[david8090]

/edit: check my last post for a SE535 vs. SE846 "comparison"
 
Hi all,
 
It's been a very very sad day. I've lost my Shure SE535 which I really loved. I had them for almost 2 years and used them everyday since I'm in public transport almost every day.
 
I've always regret a tiny bit that I didn't go for the SE846 right away even though I never heard them -reviews say they are fantastic and a huge step up from the SE535 in terms of overal audio quality and especially much better bass/lows)
 
Anyway, it's not that I am looking for comparisons with other options than the SE846 (like the Westone W6) as I really like Shure and their reliability and build quality. So unless there's something waayyy better for the same bucks... 
 
- Do you guys think it's worth more than 2 times the price of the 535?
- Are the 846 still worth the buck or is there a new serie to be released soon?
- I'll be using them on my iPhone 6 without any AMP! 
 
Thanks in advance 

 

[natalieann]

Worth twice the price? No
Worth as an upgrade? Maybe-The bass and mids are incredible
They are fine without an amp

 

[david8090]

  Worth twice the price? No
Worth as an upgrade? Maybe-The bass and mids are incredible
They are fine without an amp

Worth the price.. well that's definitely NO for me as well. Still there are enough crazy ones who spend such amount of dough on earphones.
 
But would I be disappointed because the difference is maybe almost not noticeable? 
 
I've always found the base a little bit artificial and thin on the 535. Tweaking the EQ does however a great job.
 
Mainly listening to:
 
*Queen
* Pink Floyd
* Rolling Stones
* Guns N Roses
* Led Zeppelin
* The Police / Sting
* Modern stuff; Black Keys/Imagine Dragons/Coldplay/The Killers
* classic rock in general
* lots of classical music when I am stressed 
* vocals 
 
Well you get it... 

 

[Army-Firedawg]

From personal experience listening to a lot of elite tier IEM the 846 are by far the best I've heard BY FAR.
 
The W60s are fun to listen to but not smooth at all like shure. The mids are hyper aggressive as is the bass, the treble is pretty nice though from what I remember. 
 
The HK 3003is are wonderful in terms of build quality and being metal they stay very cool in your ear (temp wise) and sre similar to the shures in terms of silky smooth audio and interchangeable filters BUT they are not worth the 1-300 more price point (I personally think they should be priced at around 800 with 1k being MAX
 
I've been hearing exceptionally good things about Earwerkz and am looking into a pair of customs myself from them but I can't give any personal bias towards them just yet other than good feedback
 
As for reasons to not to buy one umm, you can't afford them. Cause honestly if you can they are worth it in every degree I can think of
 
Edit after reading your last post:
 
The bass is a LOT better on the 846 but if you're wanting more warmth and a little easier on the wallet look into the Sennheiser IE800

 

[david8090]

  From personal experience listening to a lot of elite tier IEM the 846 are by far the best I've heard BY FAR.
 
The W60s are fun to listen to but not smooth at all like shure. The mids are hyper aggressive as is the bass, the treble is pretty nice though from what I remember. 
 
The HK 3003is are wonderful in terms of build quality and being metal they stay very cool in your ear (temp wise) and sre similar to the shures in terms of silky smooth audio and interchangeable filters BUT they are not worth the 1-300 more price point (I personally think they should be priced at around 800 with 1k being MAX
 
I've been hearing exceptionally good things about Earwerkz and am looking into a pair of customs myself from them but I can't give any personal bias towards them just yet other than good feedback
 
As for reasons to not to buy one umm, you can't afford them. Cause honestly if you can they are worth it in every degree I can think of
 
Edit after reading your last post:
 
The bass is a LOT better on the 846 but if you're wanting more warmth and a little easier on the wallet look into the Sennheiser IE800

Mate thanks for your opinion. I am glad you think they are one of the best you've ever heard. So expectation are high now. Too bad I can't do a comparison between 535 and 846 but I will definitely give my 2 cents once I got them (I think they'll be in the mail tomorrow)
 
Now let's continue crying over my lost pair of 535...... (someone is really happy) 

 

[Army-Firedawg]

 
Mate thanks for your opinion. I am glad you think they are one of the best you've ever heard. So expectation are high now. Too bad I can't do a comparison between 535 and 846 but I will definitely give my 2 cents once I got them (I think they'll be in the mail tomorrow)
 
Now let's continue crying over my lost pair of 535...... (someone is really happy) 

 
No i've no reservation about recommending them and me loosing my westone 4r was equally as smarting (cost me a pretty penny as well) but depending on who you purchased from they should offer you a return if for some reason you don't like them (which I highly doubt). Also if you want heavier bass than you WILL get on the 846 then put on the black (warm) filter and it'll half rattle your teeth. I like the neutral/reference (blue) filter myself. But I'm stoked for you to get them in for you lemme know your impressions of them!

 

[david8090]

   
No i've no reservation about recommending them and me loosing my westone 4r was equally as smarting (cost me a pretty penny as well) but depending on who you purchased from they should offer you a return if for some reason you don't like them (which I highly doubt). Also if you want heavier bass than you WILL get on the 846 then put on the black (warm) filter and it'll half rattle your teeth. I like the neutral/reference (blue) filter myself. But I'm stoked for you to get them in for you lemme know your impressions of them!

 
Thanks bud. I will let you know as soon as I got them in the mail. 

 

[Chodi]

   
Thanks bud. I will let you know as soon as I got them in the mail​

The 846 scale very well with a better source. If you ever plan to upgrade to a quality dap you will be amazed at what the 846 can do. Enjoy your new purchase!

 

[ForceMajeure]

I would think twice before using the 846 with an iphone 6 because of the impedances...
 
Long story short the iphone6 have a 2.3ohm output impedance, the shure846 have a 9ohm impedance.
There is a rule of thumb called the "1/8 damping factor". If you want an headphone frequency response to NOT be affected (especially balanced armature) you need the output impedance of your source to be at least 8 times smaller than the impedance of your headphone.
 
8x2.3 > 9 so it's a no go. 
 
the Shure 535 have an impedance of 36ohm, 8X2.3 < 36 so it's ok.
 
Buy the way the iphone6 + has a 3.2 output impedance so it's even worse...
 
Now, I haven't heard the combination above and I cannot say how they sound together, sometimes there's some kind of rare "synergy"  that can occur and might make some kind of magical combination but it's fairly rare, most of the time it affect it for the worse.
 
You could ask in the shure's impression thread maybe someone there know how they sound together.
 
also more on the Damping Factor here
http://nwavguy.blogspot.co.il/2011/02/headphone-amp-impedance.html

 

[david8090]

@ForceMajeure Thanks I will dig into this matter 
 
My frist opinion about the SE846
 
* it's not worth 2 times the price 
* there's definitely a noticeable in difference in SQ compared to SE535
* Lows are great, bass is better 
 
However I find there's a lot of going on inside my ears LOL. That's probably a positive thing.
 
SE535 seemed to have more vocal quality. It's kind of brighter on the mids and on first judgement the 535's are better on that part. 
 
I installed the white filters which brought back the familiar soundstage from the SE535. I think with the white filters it's a great in-between.
 
Well overall they are def better than the SE535, but just a little different. Some songs don't need the amount of bass the 846's give IMO. 
 
But I my SE535's were 1,5 years old and they were pretty burned in 

 

[cuiter23]

quite a misleading title, I thought you were gonna bash on them lol

 

[griff609]

I actually just lost my SE846's, I had them on a silver dragon cable. I'm crushed as my wife bought them for me as a gift. I'm looking for a replacement now, but I'm questioning wether I should do the reverse and go for a cheaper pair. I really loved the sound of the se846's but I can't buy them again. I have to either get something better or something more economical in case I lose them again. Not sure my post helped but I feel your pain.

 

[david8090]

Mates.
 
First let me tell you that I love the 846 a lot. There are a few things I want to share with you:
 
* the bass is indeed from a whole other level. It's very prominent and sometimes overpowered. Yet in vocal songs it's extremely hot and smooth. When you're listening to rock music or pop music, you will get tired ears after a while. Ears really get tired of all the lows after a while! 
 
* Mids. Mids. Mids. Just Mids.
 
*  Balance is just phenomenal. Yet there are songs that simply aren't mastered good enough and these will have annoying and slightly humming lows.
 
There are a few songs that sound so extremely good, for example London Grammar - Strong /  Frank Sinatra - Fly me to the moon
 
But also some heavy rock like: Dream Theater - Home 
 
Now I just got a phone call from my dad... He has found my SE535's!!!!!!11 in his suitcase.. They must have fallen into his suitcase when he was at my house for some odd reason. Anyway.. Once I get home I am going to do an extensive comparison between these 2 IEM's and will give you guys the verdict if it's worth 2 times+ the price of the great SE535's. Maybe my 535's will sound rubbish now? lol 

 

[Chodi]

  Mates.
 
First let me tell you that I love the 846 a lot. There are a few things I want to share with you:
 
* the bass is indeed from a whole other level. It's very prominent and sometimes overpowered. Yet in vocal songs it's extremely hot and smooth. When you're listening to rock music or pop music, you will get tired ears after a while. Ears really get tired of all the lows after a while! 
 
* Mids. Mids. Mids. Just Mids.
 
*  Balance is just phenomenal. Yet there are songs that simply aren't mastered good enough and these will have annoying and slightly humming lows.
 
There are a few songs that sound so extremely good, for example London Grammar - Strong /  Frank Sinatra - Fly me to the moon
 
But also some heavy rock like: Dream Theater - Home 
 
Now I just got a phone call from my dad... He has found my SE535's!!!!!!11 in his suitcase.. They must have fallen into his suitcase when he was at my house for some odd reason. Anyway.. Once I get home I am going to do an extensive comparison between these 2 IEM's and will give you guys the verdict if it's worth 2 times+ the price of the great SE535's. Maybe my 535's will sound rubbish now? ​

I've seen a lot of comments about the 846 and I have no doubt they are all true for those making the comments. The thing with the 8's is that they are extremely dependent on the source and your choice of ear tips. More so than any other iem I own or have tried. They scale very well and when you get them on the right source with good recordings they can sound amazing. In my opinion choosing the source dac/amp or dap will make the difference between some very nice iem's and some amazing iem's. In spite of comments to the contrary using a source with an output impedance under 1 ohm will improve your chances of really hearing what these can do.

 

[Army-Firedawg]

  I've seen a lot of comments about the 846 and I have no doubt they are all true for those making the comments. The thing with the 8's is that they are extremely dependent on the source and your choice of ear tips. More so than any other iem I own or have tried. They scale very well and when you get them on the right source with good recordings they can sound amazing. In my opinion choosing the source dac/amp or dap will make the difference between some very nice iem's and some amazing iem's. In spite of comments to the contrary using a source with an output impedance under 1 ohm will improve your chances of really hearing what these can do.

 
I couldn't have said this any better myself super +1 friend
 
But excited to hear your comparisons over your super burnt in 535 (I've extensivley listen to every shure model and have said my peace )