[lee730]

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sorry for the question, how do you exactly describe the term "DRY" on sonic terms ...   are the fx700s dry, 535??
 
thank you

I think dry would be less warmth and more detail. More clarity. This would be in comparison to warmth or maybe in "Dark" or veiled. I was looking for this characteristic in the IE80 as I wanted more in your face and not as much mellowness while having good clarity as well. The FX700s have really grown on me. You think you love them now. Run them in for 200 hours and they really come to life. The micro details I am getting is crazy on these. And everything sounds so natural. Not sad I sold my IE8s at all. But looking forward to the IE80 fixing my Issue with the IE8 (then I'll be in audio nirvana).

 

[james444]

Quote:

sorry for the question, how do you exactly describe the term "DRY" on sonic terms ...   are the fx700s dry, 535??
 
thank you

 
Quote:

I think dry would be less warmth and more detail. More clarity. This would be in comparison to warmth or maybe in "Dark" or veiled. I was looking for this characteristic in the IE80 as I wanted more in your face and not as much mellowness while having good clarity as well. The FX700s have really grown on me. You think you love them now. Run them in for 200 hours and they really come to life. The micro details I am getting is crazy on these. And everything sounds so natural. Not sad I sold my IE8s at all. But looking forward to the IE80 fixing my Issue with the IE8 (then I'll be in audio nirvana).

We talked about dryness in another thread lately:
 
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In my book the opposite of dry is wet, meaning the phone has notable reverb and decay. Dryness is a lack thereof and ime much more likely to be found with balanced armatures than dynamic drivers, but some heavily dampened DDs (RE0, RE252, MC5) may sound quite dry as well. Warmth is a bit different from wetness and often used for describing a certain emphasis on lower frequencies, but of course warmth and wetness often go together.

 
That said, I don't think the IE80 are over-damped, but they sound noticably more controlled, especially in bass. Like dwizard said, a new IE8 would probably sound closer to the IE80, but I don't think that driver wear alone is responsible for the difference. Would be interesting to see an impulse response graph of both phones.

 

[lee730]

Will be interesting if the IE80 maintains is sound signature and not change so drastically like it usually does on the IE8. I also found the IE8s more enjoyable when they were newer.
Quote:

 

We talked about dryness in another thread lately:
 
 
That said, I don't think the IE80 are over-damped, but they sound noticably more controlled, especially in bass. Like dwizard said, a new IE8 would probably sound closer to the IE80, but I don't think that driver wear alone is responsible for the difference. Would be interesting to see an impulse response graph of both phones.

 

 

[soullinker20]

Quote:

I think dry would be less warmth and more detail. More clarity. This would be in comparison to warmth or maybe in "Dark" or veiled. I was looking for this characteristic in the IE80 as I wanted more in your face and not as much mellowness while having good clarity as well. The FX700s have really grown on me. You think you love them now. Run them in for 200 hours and they really come to life. The micro details I am getting is crazy on these. And everything sounds so natural. Not sad I sold my IE8s at all. But looking forward to the IE80 fixing my Issue with the IE8 (then I'll be in audio nirvana).

 
I bought a 2nd hand fx700 so they are pretty much burned now.. and yes i strongly agree that the details are crazy on these phones.
but i still wanna A/B them personally with the ie8s and check if the soundstage really has something to do in presenting details
 
 
 
@james444
 
thanks again for reminding and big thanks to your IE80 review.

 

[Burma Jones]

Quote:

Well, it's not only for their lack of communication, but also because they had the audacity to up the K3003's MSRP from €1000 to €1200 shortly after introduction, for apparently no other reason than very favorable early reviews. Now, I'm not exactly known to shy away from expensive stuff (*cough* FAD *cough* , but I can't help but smell BS in this case.
 
 
That's exactly what I meant, thanks.
 
Had another IE8/80 side by side listening session with one of my favorite classical recordings (Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Joseph Swensen). The difference in bass is pretty much negligible with this kind of music, but the mids struck me as noticeably more sweet on the IE8, whereas the IE80's mids sounded a bit dry. Quite similar impressions from the highs, the IE8's appeared slightly smoother and the IE80's a tad more edgy. Now, I'm certainly aware that my IE80 have only <=30 hours on them and the IE8 more than 1000, meaning the new ones will most likely smooth out a bit over time. Nevertheless, the outcome of today's classical audition, rather surprisingly, was a clear nod to the older IE8. Hmm...

Hi James thanks for the impression on the IE80. Between the W4 and the IE80, which one do you think have better transparency and timbre? And which one do you prefer for classical music ( symphonies and concertos )? Thanks.
 
 

 

[Craigerz]

Dang guys...you don't mess around over here at Head Fi! 34 pages of posts since I last checked this thread, wow. Just decided I'm going with the IE10's that come out in Jan. not the IE80's. Stoked to say the least! 

 

[deadguy99]

This its the first I've heard if an ie10 and there's no info on there website . Do you have any source to prove there will be one

 

[raymondu999]

Hey guys. So does anyone actually have a big conclusive comparison between the IE80s and IE8s? I tried to take in as much as I could; but there weren't really any definitive pieces that stood out...

 

[james444]

Well, since this has been renamed to "impressions thread", I thought I'd quote the essence of my impressions so far, to make them more easily readable:
 
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The wait is over (at least for me , as my retail IE80 from cyberport.de arrived yesterday evening. Right out of the box they appeared already clearer than my IE8, so I let them play from my home stereo overnight.
 
Today morning I only found time for a short A/B before heading off to work, so take these first impressions with a grain of salt. Make no mistake, the apple didn't fall far from the tree, these are still bassy IEMs! While I prefer to EQ my IE8 by -8db@80Hz to achieve a reasonable flat bass response, I'd need about -4 or -5db with the IE80 to achieve the same result. So my read is, Sennheiser chopped a few decibel off that mid-bass hump, but didn't dare to go all the way.
 
That said, bass peak seems to have shifted a bit towards deep bass, from 80-100Hz to maybe 60 or 70Hz, not a night and day difference, but together with its reduced impact a notable relief for the lower mids. What's more, they seem to have upped treble ever so slightly, which helps to give the IE80 better presence in comparison to the IE8. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the veil is completely gone (after all it's part of Senn's house sound , but vocals appear distinctly clearer and also a tad less chesty than on the IE8. But to put things into perspective, overall clarity is still a notch below IEMs like the Sony EX600/1000 or the Ortofon e-Q5.
 
Well, good things usually come at a price, and in case of the IE80 it's (a bit of) soundstage size. The IE8 are famed for having one of the most generous soundstage presentations among IEMs and giving a stunning out-of-head experience. Now, as a consequence of more clarity and better presence on the IE80, things seem to happen closer to the listener than with the IE8, meaning you get a bit less forward projection and slightly reduced soundstage size.
 
So far for the results of my short morning A/B session, after which I headed off to my daily commute. Isolation is unchanged from the IE8 (meaning only so-so) and the IE80's emphasized bass did a decent job in compensating for ambient noise, which tends to drown out bass more than higher frequencies. Vocal clarity remained pretty good and overall I was quite pleased with the IE80's performance on the move, except for some vague suspicion regarding the cable, but I'll get into this a little later.

 
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Not much to add for now, I'm afraid. Tbo, I'm a little bit disappointed by the IE80's cable, as it seems to be a bit more rigid and a step down imo from the IE8's. Todays cold weather added to the stiffness and even over-ear it exhibited some microphonics, something I can't remember from the IE8. I'm still debating whether the cable's just brand new and will become more flexible over time, or Sennheiser actually decided to change the material. The latter would be a real bummer, since they already had the world's best IEM cable on the IE8.
 
Frankly speaking, if you don't shy away from EQing the IE8 to your liking, I can't see a compelling reason to upgrade (so far). On the other hand, if EQ is strictly no-go and you want to stick with Senns, it may well be worth it.

 
Quote:

Had another IE8/80 side by side listening session with one of my favorite classical recordings (Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Joseph Swensen). The difference in bass is pretty much negligible with this kind of music, but the mids struck me as noticeably more sweet on the IE8, whereas the IE80's mids sounded a bit dry. Quite similar impressions from the highs, the IE8's appeared slightly smoother and the IE80's a tad more edgy. Now, I'm certainly aware that my IE80 have only <=30 hours on them and the IE8 more than 1000, meaning the new ones will most likely smooth out a bit over time. Nevertheless, the outcome of today's classical audition, rather surprisingly, was a clear nod to the older IE8. Hmm...

 
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Well, it's a slightly different matter when it comes to more bass driven genres than classical. Listening to Markus Schulz / Progression right now and the IE80's low end is a most enjoyable step up from their predecessor's, with better deep bass and overall improved definition.

 
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But the good news is the IE80 actually seem to smooth out a bit and violins appear less scratchy than when I first A/Bed them with the IE8. They're well past the 100 hour mark now and even though I'm not a big believer in burn-in, I must concede that there have been slight changes. Not in sound signature though, which stayed exactly the same, but they're definitely a bit closer to my IE8 in smoothness than a few days ago.

 

 

[raymondu999]

Hey James - yep; I saw your posts. Fantastic stuff, thanks. The only issue is that the IE80s are still very young with you and burn-in (which I'm a firm believer of, especially after my IE8s) will definitely not be up to their full strengths yet.

 

[jrkong]

once i get mine, we'll have some real nice comparisons

 

[jrkong]

well from what i know the packaging and the headphones are different, everything else is the same

 

[dwizard]

 
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Hi James thanks for the impression on the IE80. Between the W4 and the IE80, which one do you think have better transparency and timbre? And which one do you prefer for classical music ( symphonies and concertos )? Thanks.
 
 

Definitely IE80. W4 tone/timbre is off. Everything sounds plasticky (plastic like). It's as if metal string on violins, guitars etc have been replaced with plastic ones and for A balanced armature earphone the datail is lacking.

 

[james444]

Quote:

Hey James - yep; I saw your posts. Fantastic stuff, thanks. The only issue is that the IE80s are still very young with you and burn-in (which I'm a firm believer of, especially after my IE8s) will definitely not be up to their full strengths yet.

Agreed, even though I'm not much of a burn-in believer, I've noticed some improvement in smoothness during the first 100 hours or so. That said, I'm counting about 180 hours now and it seems like my IE80 have settled - no noteworthy change over the last few days. I repeated my A/B vs. the IE8 with classical orchestra today and (sorry @dwizard still prefer the older Senns for their smoother and more delicate rendering.
 
Quote:

Hi James thanks for the impression on the IE80. Between the W4 and the IE80, which one do you think have better transparency and timbre? And which one do you prefer for classical music ( symphonies and concertos )? Thanks.

 
Quote:

Definitely IE80. W4 tone/timbre is off. Everything sounds plasticky (plastic like). It's as if metal string on violins, guitars etc have been replaced with plastic ones and for A balanced armature earphone the datail is lacking.

 
X2 for the most part with dwizard, even though I think the W4 have very good detail and separation with the right tips. And though their timbre isn't bad at all (by measure of most other multi-BAs I've heard), it still falls short of the IE80's. I wouldn't go so far as to call them plasticky, but everything's just a tad less natural and more artificial in my book. The W4 are more neutral though, and probably also slightly more transparent, but tbo both are not among the most transparent IEMs I've heard.

 

[Craigerz]

Quote:

This its the first I've heard if an ie10 and there's no info on there website . Do you have any source to prove there will be one

Put it this way...I'm the OP of this thread and nobody believed me that there was going to be an IE80...and as things turned out there was. I'm a "new" member, don't get on here a whole bunch, and have almost no posts - but believe you me...there is an IE10 coming this January and it's going to be beastly; which it better be for a msrp of around $800. I have a good friend who happens to be in the business, specializing in Sennheiser and am somewhat privy to some inside information. I'd love to post his information because he's doing a year long giveaway (six months left) but the mods have already let it be known that they don't want any type of advertising done on their forums...unless of course you pay them first...which is very unfortunate for you guys cuz he's given away some very nice cans so far including the HD 800's & HD 600's