[Anouk]

Thanks for the tip sceptre, i will most certainly ask them, the treble of the ie8 isnt as sparkly as I would like to begin with....
Greetings, Anouk,

 

[citro]

Mine only have a few hours of music on them...
I also have a pair of Shure se530's.
I'm waiting for these to "open up", and from what I've read, they'll do. Anyways, the thing with them is really the poor seal, compared to the Shure se530, for instance. As many have already stated, it is not a phone design thing, but a tip problem.
I tried to work things out with the tips I had lying around at home. I grabbed some triple flanges from the Shure's, cut the smallest one and came up with a double flange. The isolation is way much better now, almost as good as the Shure's, but the only problem I have now - and am thinking on how to solve it - is the opening of these tips being narrower than the Senn one's. This results in treble loss.

 

[ngwazi]

How do these compare to the shure scl4 or are they in a different league altogether?

 

[citro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ngwazi /img/forum/go_quote.gif How do these compare to the shure scl4 or are they in a different league altogether?

Well, I happen to have a set of E4C's also, which I believe are the same as the scl4. The EC4's are very honest, have a very clean sound, but they don't compare to the SE530's, they lack bass. Then... the SE530's also lack bass when compared to the IE8's. Though the IE8's have not yet ended its burn in period, they seem to impress more than the SE530's, though the 530's seem to have more detail on the mids.

 

[moseboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by citro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Then... the SE530's also lack bass when compared to the IE8's.

HAhahaha.... Yes
Quote:

Originally Posted by citro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Though the IE8's have not yet ended its burn in period, they seem to impress more than the SE530's, though the 530's seem to have more detail on the mids.

Umm... in my opinion, kinda. The comment about the mids, I absolutely agree. To me, the IE8 has the "wow" factor and the SE530 has the... I dunno... "ahhh" factor I guess. I think both are awesome, and that's why I'm keeping both.

 

[citro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moseboy /img/forum/go_quote.gif HAhahaha.... Yes Umm... in my opinion, kinda. The comment about the mids, I absolutely agree. To me, the IE8 has the "wow" factor and the SE530 has the... I dunno... "ahhh" factor I guess. I think both are awesome, and that's why I'm keeping both.

Yep, I agree with you, and I’ll surely keep both.
Unfortunately I cannot comment much further than this, as I have to hear the Senn’s a lot more to try and come close to the hours I’ve already run on the Shure’s. I’ve also ordered a Fiio 5, and when the Fiio arrives and the Senn’s have more hours on them, I guess I’ll come to a more “clear” conclusion. Nevertheless, I think the Shure’s properly frequency tuned and amped will produce as much real bass as it gets, i.e. not over bassy, unreal. I do like the tips I’ve made to the Senn’s, treble is there now, but I’m lacking the “whole deal”, lows, mids and highs. I’ve got lows and highs, with very good detail overall, more than with the Shure’s, I guess, if the detail in the mids appear, it will be near perfection. But the Shure’s do have better seal, I did notice it in the windy days.

 

[moseboy]

As far as comparing the two, from my experience, I can only recommend one thing: Do not listen to them back-to-back. To me, they sound so different that listening to one, getting used to it, and then switching to the other makes the latter one sound just horrible. I did this so much that at one point I was so frustrated I regretted buying both of them

.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moseboy /img/forum/go_quote.gif As far as comparing the two, from my experience, I can only recommend one thing: Do not listen to them back-to-back. To me, they sound so different that listening to one, getting used to it, and then switching to the other makes the latter one sound just horrible. I did this so much that at one point I was so frustrated I regretted buying both of them .

When that happens, neither one of them is any good. Now you need some UM3X...

 

[zardos]

Today I got my third IE8. Kudos to Sennheiser for the very good customer service! Again they sounded absolutely horrible out of the box. They had a totally muddy and bloated bass. Two hours later the bass was right again.

Lately I love to carefully EQ the IE8s with a rockboxed iRiver H120 + D10. Slightly less bass, slightly more upper mids and highs. Very funny to listen to. With this setting the IE8 still has a very profound bass, but more forward mids and crystal clear highs. IE8 is very sensitive to EQ tuning. I highly recommend to try out yourself.

 

[Ed Seedhouse]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zardos /img/forum/go_quote.gif Today I got my third IE8. Kudos to Sennheiser for the very good customer service! Again they sounded absolutely horrible out of the box. They had a totally muddy and bloated bass. Two hours later the bass was right again.

Coincidentally today I got my second today, two and a half weeks afterr I sent the originals back for replacement due to a faulty cord or jack.

I don't find the bass any different than I remember it being on the old pair, and it sounds just fine right out of the box to me. They are definitely a step up from the CX300-IIs in my opinion, but $300.00 better? The CX300s peak sharply at around 5K and so do sound distinctly sharper, and the distortion performance is slightly worse.

I do like the IE8 sound presentation better, but it's not as far apart as you might expect given the price differential. And the jack on the 300 seems a lot sturdier than the one on the IE8 which, this time, I have reinforced with some tape.

 

[rebski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zardos /img/forum/go_quote.gif Today I got my third IE8. Kudos to Sennheiser for the very good customer service! Again they sounded absolutely horrible out of the box. They had a totally muddy and bloated bass. Two hours later the bass was right again. Lately I love to carefully EQ the IE8s with a rockboxed iRiver H120 + D10. Slightly less bass, slightly more upper mids and highs. Very funny to listen to. With this setting the IE8 still has a very profound bass, but more forward mids and crystal clear highs. IE8 is very sensitive to EQ tuning. I highly recommend to try out yourself.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have an antipathy to EQing on principle but nothing to lose and shall give it a try.

Your rig is the same as mine and I had hoped that equipment of this quality would obviate the need.

 

[moseboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif When that happens, neither one of them is any good. Now you need some UM3X...

My wallet called you a person. I told him not to say mean things like that even if they're true.

 

[citro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zardos /img/forum/go_quote.gif Today I got my third IE8. Kudos to Sennheiser for the very good customer service! Again they sounded absolutely horrible out of the box. They had a totally muddy and bloated bass. Two hours later the bass was right again. Lately I love to carefully EQ the IE8s with a rockboxed iRiver H120 + D10. Slightly less bass, slightly more upper mids and highs. Very funny to listen to. With this setting the IE8 still has a very profound bass, but more forward mids and crystal clear highs. IE8 is very sensitive to EQ tuning. I highly recommend to try out yourself.

I totally agree with you. On the Shure’s I didn’t notice that much of a difference with the EQ play around. But the D10 must have a great part on the happy marriage

moseboy, I also agree with you on the back to back test, they are so different and characteristic, as one has to shut off from one’s, perform an ear reset, and then listen to the others

 

[Aevum]

i will say something for shure, they sure make awesome tips, if there were E2c/SCL2/SE102 (yes, they are all THE SAME EARPHONE) sized olives, i would be sure to pick a pair for my IE8,

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moseboy /img/forum/go_quote.gif My wallet called you a person. I told him not to say mean things like that even if they're true.

How do you know your wallet is a him? A she would say no, but a he would say get them.