[Jermo K]

I've been enjoying following the three active threads on the IE 900, and haven't had much to add to the discourse. Thought I'd just drop a note of appreciation for the engagement across the product and engineering teams with the community. I'm a long-time Sennheiser fan that started in 1996 with my first hi-fi purchase—the HD580's (which I still have). Between that and the HD600's, they've been my dailies for the decades past. I've tried so many Summit-Fi products, but keep coming back to the HD600's as my go-to.

I'm very much looking forward to the delivery of the IE 900!

Thanks for the brilliance over the years! Looking forward to the Sennheiser team's work for the years to come!

Thanks a lot! The HD 600 really is an unmatched milestone and one of my most used headphones. But we're working hard to do even better, and there's so much untapped potential.

 

[Jermo K]

Hi Jermo, I just wanted to thank you and the team at Sennheiser directly for creating this masterpiece of engineering. I am completely blown away with not only how amazing they sound, which as rendered all my other headphones obsolete btw, but also how ergonomic they are. The comfort is next level. I can really appreciate how you’ve thought of everything to make these the best they can possibly be.
it’s a remarkable achievement and I’m very much enjoying the end result, and I know I will for years to come.
Thanks again, I wish you well and look forward to seeing what you create in the future.
Regards, James.

Hi James, thanks so much! I usually have fit problems with in-ears, so comfort was one of the main focus areas of the team. Even though the sound is our main priority, I'm happiest about how the IE 900 practically disappears in my ears. I hope you have a great time listening to your music!

 

[pietcux]

Would the HD560S driver fit into my Game One headset an create similar good results?

 

[Jermo K]

Would the HD560S driver fit into my Game One headset an create similar good results?

They would fit. Our 500 and 600 series headphones have the same chassis size, so you can freely exchange transducers (which is brilliant for tinkering at home ). A caveat is that the HD 600 and 650 have the transducer chassis combined with the connectors, so there's much more effort.

How would it sound? I have no idea, I'm not intimately familiar with the gaming headsets. But since they're based around our 500 series acoustics, it should be acceptable

 

[pietcux]

I will try that out if the drivers are available as spare parts. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Spektrograf]

Thanks a lot! The HD 600 really is an unmatched milestone and one of my most used headphones. But we're working hard to do even better, and there's so much untapped potential.

I'm excited about things to come from you and the Sennheiser team!

One thing I count on Sennheiser to always get right is coherency and tambre. You guys really out did yourselves with the IE 900. They're a lot of fun, while being extremely comfortable—and the word that keeps popping into mind is complete coherency and low distortion. I've found that I can accidentally find myself listening at louder volume levels than I regularly would because they maintain that lack of distortion into high SPL's, so I consciously need to fight the desire to turn it up and leave it up.

 

[nicnac2212]

Thank for your reply Jermo,I higly appreciate what sennheiser do and yourself as a world class acoustic engineer and am greatly hoping to see the brand put back single dynamic driver back to the top of the driver technology. As I personally belief a well developed single dynamic driver with its coherency is better than having multiple BA drivers in an iem. Once again I thank-you for your reply and expertise on transducers. But did have my final two questions how long did it take to create the ie900 such as RnD and overall time period and how does that compare to something like creating the hd560s in regards to time. What was the greatest hurdle when creating the ie900 eg the fit the transducer, cables etc.

 

[yaluen]

Hi Jermo, you've touched on the topic of the X3R briefly and I'm wondering if you're able to go into more technical detail about it? As far as I'm aware, our understanding of the purpose of the resonators in the IE800 was to implement a notch filter centered at 7.5kHz to address the ear canal resonance there for shallow insert earphones (http://rinchoi.blogspot.com/2013/03/sennheiser-ie800.html). Is it fair to say that's accurate? Now in the IE900, that we have an additional resonator suggests to me there's more going on this time around. Separately, I wonder did the design parameters change much with the new driver/nozzle/housing? It'd be interesting to know the design objectives for the X3R and how each resonator fits into how the system tunes the response. Maybe also some technical insights into these three screenshots from the interactive graphic on the IE900 product page. I feel like each of these could use some captions on the page itself. Thanks for your intriguing answers to all the questions here so far

 

[Jermo K]

Thank for your reply Jermo,I higly appreciate what sennheiser do and yourself as a world class acoustic engineer and am greatly hoping to see the brand put back single dynamic driver back to the top of the driver technology. As I personally belief a well developed single dynamic driver with its coherency is better than having multiple BA drivers in an iem. Once again I thank-you for your reply and expertise on transducers. But did have my final two questions how long did it take to create the ie900 such as RnD and overall time period and how does that compare to something like creating the hd560s in regards to time. What was the greatest hurdle when creating the ie900 eg the fit the transducer, cables etc.

To your question on a source of education: The Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook by John Borwick is a tremendous resource, but it requires a strong engineering background to appreciate.

 

[Jermo K]

Hi Jermo, you've touched on the topic of the X3R briefly and I'm wondering if you're able to go into more technical detail about it? As far as I'm aware, our understanding of the purpose of the resonators in the IE800 was to implement a notch filter centered at 7.5kHz to address the ear canal resonance there for shallow insert earphones (http://rinchoi.blogspot.com/2013/03/sennheiser-ie800.html). Is it fair to say that's accurate? Now in the IE900, that we have an additional resonator suggests to me there's more going on this time around. Separately, I wonder did the design parameters change much with the new driver/nozzle/housing? It'd be interesting to know the design objectives for the X3R and how each resonator fits into how the system tunes the response. Maybe also some technical insights into these three screenshots from the interactive graphic on the IE900 product page. I feel like each of these could use some captions on the page itself. Thanks for your intriguing answers to all the questions here so far

Hi yaluen,
Thanks for your in-depth questions. I'd be much happier for one of the acoustic engineers to go into detail, but at some point you go into very valuable knowledge. Your first assessment of the IE 800 technology is nearly accurate. The effect is actually worse and harder to account for the deeper the earphone sits because the relative variance of the volume and distance between the transducer diaphragm and eardrum increases.
For the IE 900, the design parameters changed significantly. Major reasons are the deeper insertion (on average) as well as the metal housing. Metal absorbs less acoustic energy than the previously used plastic in the IE 800, so overall we have more treble energy. Deeper insertion also helps us to achieve more brilliance above 10 kHz. The benefit of using milling for the resonator chambers is precision, consistency and a lot of flexibility during development. We evaluated the best effect by ear and sorted through roughly 50 iterations to find the best dimensions for the resonator chambers. Incidentally, the result also looks great on most measurement systems (good for our ears and the measurement systems ). Regarding your screenshots: The first picture is the smallest chamber and is targeted at 10 kHz, the second chamber is slightly deeper and targets 9 kHz, and the largest chamber targets the ear canal resonance which usually sits at 6200 Hz for this acoustic system. It's a lot of fun playing around on the website with the different combinations to see the interaction.
It's a lot of fine-tuning because the chambers can have some impact beyond their target frequency because they change the volume of the pressure chamber. The final puzzle piece of the X3R system is the vortex shape in the middle, which introduces friction and reduces peak energy by 1-2 dB independent of frequency. Foams for example can also reduce treble energy, but they vary more from unit to unit and may also age. Overall the X3R system is a solution that is incredibly consistent and follows our goal for the highest possible quality. Whenever you listen to an IE 900, you'll have perfect channel balance and a super similar sound to every other IE 900.
I hope this answers some of your questions!

 

[yaluen]

Haaha, your initial point is well taken, and to be honest I half expected my question to remain unanswered because I thought you might run into disclosure issues. Thanks for going the extra mile to provide a thorough response

 

[nicnac2212]

Srsly I personally think sennheiser from an engineering and product point of view has struck gold with the ie900 for the audiophile community but I still have a few questions about the choice of cables as I have heard they are pretty microphonic and to honest my first love was the ie800 which I had to sell due to the kevlar cable and the brittle treble and a little floaty mids but probabaly had the best bass I had ever heard. So why does the ie900 use a microphonic cable again and also do you think that future models may use ceramic or other materials as aluminium is still pretty soft unless your using an alloy. Btw i am planning to buy a ie300, ie800s as I think I will keep one at home and other for outdoor use. Thanks again for your hard work and your dedication to dynamic drivers and the audiophile community. My fav headphone is still the hd600.

 

[Evshrug]

Hey @nicnac2212,
I’m going to take a turn to answer your questions, because right now it’s Jermo’s turn to take a nice vacation break and enjoy some work/life balance.

Product design is all about trade-offs between different factors, and there’s an art of picking the best balance that is believed will suit the product and it’s customers the best. Most people buy a headphone/in-ear package and then that is it: most don’t buy extra cables. At the same time, in-ears are often used on-the-go and see a lot of stress and wear from travel, tangling up and stuffing into small spaces (hopefully inside the case ), exposure to sunlight and catching on objects, and the cable is the most common point of failure. Therefore, a durable cable helps the product last longer.

That is why the IE 900 (and IE 300) cable uses a para-aramid weave and carefully considered polymers in its outer casing. True, it isn’t the least microphonic or most supple cable on the market, but it’s less microphonic and less likely to grab and have friction against clothing than a cloth-weave wrapped cable or a rubber cable. The cable is also resistant to “work” done on the wire, meaning that the whole sleeve is like a strain relief and it’s harder to put permanent kinks into the wire. It also will not oxidize, yellow, or stiffen much with age, and it will remain largely like new 5, 7, or 10 years into the future.

It’s true that there are many casing options for in-ear shells, and Sennheiser went with an aluminum alloy for the IE 900. Since many tuning elements such as the 3XR and acoustic vortex need to be manufactured to very precise sizes, and the acoustics would benefit from a high stiffness and low resonance, aluminum was selected. Every element of the IE 900 was carefully considered and is part of the “secret sauce” for tuning the final sound.

Of course, Jermo may want to add more points when he gets back, but I wanted you to have an answer quick and I myself had asked these same questions!

 

[nicnac2212]

Hey there Evshrug thank-you for answering that I appreciate you chiming in and yea I still think the direction that sennheiser has taken recently from purely an iem engineering standpoint is fantastic and the result of which is evident in how they sound . This thread has taught me so much and is very informative thanks once again

 

[Evshrug]

Does Sennheiser have any future plans to release a third IEM model that is priced in-between the IE 300 and IE 900?

I would love to see a model that uses the same driver and tuning as the IE 900, but made with more economic materials like the IE 300.