[kmmbd]

I‘d like to hear about your experiences with Forza Audioworks aftermarket cables for the IE 900. In particular 4.4 mm balanced. In comparison to the stock cable.

- There are two cable types, hybrid Cu-Ag and pure Cu ones. Is the copper one more recommendable than the hybrid, given that I consider the IE 900 a little bit strident in the upper registers? Am looking for a bit more smoothness. Or does the copper one lose in technicalities? And I would not like to get the bass response more pronounced than with the stock 4.4 mm.

- Is my choice of earpiece connector ”Sennheiser IE“ correct?

- Is the choice of ”Sony 4.4 mm“ correct? I think I read s.th. about Furutech 4.4 mm here on this thread???

What‘s your experience? Connector fit, comfort, microphonics, and sound? Thanks in advance.

I have the Claire Hybrid. For Furutech 4.4 you have to customize the order, you can ask directly or put a request while making the order.

I'll first say what I do not like about the cable: the sheathing is flexible, but could be a bit more flexible. At times it coils at an awkward angle and needs to be adjusted slightly.

Other than that - no complaints. Great design, tight braiding, little to no microphonics. The memory hook isn't annoying and lastly, the sound is not affected negatively. I'll recommend this one.

 

[Nostoi]

I‘d like to hear about your experiences with Forza Audioworks aftermarket cables for the IE 900. In particular 4.4 mm balanced. In comparison to the stock cable.

- There are two cable types, hybrid Cu-Ag and pure Cu ones. Is the copper one more recommendable than the hybrid, given that I consider the IE 900 a little bit strident in the upper registers? Am looking for a bit more smoothness and warmth up there. Or does the copper one lose in technicalities? And I would not like to get the bass response more pronounced than with the stock 4.4 mm; ideally bass would receive a bit more control.

- Is my choice of earpiece connector ”Sennheiser IE“ correct?

- Is the choice of ”Sony 4.4 mm“ correct? I think I read s.th. about Furutech 4.4 mm here on this thread???

What‘s your experience? Connector fit, comfort, microphonics, and sound? Thanks in advance.

I have the 8 wire Claire Hybrid IEM cable terminating in Furutech. It's not listed on the website and you'll have to manually ask. Costs twice as much as the one listed. The Sony plug listed will be a generic 4.4mm plug of average quality. I'm very happy with the Claire Hybrid. It's more ergonomic than it looks, feels great, and sounds great. Very baalnced overall. I would not recommend Forza's copper cables for the IE900 personally.

 

[omega1990]

I just received both an ie900 and ier-z1r last night. I have little experience with iems as I usually use headphones. For about ten years (maybe a little more) I've been only using the klipsch s4 whenever I needed something portable to hook up my phone. Been reading and watching videos in recent years about what to think of the speed in which iems are flooding the market and they seem to constantly be innovating themselves in order to out compete one another. Kinda seems like iems are a bit of a wild west marketplace to me so I've been extremely hesitant about getting one or even where to start.

I ended up getting a fitear tg334 used. The technical stuff was a very big jump from my klipsch s4's. I was surprised iems could do this, but was not liking the timbre of the balanced armature driver. I then thought I should look for dynamic driver iems since that's my favorite type of driver over planars and estats. I bought used the jvc fw10000 which actually nailed what I wanted to hear, and the wood used is really fancy in person. It felt like another step up from the tg334 I sold.

I then wanted an iem to compliment it and tried the meze advar since it was much more on the affordable side and while it sounded fun, it was too in your face for my tastes. I waited and saved up to try either the ier-z1r or the ie900 and saw they were both on sale. Decided to buy them both and see which one would be a better compliment for my jvc's and something crazy happened when I heard the sennheiser (have not listened to the ier-z1r yet). I had an actual eye opening moment.

I previously owned an hd600 and hd800 and sold them as I wasn't listening to them enough to justify keeping them, but the ie900's fq response is much more up my alley. Even though it's a little u shaped, the bass and treble is not intrusive on the mid range. There is a great amount of clarity to prevent things from sounding muddled to me, but what really impressed me was the timbre. Things sound just incredibly right to me. Yes I prefer the midbass bass punch of the jvc over subbass emphasis, but overall the ie900 is wonderfully engaging. I am still trying to wrap my brain around how this is viewed as laid back because the ie900 has completely gripped my attention. It seems that it has the dynamics that make me feel the dynamic swings in any given recording but the attack errs on holding back just a smidge from preventing fatigue. Like, I can hear this iem in a way that allows me to be engaged, but without the fatigue some exciting sounds might also carry such as appreciate the sometimes sharp sounds of a loud violin without stinging my ears or big bass without being hit by the bass in way that's too aggressive. I guess that makes it laid back? Not entirely sure... it really doesn't sound laid back. There's just no way I'm gonna fall asleep when listening to the ie900. This iem just puts a big smile on my face.

Even though it's only the second day now, I am legitimately impressed, so much so, that I immediately placed an order for the ie600 while it is still on sale.

I'm glad to have a sennheiser again. Even though I fell out of wanting anymore of their headphones for the time being, I will gladly keep and enjoy their iems!

 

[ericpalonen]

I'm glad to have a sennheiser again. Even though I fell out of wanting anymore of their headphones for the time being, I will gladly keep and enjoy their iems!

First of all thank you for being an awesome repeat customer. Although I wear the S hat, I always appreciate the impressions good or bad because they almost always have a relative comparison to another good product that I hope to try out for my own benchmarks. Welcome to both the #IE900Club and the #IE600Club!!!!!

 

[joshnor713]

Could someone please explain properly what the purpose(s) of the little ventilation hole on the bottom side of the earpieces is (are)? Is that in fact a ventilation hole? Reduce pressure build-up in the ear canal, for comfort, for ear health? Acoustic tuning? Prevent driver flex? …

Thanks a lot in advance.

Usually vents on earphones are to relieve bass pressure. That's definitely what the vents were on the IE 800. Maybe official Sennheiser can comment.

 

[Vladimir_F1]

My right earphone died yesterday... will see how warranty will cover that case.

When i shake my head a little bit i hear a noise that something is moving inside the earphone.

Previously i've seen comments that they can broke.... anyone knows how often IE900 breaks?

I have an update on this.

They've replace broken R earphone. Sounds good

I've noticed little difference between the original and replacement. Not sure if it's interesting for anyone but decided to share

One of the openings on the original L earphone is covered, while in replaced R it's not.

 

[OneEyedHito]

I have an update on this.

They've replace broken R earphone. Sounds good

I've noticed little difference between the original and replacement. Not sure if it's interesting for anyone but decided to share

One of the openings on the original L earphone is covered, while in replaced R it's not.

I’d venture to say that’s a QC issue and that piece should not be there.

 

[Vladimir_F1]

@ericpalonen Hi Eric, one of the sound openings of my IE900 is "closed". Will this be covered by a Sennheiser warranty?
I'm not sure how it affects the sound. Will it be possible to replace the defective unit? Or this is not a defect?

Please see screenshots above. If needed i can make a new video / photos.

 

[MichaelOH]

Hi All,

So forgive my ignorance - but I am not very techinically knowledgeable about earphones, sound levels etc.
Tonight, after about two years of living with the IE900 and loving them - I decided to take out my old FiiO FH7's and give them a spin.

My FH7's have a 2.5mm balanced cable, while I am using a 4.4mm with the IE900.

Well, the difference in volume between the two is like night and day - with the FH7 being MUCH louder.

My question is - is the 4.4mm jack on my FiiO M11 DAP faulty - or is the IE900 just made "quieter" than the FH7?

Thanks!

 

[OneEyedHito]

Hi All,

So forgive my ignorance - but I am not very techinically knowledgeable about earphones, sound levels etc.
Tonight, after about two years of living with the IE900 and loving them - I decided to take out my old FiiO FH7's and give them a spin.

My FH7's have a 2.5mm balanced cable, while I am using a 4.4mm with the IE900.

Well, the difference in volume between the two is like night and day - with the FH7 being MUCH louder.

My question is - is the 4.4mm jack on my FiiO M11 DAP faulty - or is the IE900 just made "quieter" than the FH7?

Thanks!

Without digging into the numbers too much, likely there is a sensitivity difference in the fiio and the sennheiser and possibly an output power difference from the 4.4mm output vs the 2.5mm output. In most scenarios there is power output difference between single ended (3.5mm) and balanced output (4.4/2.5) but maybe there is a difference in your dap's 2.5 to 4.4 also.

Definitely the sensitivity rating makes a big difference though. Hope this helps.

 

[kmmbd]

Hi All,

So forgive my ignorance - but I am not very techinically knowledgeable about earphones, sound levels etc.
Tonight, after about two years of living with the IE900 and loving them - I decided to take out my old FiiO FH7's and give them a spin.

My FH7's have a 2.5mm balanced cable, while I am using a 4.4mm with the IE900.

Well, the difference in volume between the two is like night and day - with the FH7 being MUCH louder.

My question is - is the 4.4mm jack on my FiiO M11 DAP faulty - or is the IE900 just made "quieter" than the FH7?

Thanks!

The reason is fairly simple.

Fiio FH7s have a sensitivity of 111dB/mW into 16 ohms. Meanwhile, IE 900s have a sensitivity of roughly 105dB/mW into 18 ohms.

So, for the same or similar amount of power, the Fiio's will be 6dB louder than the IE 900s for a 1kHz signal (sensitivity often varies across frequencies, but that's another topic).

Usually, a 3dB difference means roughly twice the energy and about 23% increase in sound pressure level (SPL). So, the Fiio's will be 50% louder than the IE 900s, approximately, given the amp is set at the same volume (and the power into them should be similar too due to the impedance values being similar).

[ Please note that all of this is off the top of my head but from memory, these should be correct. ]

 

[MichaelOH]

The reason is fairly simple.

Fiio FH7s have a sensitivity of 111dB/mW into 16 ohms. Meanwhile, IE 900s have a sensitivity of roughly 105dB/mW into 18 ohms.

So, for the same or similar amount of power, the Fiio's will be 6dB louder than the IE 900s for a 1kHz signal (sensitivity often varies across frequencies, but that's another topic).

Usually, a 3dB difference means roughly twice the energy and about 23% increase in sound pressure level (SPL). So, the Fiio's will be 50% louder than the IE 900s, approximately, given the amp is set at the same volume (and the power into them should be similar too due to the impedance values being similar).

[ Please note that all of this is off the top of my head but from memory, these should be correct. ]

Ahh, thank you both @OneEyedHito and @kmmbd. This definitely puts my mind at ease.

 

[omega1990]

Sennheiser ie600, ie900 and sony ier-z1r comparison
So I spent more time with all 3 of them, but it's really cumbersome to compare and AB them because taking iems out and putting another on back to back can hurt my ears. So I gave them all a long listening session for one evening every other day to give my ears a break for at least a whole day after listening to them. I used both my moon river 2 connected to my phone and a sony ta-zh1es.

First off I wanna say that I am very impressed with all 3 of them. Each of them really do some remarkable things. I'll talk about the ie900 and compare it to the ie600 first. I've read some reviews about it being less preferred than the ie600. Word of advise, don't listen to an ie600 after you pick it up from a fedex center on a cold day. When I first listened to the ie600 they sounded thin, shrill and frankly broken sounding. So the whole "king of dynamic iems" sounded like complete snake oil to me at first. I had it warm up to get back to room temperature which sounds crazy but I kid you not that after an hour or two they started to finally match up with what reviews said. The ie600 is more v shaped compared to the ie900. Bass is punchier but less full sounding than the ie900. Vocals are more forward than the ie900 but sound harsher, and while the treble has more bite than the ie900 it can at times be fatiguing. The headstage of the ie600 is close to the size of the ie900, but has less sense of depth. I felt the ie600's imaging while generally precise was-when combined with how the headstage works-to be a less complete interconnected picture and seemed to be disjointed and mediocre as a whole. Basically a three blob effect. Now I said that I was impressed with all 3 iems and yes I am very impressed by the ie600, but when compared to the ie900 it is noticeably less impressive. On its own the ie600 offers incredible value for the money. It's forward detail and resolution comes close to what ie900 can do. The v shape tuning and added bite makes the presentation exilerating. It may sound rougher to me than the ie900, but the ie600 is a direct upgrade from my klipsch s4 which is also v shaped.

Unlike v shaped headphones I've heard in the past like the th900, the ie600 does v shape in a way that it gets away with it. The treble could potentially be fatiguing but it's not really a hot take on treble in general. The bass still has some fullness but favors punch and slam. Vocals on my klipsch s4 can be nasal sounding, but that's not the case with ie600 which is so coherent and more accurate. In other words the ie600 is v shaped but with less of the downsides that I commonly associate with it.

Prat is exceptional on both the ie600 and ie900. They just sound spot on accurate and natural to me. The ie600 as a whole let's me experience the recordings of my music for better or worse, but the ie900 is a unique experience that I mentioned a bit in my previous post. The ie600 may be incredible value that sounds like a textbook audiophile sound, but the ie900 is what things could be like.

The ie900 somehow while being less forward still has alot of detail and resolution, but it has the ability to remove unwanted fatiguing effects. I enjoy how loud or quiet a recording can be without the imperfections that come with the quality of the recording. Bass may be more full and even on the ie900, but the bass is not bassy in an obnoxious way, it blends in with the rest of the sound. The treble added with the ie900's fullness is so satisfying to listen to. The ie900 has ability to be full but not muddy or truly congested. The background is so clean to me and the headstage on the ie900 has notes that seem to be more often than the ie600, better connected. Sounds travel about in a less interrupted fashion than on the ie600. The ie600 is more of a sports car or rollercoaster, yes its a rougher ride, but that's part of the appeal that adds to the excitement. The ie900 is like old school luxury to me in that the presentation is like a luxury car, you don't really feel the road. While you feel less of the flaws of a recording with the ie900, you lose none of the engagement which I find so surprising.

Some headphones try to sound so clean that they end up sounding dead. For example, I've had a hard time enjoying planars. It seems to me that while they sound very clean, they lack engagement for me and they sound less natural than dynamic headphones. The ie900 is a great example of showing how you can have a clean sound but still be engaged by the sound. The ie600 shows me the recording, but the ie900 brings me closer to the music as a whole. Sennheiser somehow figured out how to remove unwanted offensive effects in the music I listen to and just let me enjoy my music. Some of my music consists of compressed mp3's and the ie900 does something remarkable for me. It does a great job removing unwanted distortions in them and brings me closer to the music. Like taking an old vhs tape recording and upscaling/remastering it to 4k! The ie600 is more for when I wanna rock out with my music, but the ie900 is a more complete sound that kinda pampers the experience (I feel taken care of when listening to it).

The ier-z1r is very impressive in its own way. Its bass has more body and punch than both the ie600 and ie900 and seems to be the star of the show like critics have raved about. Now, as mentioned before, I am not a fan of balanced armature (BA) timbre. While the ier-z1r actually uses it tastefully, I feel that the sennheisers are more natural sounding as a whole. On the moon river 2 connected to my phone the ie600 and ie900 both sound excellent. The ier-z1r on the moon river 2 sounds unrefined. The ier-z1r's bass is too aggressive and forward, the BA timbre makes the mids sound starngely soft and weird to me, and the treble is rough and sharp in execution. I then tried listening to it using my ta-zh1es and this iem does a complete 180. The bass is more even but still bigger than the senny's (all while being less fatiguing), the mids get added richness to bring life to them, and the treble keeps it bite but gets a bit sweeter. The headstage is even larger, more precise, and deeper when using the ta-zh1es with the ier-z1r. The sennheisers on the ta-zh1es don't match up well for me in that they end up with too much fullness in the mids and sound less exiciting in this case.

On the ta-zh1es the ier-z1r does something that outclassed the other iems I own in that it sounds unusually similar to an actual headphone, the sony z1r. So from a technical standpoint the ier-z1r is in its own league. When I pulled out my mdr-z1r they really do sound very similar, but the ier-z1r is more v shaped and has a much smaller stage of course, still very impressive though. In the end I'm keeping all of them. For technical performance I choose the ier-z1r, but timbre and comfort wise I'd choose the sennheisers. The sennys fit in my ear easily and are very comfortable to wear for long periods of time, the ier-z1r forces me to use smaller ear tips to properly fit it in my ear, but it still brings discomfort.

If you wanted me to give praise to sennehiser on what they've done here it would be this. While the ie600 shows incredible value for the performance it brings, the ie900 goes further by impressing me in a way that I would actually like sennheiser to build upon the ie900 and transfer this experience into a headphone in some way. The ie900 seems to me to be a more modern take on sound in that it solves issues I've had with their headphones such as wanting more quantitative bass that is still clean and less sibilance in the treble that still renders itself as highly resolving. I'm more than happy letting the ie600 remain an iem, but the things the ie900 does should not be left to being just an iem. There needs to be a totl headphone equivalent.

The ie900 does everything I wish planars would do and shows for my preferences that dynamics still have untapped potential that needs to be unleashed in a summit fi scene that is overcrowded with planars. There is a dynamic compression to planars and timberal plastic effect in a effort to be clean sounding that is not present when the ie900 does a clean take on sound. The ie900 shows you can have naturalness, dynamics and a clean background and it would truly be a shame if sennheiser left this kind of sound to just an iem. I hope the ie900 succeeds and maybe will convince sennheiser to create a high end headphone that takes this sound even further. I know the audiophile community likes to play gatekeeper for this brand, but for my preferences, the ie900 is progress to me and if sennheiser has the ability to afford to not replace their sacred cows but expand what they offer as a whole, maybe there is enough room to satify a wider range of customers without abandoning their established fanbase. Hopefully their is room to afford adding another headphone that captures some aspects of what the ie900 does in a summit fi format, and I believe sennheiser is fully capable of figuring that out if they wanted to.

Sorry for the long post,

 

[MarkParity]

Sorry for the long post,

No need to apologise, great write-up.


I find it easy to believe that a cold IEM would sound off and need a bit of time to warm up so I agree with that more than burn in.

You don't like planar's, IEM's or Headphones? I happened to be reading your review while listening to my Oppo PM-3 and thinking, I bet Omega1990 hasn't tried these.

I didn't see what tips you are using on your ie900?

 

[OneEyedHito]

Sennheiser ie600, ie900 and sony ier-z1r comparison
So I spent more time with all 3 of them, but it's really cumbersome to compare and AB them because taking iems out and putting another on back to back can hurt my ears. So I gave them all a long listening session for one evening every other day to give my ears a break for at least a whole day after listening to them. I used both my moon river 2 connected to my phone and a sony ta-zh1es.

First off I wanna say that I am very impressed with all 3 of them. Each of them really do some remarkable things. I'll talk about the ie900 and compare it to the ie600 first. I've read some reviews about it being less preferred than the ie600. Word of advise, don't listen to an ie600 after you pick it up from a fedex center on a cold day. When I first listened to the ie600 they sounded thin, shrill and frankly broken sounding. So the whole "king of dynamic iems" sounded like complete snake oil to me at first. I had it warm up to get back to room temperature which sounds crazy but I kid you not that after an hour or two they started to finally match up with what reviews said. The ie600 is more v shaped compared to the ie900. Bass is punchier but less full sounding than the ie900. Vocals are more forward than the ie900 but sound harsher, and while the treble has more bite than the ie900 it can at times be fatiguing. The headstage of the ie600 is close to the size of the ie900, but has less sense of depth. I felt the ie600's imaging while generally precise was-when combined with how the headstage works-to be a less complete interconnected picture and seemed to be disjointed and mediocre as a whole. Basically a three blob effect. Now I said that I was impressed with all 3 iems and yes I am very impressed by the ie600, but when compared to the ie900 it is noticeably less impressive. On its own the ie600 offers incredible value for the money. It's forward detail and resolution comes close to what ie900 can do. The v shape tuning and added bite makes the presentation exilerating. It may sound rougher to me than the ie900, but the ie600 is a direct upgrade from my klipsch s4 which is also v shaped.

Unlike v shaped headphones I've heard in the past like the th900, the ie600 does v shape in a way that it gets away with it. The treble could potentially be fatiguing but it's not really a hot take on treble in general. The bass still has some fullness but favors punch and slam. Vocals on my klipsch s4 can be nasal sounding, but that's not the case with ie600 which is so coherent and more accurate. In other words the ie600 is v shaped but with less of the downsides that I commonly associate with it.

Prat is exceptional on both the ie600 and ie900. They just sound spot on accurate and natural to me. The ie600 as a whole let's me experience the recordings of my music for better or worse, but the ie900 is a unique experience that I mentioned a bit in my previous post. The ie600 may be incredible value that sounds like a textbook audiophile sound, but the ie900 is what things could be like.

The ie900 somehow while being less forward still has alot of detail and resolution, but it has the ability to remove unwanted fatiguing effects. I enjoy how loud or quiet a recording can be without the imperfections that come with the quality of the recording. Bass may be more full and even on the ie900, but the bass is not bassy in an obnoxious way, it blends in with the rest of the sound. The treble added with the ie900's fullness is so satisfying to listen to. The ie900 has ability to be full but not muddy or truly congested. The background is so clean to me and the headstage on the ie900 has notes that seem to be more often than the ie600, better connected. Sounds travel about in a less interrupted fashion than on the ie600. The ie600 is more of a sports car or rollercoaster, yes its a rougher ride, but that's part of the appeal that adds to the excitement. The ie900 is like old school luxury to me in that the presentation is like a luxury car, you don't really feel the road. While you feel less of the flaws of a recording with the ie900, you lose none of the engagement which I find so surprising.

Some headphones try to sound so clean that they end up sounding dead. For example, I've had a hard time enjoying planars. It seems to me that while they sound very clean, they lack engagement for me and they sound less natural than dynamic headphones. The ie900 is a great example of showing how you can have a clean sound but still be engaged by the sound. The ie600 shows me the recording, but the ie900 brings me closer to the music as a whole. Sennheiser somehow figured out how to remove unwanted offensive effects in the music I listen to and just let me enjoy my music. Some of my music consists of compressed mp3's and the ie900 does something remarkable for me. It does a great job removing unwanted distortions in them and brings me closer to the music. Like taking an old vhs tape recording and upscaling/remastering it to 4k! The ie600 is more for when I wanna rock out with my music, but the ie900 is a more complete sound that kinda pampers the experience (I feel taken care of when listening to it).

The ier-z1r is very impressive in its own way. Its bass has more body and punch than both the ie600 and ie900 and seems to be the star of the show like critics have raved about. Now, as mentioned before, I am not a fan of balanced armature (BA) timbre. While the ier-z1r actually uses it tastefully, I feel that the sennheisers are more natural sounding as a whole. On the moon river 2 connected to my phone the ie600 and ie900 both sound excellent. The ier-z1r on the moon river 2 sounds unrefined. The ier-z1r's bass is too aggressive and forward, the BA timbre makes the mids sound starngely soft and weird to me, and the treble is rough and sharp in execution. I then tried listening to it using my ta-zh1es and this iem does a complete 180. The bass is more even but still bigger than the senny's (all while being less fatiguing), the mids get added richness to bring life to them, and the treble keeps it bite but gets a bit sweeter. The headstage is even larger, more precise, and deeper when using the ta-zh1es with the ier-z1r. The sennheisers on the ta-zh1es don't match up well for me in that they end up with too much fullness in the mids and sound less exiciting in this case.

On the ta-zh1es the ier-z1r does something that outclassed the other iems I own in that it sounds unusually similar to an actual headphone, the sony z1r. So from a technical standpoint the ier-z1r is in its own league. When I pulled out my mdr-z1r they really do sound very similar, but the ier-z1r is more v shaped and has a much smaller stage of course, still very impressive though. In the end I'm keeping all of them. Technically I choose the ier-z1r, but timbre and comfort wise I'd choose the sennheisers. The sennys fit in my ear easily and are very comfortable to wear for long periods of time, the ier-z1r forces me to use smaller ear tips to properly fit it in my ear, but it still brings discomfort.

If you wanted me to give praise to sennehiser on what they've done here it would be this. While the ie600 shows incredible value for the performance it brings, the ie900 goes further by impressing me in a way that I would actually like sennheiser to build upon the ie900 and transfer this experience into a headphone in some way. The ie900 seems to me to be a more modern take on sound in that it solves issues I've had with their headphones such as having more quatitave bass that is still clean and less sibilance in the treble that still renders itself as highly resolving. I'm more than happy letting the ie600 remain an iem, but the things the ie900 does should not be left to being just an iem. There needs to be a totl headphone equivalent.

The ie900 does everything I wish planars would do and shows for my preferences that dynamics still have untapped potential that needs to be unleashed in a summit fi scene that is overcrowded with planars. There is a dynamic compression to planars and timberal plastic effect in a effort to be clean sounding that is not present when the ie900 does a clean take on sound. The ie900 shows you can have naturalness, dynamics and a clean background and it would truly be a shame if sennheiser left this kind of sound to just an iem. I hope the ie900 succeeds and maybe will convince sennheiser to create a high end headphone that takes this sound even further. I know the audiophile community likes to play gatekeeper for this brand, but for my preferences, the ie900 is progress to me and if sennheiser has the ability to afford to not replace their sacred cows but expand what they offer as a whole, maybe there is enough room to satify a wider range of customers without abandoning their established fanbase. Hopefully their is room to afford adding another headphone that captures some aspects of what the ie900 does in a summit fi format, and I believe sennheiser is fully capable of figuring that out if they wanted to.

Sorry for the long post,

The sennheiser IEM’s are severely downgraded in my book for not using a standard iem cable connection. Love the sound of the ie900, but the cable connection is why I won’t keep them long term.