[Conext]

I've got about 30 hours of burn-in so far. Basically, I've been letting them play overnight for about 10 hours, at pretty loud volume, then use them normally for an hour or two the next day to evaluate their sound.
 
After 30 hours, they're still pretty sibilant. Not as bad as day one. My baseline track that I'm using for comparison is Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do (16/44.1 FLAC rip from CD). On day one, even the "F"s sounded horribly, horribly sibilant. Not so any more. But, even using the EQ to cut frequencies over 6KHz, it's still pretty harsh.
 
And maybe its my imagination, but I could swear that as time goes on, I find myself backing off the volume slider. Still not as low as my 7550s, but lower than on day one.
 
I've seen burn-in cause miracles for sound quality before. I hope that does indeed turn out to be the case here. Otherwise, I'll be left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth, as far as the almost-four-figure IEM world is concerned.

 

[Caruryn]

Give it more time but don't tell me you haven't been remotely impressed with the clear,detailed mids,the lifelike vocals,the bass texture ?

 

[xedjflowx]

  I've got about 30 hours of burn-in so far. Basically, I've been letting them play overnight for about 10 hours, at pretty loud volume, then use them normally for an hour or two the next day to evaluate their sound.
 
After 30 hours, they're still pretty sibilant. Not as bad as day one. My baseline track that I'm using for comparison is Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do (16/44.1 FLAC rip from CD). On day one, even the "F"s sounded horribly, horribly sibilant. Not so any more. But, even using the EQ to cut frequencies over 6KHz, it's still pretty harsh.
 
And maybe its my imagination, but I could swear that as time goes on, I find myself backing off the volume slider. Still not as low as my 7550s, but lower than on day one.
 
I've seen burn-in cause miracles for sound quality before. I hope that does indeed turn out to be the case here. Otherwise, I'll be left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth, as far as the almost-four-figure IEM world is concerned.

I was the same for about 2 weeks. Then, miracles.

 

[Spyro]

There is no burn-in with IE800.   Senn told me that themselves.
 
While I like a bit more bass heft and weight, the bass texture is quite possible the best I have heard with any IEM at any price custom or universal.  Just sensational.

 

[Dragonsan]

  I've got about 30 hours of burn-in so far. Basically, I've been letting them play overnight for about 10 hours, at pretty loud volume, then use them normally for an hour or two the next day to evaluate their sound.
 
After 30 hours, they're still pretty sibilant. Not as bad as day one. My baseline track that I'm using for comparison is Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do (16/44.1 FLAC rip from CD). On day one, even the "F"s sounded horribly, horribly sibilant. Not so any more. But, even using the EQ to cut frequencies over 6KHz, it's still pretty harsh.
 
And maybe its my imagination, but I could swear that as time goes on, I find myself backing off the volume slider. Still not as low as my 7550s, but lower than on day one.
 
I've seen burn-in cause miracles for sound quality before. I hope that does indeed turn out to be the case here. Otherwise, I'll be left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth, as far as the almost-four-figure IEM world is concerned.

 
In my experience, it doesn't really improve much with burn-in. Probably my biggest gripe when I owned the IE800s were their sparkly, almost artificial, treble. Detail, as always, is outstanding though. Easily one of the best IEMs that I owned.
 
Usually I found the sibilance problem to be really annoying (and almost unlistenable to) on poorly mastered tracks, though. Other times, it was annoying, but not unbearable.

 

[Pedro83]

  I've got about 30 hours of burn-in so far. Basically, I've been letting them play overnight for about 10 hours, at pretty loud volume, then use them normally for an hour or two the next day to evaluate their sound.
 
After 30 hours, they're still pretty sibilant. Not as bad as day one. My baseline track that I'm using for comparison is Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do (16/44.1 FLAC rip from CD). On day one, even the "F"s sounded horribly, horribly sibilant. Not so any more. But, even using the EQ to cut frequencies over 6KHz, it's still pretty harsh.
 
And maybe its my imagination, but I could swear that as time goes on, I find myself backing off the volume slider. Still not as low as my 7550s, but lower than on day one.
 
I've seen burn-in cause miracles for sound quality before. I hope that does indeed turn out to be the case here. Otherwise, I'll be left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth, as far as the almost-four-figure IEM world is concerned.

what are you using them with? I would never describe mine like this. 

 

[Pedro83]

  I used my IE800 with Topping NX1 and I thought it was a great.  I think unless you listen at low volumes The IE800 should be used with an amp to get your moneys worth

I agree, an iPhone is fine, but they REALYY excel with a $300 DAC/AMP and lossless files, IME. 

 

[Scorpion667]

The short cable is REALLY starting to bug me.
 
Gotta decide on one of these:



 
 

 

[Caruryn]

  The short cable is REALLY starting to bug me.
 
Gotta decide on one of these:



 
 

Don't like the look of the first 3.The 4th and 5th are cool,something Batman would use

 

[Scorpion667]

  Don't like the look of the first 3.The 4th and 5th are cool,something Batman would use

 
I like everything except the color on the first 3. I'm checking to see what Ted Allen can do for me as well, love his cables.

 

[Richiness]

   
I like everything except the color on the first 3. I'm checking to see what Ted Allen can do for me as well, love his cables.

Can you post back if Ted can do something please? Haven't got an email back from him about this

 

[Conext]

  Give it more time but don't tell me you haven't been remotely impressed with the clear,detailed mids,the lifelike vocals,the bass texture ?

Impressed is a very powerful word. The ie800 is certainly very clear and very detailed, and it's very spacious-sounding. But those are the same adjectives that I would use to describe my 7550s. And they only cost one third as much as the Senns.
 

  There is no burn-in with IE800.   Senn told me that themselves.
 
While I like a bit more bass heft and weight, the bass texture is quite possible the best I have heard with any IEM at any price custom or universal.  Just sensational.

Actually, I haven't been paying much attention to the bass yet. My focus is always drawn back to those shrill highs—wondering if they'll get any better with time, always scrutinizing them in whatever I listen to. I guess you could say I have yet to sit back and try to enjoy them.
 
Eh, I probably should have just stuck with my original plan and got the Westone W30s...
 
Quote:

  what are you using them with? I would never describe mine like this. 

Sony ZX2—which has over 200 hours of play time on it.
 

   
In my experience, it doesn't really improve much with burn-in. Probably my biggest gripe when I owned the IE800s were their sparkly, almost artificial, treble. Detail, as always, is outstanding though. Easily one of the best IEMs that I owned.
 
Usually I found the sibilance problem to be really annoying (and almost unlistenable to) on poorly mastered tracks, though. Other times, it was annoying, but not unbearable.

Ah, yeah. That's how I would characterize it right now. It's as though Senn started out with a plan—to create the clearest, brightest UIEM ever. And they pursued that goal to the exclusion of everything else. And they succeeded. But their engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should. /Ian Malcolm
 
Well, in any event, I do plan to give it more time. And perhaps changing their orientation to over-the-ear, maybe use the smaller tips, or even look into third party tips. Although, for this price, one would think there shouldn't be much "fiddling" to get an outstanding sound.

 

[ryanjsoo]

If you`re happy with the 7550`s why not just sell the ie800`s? If you don`t really like the sound they`re probably not with keeping, they don`t seal reliably, are microphonic, don`t isolate as well as other top tier iems and whistle in the wind, plus they have the infamous cable hardening issue and the weighted y-split prevents you from listening for extended periods of time before you have to re seat them in your ears, why put up with this AND not enjoy the sound?
 
These iems are pretty love/hate, I immediately enjoyed the sound and as such they are the longest owned iem I`ve ever had, but then again I`ve come off some more treble heavy, v-shaped iems such as the pfe232`s, FX-800`s, etc, so I`m more acclimatized. The Sony 7550`s don`t have very emphasized treble, I would say it`s slightly shy of neutral whilst the ie800 treble is definitely pretty emphasized. You can try the cloth mod to take off some treble, otherwise the Sony`s are pretty great, they make good products and no ones to say the 7550`s can`t be an end game iem, the ex1000`s are definitely up there. 
 
You can read more about the mod here: http://rinchoi.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/sennheiser-ie800.html

 

[proedros]

golden rule here - keep only what you really like . sell the ones you don't like and buy another one.

 

[Kunlun]

what are you using them with? I would never describe mine like this. 

Me neither. I wonder if people who have treble issues aren't having a seal issue or some other thing influencing the sound? Having said that, I did hear treble issues in my first set of ie800s bought and returned a year and half ago.

When it comes to burn in, I don't people know how to do it. I've seen people say they just play music at a moderate level. Burn in needs to be at a very high volume for a relatively short time.