[dingrn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zalithian /img/forum/go_quote.gif Despite the fit issues I had with the IE8, they were still definitely my favorite of the IEMs I have owned.

Glad to hear that. Just pulled the trigger on IE8 yesterday. Cannot wait to hear this IEM.

 

[lucozade]

After the ie7s i became curious about the ie8s so i got these next

i have a love hate relationship with these ,sometimes i love them ,some times i hate them.
I do find the sennheiser ie8 the most demanding of all my iems in terms of the bite rate of the music i play on them and the player used and these really do need a decent amp to really shine .
My main source i use with my iems are my 3 ipod classic 160 gb ,7th gen (hey they are all full up with my music collection in apple lossless code) but im finding that the low volume output of these just isnt capable of driving these properly, they just sound week and under powered ,with no real shape or form to the sound so if enyone has eny sugestions on a portable amp that would go well with this combination? i would be very gratfull.
They do sound quite good with my older 80g ipod video which has a more powerfull internal amp
they sound awsum when i hook them up to my home poineer av amp and play music dvds in stereo headphone mode or dvd films with the amps surround sound phones setting, they really do KICK ASS then.

The ie8s come in the same quality box as the ie7s and come with the same ear tips ,carry case etc plus a screw driver device for tuning the bass nobs

BURN IN

out of the box thes sounded muddy and rather flat but around the 60 hr mark they came to life and just got better every hour i use them , i now have around 300 hrs on these ,i don think they are still improving ,but who knows

FIT & ISOLATION

Again these are on a par with the ie7s, they have the same tips and same short sound tube that goes into your ears so are never going to win the prize on isolation and as to fit , Well these have a different shaped ear shell to the ie7s .the 8s was just torture for ear lobes for the first month or so that i had these, I read on here that soozieq had the same problem as me in this regard , it was so bad in my case that after wearing them for 5-6hrs a day for a couple of days in a row my right ear lobe would get so painfull and sore that eventually a scab would form,Enyway my ear lobes seem to have toughend up now and i can wear the 8s all day for days without pain now.

Now to how they sound

For this i will tell you how they sound when they are run off my home amp as i am not really hearing them at there best of my ipod, i really think i need to invest in a good portable amp for these.

BASS

I listen to these with the bass nob set to min for music and max when watching films, these really make dramatic, thunderous soundtracks sound fantasic
The bass to my ear has everything that the ie7s bass has but more somehow and it is a lot warmer sounding in the upper mid bass i would say !,the bass does not over power the other instrements in the mids which is nice ,but i do find on all my ipods the overly warm upper mid bass does some what colour the voices of most singers making them sound warmer and deeper than they should be

,but this does not seem to be the case when i play music dvds with there higher quality bit rates and the power of my main amp just seems to seperate eveything better and adds some much needed space

MIDS

The mids on the ie8s are a lot smoother sounding than the ie7s with the vocals not so forward in the mix ,the detail and the seperation of the other instrements is something to behold when you consider how much bass these put out agian piano and keyboards do sound very lush and forward on these ,maybe guitars dont have quite the bite as on the 7s

TREBBLE

Some people seem to find the trebble on these a bit rolled of or veiled ,i do find this the case when played on my ipods but not so when there hooked up to my home amp , i find them highly detailed and accurate, they still dont have quite the sparkle off the triples but its not far off.

SOUNDSTAGE

I was watching my eagles farewell concert dvd on these the other day and was totally blown away by the sonic perfomance off these, THEY REALLY ROCKED ,They are perfect for listening to live outdoor concerts or large indoor concerts
Again the soundstage is the ie8s most endearing feature , it is in deed massive , i would say its about the same as on the ie7 but it just seems bigger becouse the vocals are presented further back in the mix
When i play music concert dvds with these hooked up to my home rig OMG these babys really sing to me.

they sound much better than my full size sony mdr-3000s ,

 

[krismusic]

I'm very suprised that you have problems running these straight out of an iPod.
The only reason I use an amp is so that I can use a LOD.
I have read several times on here that IE8's do not need an amp to shine.
Another suprise is your preference with the bass setting. I find that all the bass knob does is extend the bass. Does not seem to me to affect the upper bass at all.

 

[lucozade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krismusic /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm very suprised that you have problems running these straight out of an iPod. The only reason I use an amp is so that I can use a LOD. I have read several times on here that IE8's do not need an amp to shine. Another suprise is your preference with the bass setting. I find that all the bass knob does is extend the bass. Does not seem to me to affect the upper bass at all.

hi krismusic ,
yes i agree with you about the bass nob,it does only extend the bass and not make eny difference to the mid bass ,i find the warm off the upper bass colours the vocals what ever setting its on, on the ipods enyway !
i see you have the graham slee voyager amp, how does this go with the ie8 and ipod classic 7th G ? this is one amp i was thinking about but was worried it might give the ie8 to much bass and make them even warmer sounding
thanks

 

[krismusic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucozade /img/forum/go_quote.gif hi krismusic , yes i agree with you about the bass nob,it does only extend the bass and not make eny difference to the mid bass ,i find the warm off the upper bass colours the vocals what ever setting its on, on the ipods enyway ! i see you have the graham slee voyager amp, how does this go with the ie8 and ipod classic 7th G ? this is one amp i was thinking about but was worried it might give the ie8 to much bass and make them even warmer sounding thanks

I agree about the colouration.
I bought the Voyager before the IE8's.
I would say you are right to be suspicious that it errs on the warm side and is not an ideal match for the 8's.
If I had my time again, from what I read the iBasso D10 is considered a good partner. There is also the oportunity to change the op amps to tailor the sound. Somewhere on here there is an interesting thread about matching to the IE8's.
Having said that, I really do like the Voyager. At the moment I am struggling to get correctly fitting custom sleeves for the 8's. Once I have done that I might look at another amp. Or I might just call it quits. My set up is pretty close to what I hoped for. Until the JH13's....

 

[ok1907]

May I ask how your ears adjusted so that you can wear them for long periods?

 

[lucozade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ok1907 /img/forum/go_quote.gif May I ask how your ears adjusted so that you can wear them for long periods?

hi ok1907

The problem wes only on my right earlobe ,where the ie8 housing sat on that ear lobe just was agony for a long while , maybe a month, i would have to stop wearing them for a few days untill they healed
I think it was just that the skin on my ear lobe just became that bit thicker each time it healed up, i just knew i had to persivere with them as i could tell these iems had alot of going for them and they was damed exspencive so i was'ntgoing to give up on them !

 

[lucozade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krismusic /img/forum/go_quote.gif I agree about the colouration. I bought the Voyager before the IE8's. I would say you are right to be suspicious that it errs on the warm side and is not an ideal match for the 8's. If I had my time again, from what I read the iBasso D10 is considered a good partner. There is also the oportunity to change the op amps to tailor the sound. Somewhere on here there is an interesting thread about matching to the IE8's. Having said that, I really do like the Voyager. At the moment I am struggling to get correctly fitting custom sleeves for the 8's. Once I have done that I might look at another amp. Or I might just call it quits. My set up is pretty close to what I hoped for. Until the JH13's....

umm thanks,i look into the ibasso d10 ,let me know how you get on with the custom sleeves , that maybe an option for me, And in the mean time i was wondering if it was worth getting the fiio e5 ?just to see if an amp would make eny difference to my portable rig untill i have the funds to get a proper portable amp, but im gessing the fiio e5 just would not have the guts to run the ie8s

 

[ok1907]

Thanks for the reply. Actually it hasn't been a long time since I had them and I had trouble with them for a few days but today they felt comfortable. I hope it gets better.

 

[ksu06]

great impressions so far lucozade, looking forward to the rest!

 

[lucozade]

So after a few weeks i was getting restless again so this time i decided on the shure se420

these come in a carboard box with a nice oval carry case and a assortment of silcon tips and black foamies and a cleaning tool , extention cable and stereo jack and i think there was an in lead volume control cable attachment

FIT and ISOLATION

I have found the 420s to be very comfortable to wear ,and i can wear these all day long if i wish,these iems have a long narrow sound tube that does go quite deep into the ear so they do take a while to get used to,both the right size silicon and foamies isolate very well indeed, very impressed with the isolation on these.I use the middle sicon tips

SOUND

BASS

I have found these to be quite bass shy compared to all my ofter iems ,thats not to say they dont have eny ,they do and what they have is very well defined and detailed, it just seems to be presented as an after thought to the rest of the sound signiture some what, it seems to be way back in the mix and could never be discribed as boomy or over powering, On the ofter hand when playing songs with a heavy bass and rythem section like the 70s blues/rock group FREE, the bass guitar and bass drums and other drums can be heard very clearly and i can pick out those individuale instrements very clearly

MIDS

The instrements in this section are again very distinct from one an other and all quit promminent and a bit to in your face maybe, piano and keyboards are prehaps so forward that they sound a little unatural to me .Vocals are way out there in front again making these iems a little unique to my ears,it does not help matters that the bass is way out to the rear of the soundstage .

TREBBLE

To me the 420s really do have that rolled of sure trebble that i read so much about, the good thing about this is there is no sibilance on these ,these are still quite detailed in most of the highs but they deffenatly lack some sparkle ,this is most noticable with symbals, they sound like metal dustbin lids being smashed together

soundstage

These iems have what to me seems a smaller soundstage than my other iems a bit like a triangle with the lead singer at the front and wth keyboards directly behind than the reast of the instrements forming the sides of the small triangle with bass and drums at the base of the triangle

So all in all an intresting effort from the people at shure ,but are there better iems out there YES I THINK SO, so my search continued.

 

[lucozade]

The custom 3 was the next iem that took my fancy,i had not heard of this make and i didnt know alot about them only what i read on here, they did seem to have a mixed review, it seamed to me they were either loved or hated, i decided to give them ago and this is my impressions of them.

They come in a cardbaord box which is enclosed in two seperate clear hard plastic coverings, even harder to get into then the sennheisers

,
Once unpacked i found they came with a selection of silicon tips ,a cleaning tool, stereo adaptor and a large carry case, large enough to fit all the tips,the phones themselfs and an ipod classic.
The custom 3 look very stylish to my eyes ,and have the memory wire at the top of the cord like the triples have. the cords are very thin and and semi striff ,wiregard with a woven cloth over the top.they are rapped up tight in the box so i spent some time massaging out the kinks and smoothing them out before i started use'ing them ,this also seamed to soften them up quite a bit,when used with my ipod which i keep in my pocket in a leather ipod case i run the lead up inside the case so that the wear the cord joins the L pug jack the cord remains in line and does not bend to a 90 degree angle, i read on here many people have had a problem with the cord failing here , but so far ive had no problems with the cord and have had them for 5 months now with hundreds of hours of use.

FIT & ISOLATION

These isolate very well, as good as my se420s although the silicom tips provided do take a while to get used to , they do make your ear drums itch like mad for many days untill you get used to them. These are not the easyist to fit into your ears and it does take some days to get it right, the sound tubes go into your ears very deep and these iems are very sensitive to where the tips are in your ears, if you can get them in just right they will reward you with some of the most glorious sounds you've ever heard in an iem

On a down side these do place a lot of pressure inside your ear cannel and therefore cannot be worn for morn than ,say 4 hours a day without becoming painfull.

Now to the sound

BASS

These are duel drivers and do have a very solid bass response, that to my ears can go as deep as the ie8 while having a more coherent controled feel to it,the details in the bass are also very good ,but maybe dont quite have the seperation of the se420 ,which is also a duel driver unit, but the bass is much more up front giving them a warmer feel than the 420s but no were near as warm as the ie8, Having said that the c 3s have a very good cross over for a duel armiture driver with such a powerfull bass ,this keeps the bass from over powering the mids or colouring the vocals in eny way, But how you hear the bass on these is really dependent on getting the right seal and the right size tip and placing them just at the right angle in your ear cannel,if you use a tip that is too big (like i did for the first week) the bass will sound very boomy and over powering.These are quite fiddly to get just right.

MIDS

The mids are very nice on these, nice and sharp but not agressive and highly detailed, guitars have plenty of bit to them ,brass instrements sound very good on these iems and keyboards sound more lifelike on these ,drums are great and vocals are the nearest to purfect that ive heard on iems.they seem to be in the front center of the stage not too far forward or too far back .ive heard very little sibilance on these.You can easily hear people in the ordience cough in live recordings and fingers moving across the strings of neil youngs guitar in live recordings on these little beauties, (just as you can on my triples and ie8)

TREBBLE

the trebble on these is very nice ,highly detailed and extends nicely somewhere in between the ie8s and the triple fi 10s i would say.

SOUNDSTAGE
Ive played my concert dvd of the eagles on these the same night as i did the ie8s, both on my home amp and dvd player and they both perfomed very well in terms of sound quality there was very little in it,VERY LITTLE,although the ie8s won on the soundstage front with their more open and exspancive sound staging
Its very nice on these ,very close to that of the triple fi i would say, i have no trouble in running these on my ipod 7th gen and these are a really musical set of iems,they do sound very ,very sweet to my ears , its a shame they do get uncomftable after 4 or 5 hrs use, i could have stoped my search here and been very happy, but this site kept tempting me to try the other top iems

ps: when i read on here that klipsch was discontining the custom line to make room for new things , i bought myself a secound back up pair of c-3s just in case the cord does fail in the future, they really are that good.

 

[lucozade]

I will be back tomorrow night with my reveiws for westone 3 and my shure se530 and a comparison compairing them all agaisnt each other.!

 

[silentmeloud]

Thaaanx! Was very interesting to hear some things about C-3 i'm interested in

 

[schneller]

Thanks for the reviews! Keep them coming!