[markwilliamsweb]

I know that this isn't really a fair comparison because they are different types of phones, but I recently purchased some Sennheiser IE8's and I'm finding the sound rather disappointing. After reading all the glowing reviews I expected to be blown away by the sound quality and whilst I think they are very good, they just don't compare at all to my Denon AHD5000's.
 
No doubt they have awesome bass, but the clarity just isn't there IMO. With my Denons I hear things in music that I've never heard before and am always amazed at how some songs sound. I just don't get that with IE8's.
 
Am I being really unfair by expecting the sound quality of the IE8's to be as good?

 

[ESCS]

I wouldnt really call it a fair comparison considering the price difference, atleast in finland.
 
Sennheiser IE8         250 euros
Denon D5000           700 euros
 
All I can say is that the clarity of IE8's got MUCH better when I upgraded my Udac2 to HDP. With Udac2 they sounded very dark, warm, somewhat muffled and boomy. HDP made the bass more controlled and overall made the sound more open and clear.

 

[markwilliamsweb]

Reading back my original post, my comment of "expecting the sound quality of the IE8's to be as good" is not really what I meant. Of course they shouldn't sound as good, but I guess I expected them to sound somewhere close.
 
Interesting that you say changing your DAC made a difference. I'm just running them through my iPhone at the moment. Maybe I'll try running them through my Fiio E7.

 

[natashaful]

I don't think you can really compare IEM's to fullsize Cans

 

[DaBomb77766]

Well, IEMs can technically "sound as good" as fullsized headphones, but not quite in the same way...they'll always be a little different.
 
That said, the price divide is rather large between the IE8 and the D5000, and full-sized headphones are known to being better deals than IEMs, sound-quality wise, to begin with.  I've also heard people say that the IE8 needs a bit of burn-in to sound their best, though I'm not sure whether that's just "brain burn-in" or actual mechanical burn-in.

 

[masuuuuud]

i swear IE8 have like a 200 hour burn in time ?

 

[markwilliamsweb]

Yeah I've heard lots of people saying that they require lots of burn in, although I'm a bit sceptical about the whole burn in thing. Having said that I did notice a difference in my D5000s after a few days listening. It seemed to me that the bass tightened up and became more pronounced and the highs rolled off as they were a bit bright to start off with. Of course that could have just been me getting used to the sound.

 

[natashaful]

My IE8's didn't sound good till well over 300 hours+ they must be well over 1000 hours now, When i mean didn't sound good, They was like £10 ipod buds with loads of boomy bass, They did finally settle down but it did take many hours, You should try 5 days with pink noise at 2-3 notches above your listening level to burn them in, Then judge the sound, No point listening to them mean time till they are burned in then you can indeed dismiss the "Voodoo" and the difference will be night and day.
 
IE8's are not like normal Cans that benefit very little from burn in even sennheiser in their emails have told me to burn them in because IE8s benefit from it far more then other Headphones and Earphones.
 
Natty. 

 

[mark2410]

need a vast burn in