[midoo1990]

Your conclusion is very true actually.when I shuffle them deep in my ears,the sound get muffled,the soundstage reduce dramatically,the airness and treble is killed but the bass become powerful and tight and slams accurate with weight to it.with shallow insertion the treble becomes sharp,the bass is reduced hugely,but the soundstage and airness becomes super superb

. With the right position,every thing is balanced and nothing is sacrified.I agree that finding the right position can take a minute or so but it well worth it for what this IEM can do and make it unique in comparison to other iem.

 

[HONEYBOY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by partysnatcher /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmmm, the sound on the position I found in my last post, is actually pretty damned good, now this really "alive" without feeling flimsy. Since receiving them, I've had to pick the right music for the IE8s not to sound bad, but for the last half an hour, the IE8s are making the music sound damned good, finally!! It sounds very right now, but there is something fishy about this. Do you really, by design, have to do this much to get the right sound? And has anyone gotten them to sound good with a complete seal at all? My experiences so far: - The smallest biflanged tips. - I have the bass knob at 50%. I refuse to have the bass knob at 0% and accept that audio engineers with years of experience who have been tweaking knobs for decades, have designed an overpriced and useless feature. - I start inserting at the beginning of the inner ear and wiggle and tap them carefully in place until the bass sounds moderate, like the "medium" / 50% that my bass knob indicates. - A complete seal / deep insertion destroys the sound, period. I can hear the "wrong" effect instantly now, after setting the bass knob at 50%. - If the stereo imaging sounds "dead" / weird / artificial, one of the ears is positioned differently from the other. They need to be exactly the same. - With a shallow insert, it is hard to get an angle on the phones where the jaw can't affect the sound. Fixing this is very important to get the feeling that you have found the position and can start listening.

partysnatcher my impressions and experience with the IE8 mimic yours. I however, liked the IE8 out of the box. I thought it criminal to subject my IE8s to hours of separation from my ears by burning them in with unattended bursts of pink noise or whatnot . I just listened to them with my music. The only major change that I know happened was that the somewhat quite artificial Treble at the beginning really opened up along the way. If it takes hundreds of hours for some folks to start liking the sound of the IE8s then I guess they have better ears than I do and can notice these subtle changes in the sound more. There's however, no doubt though, that an IE8 with months of constant usage sounds quite different than when you first got them.

I'll also maintain that by design these things are to be worn with a light seal. I've tried my best to try all tip mods and no matter what I do I always go back to wearing the IE8s with the smallest of tips and light sealing. As long as you place them right they won't fall out. I've talked about this to the point that I know it's overbearing now

but most of the criticism of the IE8 are as such: Too much warmth, an overpowering bass eating into the mids, lack of transparency, muffled, etc............ These are the things I associate with the sound of the IE8 when you're trying to get 100% seal to my ears. Am not saying that the IE8 becomes a perfect IEM with light sealing but at least for me it sounds more like what should be expected of a $400IEM this way. Like partysnatcher indicated light sealing capitalizes on some strong points of the IE8 giving it an airyier sound, better clarity and transparency etc and with a reduced bass among other things. As I've said before I have manipulated my IE8 to produce similar amounts of bass to an ER-4P. The bass knob then becomes useful but I still don't use it. UE silicon single flange tips are the only ones I can use and seal in the IE8 and still quite like the sound.

 

[partysnatcher]

It seems we agree. I have obviously missed some important pages of IE8 discussion here like midoo said.
I assumed the IE8s were supposed to be "bassy", but when I insert them so they sound bassy, the sound is .. well, crap. It has been like this from day one, bassy and sealed = horrible.

I have several times thought, probably when the seal has been open by accident, "heyy.. this is actually pretty good!" and then the magic is gone the next time I put them on.

I found it very hard to "believe" in the shallow insertion, because it is very hard to get a "stable" position, to get a position that I feel I can "trust". Especially when you feel the jaw has to be in one specific angle. Luckily I think I fixed this now and can reproduce a "solid" shallow insert every time.

I am quite sure the bass knob should be at 50% by design. I end up with a very correct sound when doing this, not bassy. At 50% bass I can also hear very clearly the "on/off-switch" that tells me when the seal is too tight.

100% bass inserted at the same position that works with 50%, gives me a quality basshead sound, rather than this ridicoulus bass blob that you get from the knob when you seal them.

Quote:

but most of the criticism of the IE8 are as such: Too much warmth, an overpowering bass eating into the mids, lack of transparency, muffled, etc............ These are the things I associate with the sound of the IE8 when you're trying to get 100% seal to my ears.

What can I say, I agree completely. The difference between a millimeter or two of seal to me, is the difference between the IE8s sounding like a crappy $5 earbud versus sounding like a hi-fi piece of audio equipment. The questions then remain:

- why haven't Sennheiser included some tips with a vent or similarly, tips that are open by design, that can just be placed inside the ear without closing it shut?
- why haven't they informed more about how to get a good position, in the user manual?

 

[midoo1990]

ah yes...these questions have to be answered by sennheiser because when they didnt tell us how the position of the ie8 supposed to be set in the ear,everyone got confused and alot ofheadfiers did hhis own tip mode him/her self.i mean how the hell can we know how it is suppose to sound when we dont even know wheather to make them sit deep or hollow.with the se530 for example,on the shure site they said it is critical to have a perfect seal and position them deep in your ears.Anyway,i hope they produce another phone soon enough because i am becoming a sennheiser fanboy

 

[thechungster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MusicalMetal420 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had a similar problem to the ones you seem to be having. Are you wearing them down or up (the way the guy on the box is)? Whichever way you're using them, try the other way, it may help.

I can only wear them with the wire over my ear. With it hanging downwards, I have a very loose fit. I'm just letting them burn in even more and just hope it sorts itself out.

 

[Flimberson]

Hey there,

I've been mainly lurking these forums, and after some extensive reading i bought myself a pair of ie8's about a week ago, and greatly enjoying them at about 100 hours of burn in.

I've had similar experiences in regards to fit. A light seal will give me a detailed and airy sound, while a tight seal didn't sound quite right (although I wouldn't call it horrible). The bass is a little overpowering and the soundstage decreased a good amount (to about the amount of my monster turbines). I'm using the small (orange) sony hybrid tips and i've found that they're the best for me (I have small ear canals

).

I thought I could share a tip for those having difficulty getting the "perfect" light seal. What i've been doing is sealing them deep in my ears, then I just pull the top part of my ears up, and when I do that, the seal corrects itself and the sound becomes just right. When I have a deep seal, i can hear the sound change alot by pulling up on my ears. A few tugs will adjust the seal and then it will sound great. Sorry if that was confusing, just thought i'd add that tip, works great for me and i'm enjoying them as i continue burning them in.

Forgot to mention, I'm wearing them cables reversed, hanging down

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HONEYBOY /img/forum/go_quote.gif If it takes hundreds of hours for some folks to start liking the sound of the IE8s then I guess they have better ears than I do and can notice these subtle changes in the sound more. There's however, no doubt though, that an IE8 with months of constant usage sounds quite different than when you first got them.

It's no so much an issue of better ears, but one of the listener's ability to "over-focus" on the sound changes and commit the sound signature to memory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by partysnatcher /img/forum/go_quote.gif The difference between a millimeter or two of seal to me, is the difference between the IE8s sounding like a crappy $5 earbud versus sounding like a hi-fi piece of audio equipment.

I agree - and I think that many manufacturers would be much better off in avoiding controversy and disparate impressions of the gear if they (1) simply pre-burned in a lot of the gear out there, and (2) did more market research on how the various tips are working for real people's ears rather than relying on things like tone sweeps to determine if the frequency response is acceptable.

 

[partysnatcher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flimberson /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey there, I've been mainly lurking these forums, and after some extensive reading i bought myself a pair of ie8's about a week ago, and greatly enjoying them at about 100 hours of burn in. I've had similar experiences in regards to fit. A light seal will give me a detailed and airy sound, while a tight seal didn't sound quite right (although I wouldn't call it horrible). The bass is a little overpowering and the soundstage decreased a good amount (to about the amount of my monster turbines). I'm using the small (orange) sony hybrid tips and i've found that they're the best for me (I have small ear canals ). I thought I could share a tip for those having difficulty getting the "perfect" light seal. What i've been doing is sealing them deep in my ears, then I just pull the top part of my ears up, and when I do that, the seal corrects itself and the sound becomes just right. When I have a deep seal, i can hear the sound change alot by pulling up on my ears. A few tugs will adjust the seal and then it will sound great. Sorry if that was confusing, just thought i'd add that tip, works great for me and i'm enjoying them as i continue burning them in. Forgot to mention, I'm wearing them cables reversed, hanging down

Good first post imo

And nice to see so many people confirm each other's impressions.
And HPA, if it is true that they don't do extensive testing with people's ears on high end equipment like this (which it definitely seems like), that is crazy.
Maybe they have used custom tips for the tests?

 

[RAQemUP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif I agree - and I think that many manufacturers would be much better off in avoiding controversy and disparate impressions of the gear if they (1) simply pre-burned in a lot of the gear out there, and (2) did more market research on how the various tips are working for real people's ears rather than relying on things like tone sweeps to determine if the frequency response is acceptable.

I think one reason some manufacturers may opt to not pre-burn in audio gear is the placebo factor. I am not saying burn in doesn't exist, in fact I am a believer in it. What I am saying is some people believe that a brand new set of headphones will improve over time. How much they improve is up to discussion of course. To some none and others a huge jump. The whole concept of burn in is having a listener be more "interactive and active" with their music listening. A typical consumer would just buy something and say either it sounds nice or like crap or compare it to their stock DAP headphones. Very few consumers are like us head-fi peeps who can actively compare it to several other quality headphones that are not something that were free or sold in a huge department store such as Walmart or BestBuy.

There is of course the fact that the vast majority of consumers have no idea or care for what burn in is so why spend the time and money on burning in audio gear.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAQemUP /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think one reason some manufacturers may opt to not pre-burn in audio gear is the placebo factor. I am not saying burn in doesn't exist, in fact I am a believer in it. What I am saying is some people believe that a brand new set of headphones will improve over time. How much they improve is up to discussion of course. To some none and others a huge jump. The whole concept of burn in is having a listener be more "interactive and active" with their music listening. A typical consumer would just buy something and say either it sounds nice or like crap or compare it to their stock DAP headphones. Very few consumers are like us head-fi peeps who can actively compare it to several other quality headphones that are not something that were free or sold in a huge department store such as Walmart or BestBuy. There is of course the fact that the vast majority of consumers have no idea or care for what burn in is so why spend the time and money on burning in audio gear.

Yeah, it's all in our heads.

 

[partysnatcher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, it's all in our heads.

Literally, in the case of IEMs.

 

[moseboy]

i like to call it lost wages

 

[average_joe]

Anyone with a burned in IE8 in the Orange County, CA area want to meet and A/B your burned in IE8 with my new IE8, whenever I get it?

EDIT:
Status: Delivered UPS has delivered the shipment.
Delivered On: 09/14/2009 2:17 P.M.
Location: FRT DOOR

I will leave it in the packaging, unopened, and give it a few days for someone to accept.

 

[average_joe]

Bump for anyone in the Orange County area...

 

[Gbjerke]

The guys at OCC loves Sennheiser. They made a bike for them i believe.