[zidius]

for sound alone, ie800
but i will pick SE846 just because 1000$ headphones with non-detachable cable scares me !
 
with 1k budget westone w60 or akg 3003i  are better choice than those two imo

 

[Dobrescu George]

for sound alone, ie800
but i will pick SE846 just because 1000$ headphones with non-detachable cable scares me !

with 1k budget westone w60 or akg 3003i  are better choice than those two imo

K3003 doesn't have detachable cables either tho...

Never heard w60.

Ie800 has the loveliest sound of the bunch. I like it's well extended sound.

 

[Deftone]

  for sound alone, ie800
but i will pick SE846 just because 1000$ headphones with non-detachable cable scares me !
 
with 1k budget westone w60 or akg 3003i  are better choice than those two imo

 
All 4 of them should be £450 or under. IE800 is the best pick but its still not good enough because it only sounds good outdoors.
 
IE800 - too boomy and recessed mids
SE846 - small sound stage and no treble extension
W60 - too dark and slow
3003 - too harsh and sibilant
 
There are much better iems at around the £1,000

 

[Dobrescu George]

   
All 4 of them should be £450 or under. IE800 is the best pick but its still not good enough because it only sounds good outdoors.
 
IE800 - too boomy and recessed mids
SE846 - small sound stage and no treble extension
W60 - too dark and slow
3003 - too harsh and sibilant
 
There are much better iems at around the £1,000

 
I actually prefer ie800's sound while inside my home. 
 
Also, the sound is not boomy to me and the mids are most certainly not recessed 

 

[Deftone]

   
I actually prefer ie800's sound while inside my home. 
 
Also, the sound is not boomy to me and the mids are most certainly not recessed 

 
Many people enjoy the IE800, just after hearing so many headphones and iems to my ears they are boomy and v shaped, i did try EQ and it sounded nice but caused other problems like distortion. 
 
IE800 SE846 crossbreed would be awesome, shures controlled deep powerfull bass and lush layered mids with senns ultra detailed sparkly extended treble and big soundstage. wow that would be a definite buy!

 

[nvfan]

Isolation is a big deal with the Shures. It's possible that the W60/W80 are objectively better sound-wise than the Shures, but Westone's have comparatively poor isolation compared to the 846.

 

[RamblerBoy]

All 4 of them should be £450 or under. IE800 is the best pick but its still not good enough because it only sounds good outdoors.

IE800 - too boomy and recessed mids
SE846 - small sound stage and no treble extension
W60 - too dark and slow
3003 - too harsh and sibilant

There are much better iems at around the £1,000

Better iems as in? Would be helpful if you could name them..i am trying to get a complimentary set of earphones for my se846

 

[Dobrescu George]

Better iems as in? Would be helpful if you could name them..i am trying to get a complimentary set of earphones for my se846

 
ie800 has a different signature and might feel more revealing, depending on how you feel about treble 

 
At any rate, it is a different signature that I really love and I tweak all my headphones and IEMs to match ie800 signature, so there's that. 
 
I find ie800 to be great in home as well, not only outside 

 

[Audioguy94]

Sorry to be reviving an old thread... though I must say it's an excellent thread with a plethora of comparisons which are useful for anyone on the fence. I bought the 846's first and loved them. Then maybe a year or so later invested in the IE800... I had a smile on my face almost instantly. However, my SE846's were in for repair and I hadn't listened to anything decent for a while so this could have been the reason for my reaction.

Fast forward to when my 846's came back, they sounded muffled in comparison. This would've been down to the fact that the IE800's are a lot more detailed... which in my opinion is a fact and should be unambiguous. But... after listening to them more I fell back in love with them. And I honestly couldn't decide which one I prefer - the people of head -fi kept telling me that eventually I'll prefer the 846's but I was on the fence at that point.

Anyway - for the past 3 months or so I've listened to my IE800's and nothing else. I figured that I would sell the 846's and about an hour ago I switched the cable to a fresh cable ready for them to be sold. I then decided to give them one last listen... and oh my... WHAT A BEUTIFUL SOUND. It's thick and full sounding, has forward mids and its bass is among the best. I have literally not stopped listening to them! I am supposed to be writing a Digital Marketing Plan for a client, but the music is distracting me and all I want to do is get mesmerized by the music. The sound signature is overall very euphonic and just musical to the point where songs that I'm not particularly fond of are starting to excite me. It's safe to say that I won't be selling these after all.

Overall, both IEM's are worth their price tag IMO. I own and love both. I've read that a lot of people prefer one or the other (and I did once too) but I would say it's nice to own both. Still, a lot of people would just prefer one or the other. My advice would be to try and listen to both and go by that...You'll get a lot of people say one is better but at the end of the day, they have different ears to you. I am being a hypocrite however, as I didn't demo either.

I hope no matter which you choose... you are content with your IEMs! The Shure's can be had for a lot cheaper now too.

 

[vrln]

Having previously owned both (now waiting for IE 800 S), I´d say this is still a very interesting question and topic for a thread. It´s not an easy choice. Both have their own merits, but at least here in the EU the IE 800 can be found for about 300-350 euros cheaper so that is a major plus for the Sennheiser. My take: they are both great IEMs, but have their weaknesses. I don´t have experience of other >1k IEMs so I have idea how they compare to most of the competition, but at least compared to your standard 300-400 euro IEMs they are both a clear step up and in that regard worthy of their price increase. The sweet spot is in the 300-400 euro range* though, diminishing returns and all that...

Comfort: completely subjective. For me the SE 846 are a bit too large/heavy for my ears and I detest the stock cable as well. Tips fit perfectly on both products. No microphonics on Shure which is a major plus, but IE 800 are so small and light they almost disappear. For me Sennheiser wins, but this is very subjective.
Bass: Shure wins mostly because the IE 800 simply has too much sub-bass. The bass impact is much better on Sennheiser though as expected from a dynamic driver. For me the IE 800´s only major issue is the overdone sub-bass response.
Mids: Fairly close, but resolution wise the IE 800 clearly takes the lead. Shure´s have that very engaging forward mids though that many love, while the IE 800 vocals are very slightly recessed.
Highs: No contest, IE 800 wins easily for me. Some may find the treble too much, but I never had any issues with it. Shure treble is very clean, but it´s also quite rolled off which basically makes a lot of the air in the recordings disappear.
Soundstage: IE 800 wins this too. It has a nice 3D bubble soundstage, quite different from the HD 600 series 3-blob one. Shure soundstage is very intimate and doesn´t extend much in width or depth (limited soundstage is just something mid-centric tuning tends to create).

If you can own both that is probably the ideal option as I found they complement each other pretty nicely. Very different tuning, so it all depends on your preference. That being said, I´m really looking forward to the new IE 800 S. Early impressions seems to imply they have a smoother treble and more linear (= less sub-bass) bass. That would fix what I consider the IE 800´s main issues.

* Or to be more accurate these days it´s probably 150-200 instead...

 

[Deftone]

Couldn’t agree with those points more, the reason I couldn’t keep the Shure is that treble just rolls off far to early.

 

[Vy7478]

Thank you all for the information provided on this thread! Really helping me with my research.

There seem to be varying descriptions of the IE800's sound. Some say it's neutral, some say it's very bass heavy and v-shaped.

Some say mids are slightly recessed while other say there is a W signature and the mids are forward.

Can anyone clarify on this?

 

[Deftone]

Original IE800 is sub bass heavy, small dip in the mid and very sparkly treble. It’s sounds best when used outdoors (it’s intended purpose I know) ambient noise tames the sub bass and treble to make it sound more balanced.

Even with that said the treble is sparkly but not harsh and the sub bass is powerful but not uncontrolled.

IE800-S is refined and well balanced it’s worth paying the extra for. Original IE800 still better than SE846.

 

[Vy7478]

Original IE800 is sub bass heavy, small dip in the mid and very sparkly treble. It’s sounds best when used outdoors (it’s intended purpose I know) ambient noise tames the sub bass and treble to make it sound more balanced.

Even with that said the treble is sparkly but not harsh and the sub bass is powerful but not uncontrolled.

IE800-S is refined and well balanced it’s worth paying the extra for. Original IE800 still better than SE846.

Thank you!

With the IE-800S out now, the old model's prices here in HK are at new lows.

Really tempeted to pull the trigger

 

[Deftone]

Thank you!

With the IE-800S out now, the old model's prices here in HK are at new lows.

Really tempeted to pull the trigger

It’s a great high end iem and there’s a reason why Sennheiser refined the driver and not completely remade a new flagship. If don’t find the sound 100% to your liking you could always try EQ for small adjustments. I haven’t tried it though because I’m allergic to EQ.