tracks... less fatigue.
I'd like to hear the Angies but it sounds like a close 1:1. I don't think I can get them with a safe return window (Amazon,EU) so it might not be worth the risk. Very curious about the Layla too. That's a price tag that has to be matched by a lot of performance.
