[cosmopragma]

Am I the only one that's slightly irritated?
I mean, 23 pages and now Senn is releasing some socks with imprinted logo or something ...........

 

[Edwood]

Well, I'm in my hotel room relaxing now after a day at CES. Had a chance to stop by the Sennheiser booth.

One word.

Meh.

THey had all the new IE's, up to IE7. THey didn't have the IE8 there. But from what they told me they are the same drivers but with "tuneable" bass.

Pretty much the IE7 is not going to be even remotely worth the ~$300 retail price, for what is pretty much glorified iBuds. They all appeared to be single dynamic driver earphones.

The bass was quite boomy and distorted, of course, they wouldn't let me try them with my Pico and Laptop, which I had on me at the time. One already had a blown driver, was distorting like crazy.

It's sad to see Sennheiser fall to the level of me too copycat medicore products. Sennheiser is no longer in the true innovative high end market anymore. Of course, they haven't been for some time now.

Of course I could be wrong, and they showed Jude something else like the HD700, 800, whatever. But, yeah. Snowball's chance in hell for that one. Although I did drive through a snowstorm on the way to Vegas....

-Ed

 

[ast]

Ah.... so disappointed.

 

[texashorn91]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pretty much the IE7 is not going to be even remotely worth the ~$300 retail price, for what is pretty much glorified iBuds. They all appeared to be single dynamic driver earphones.

Wow. Not even good IEMs...

 

[IPodPJ]

Boooooooooo....

 

[ken36]

Phooey.

 

[tygger]

I've got a slight premonition that the new Senn IE line uses the drivers currently found in Yuin PKs.
If it is so, then IE8s are going to be really good, combining excellent PK1 driver, carefully engineered housing and 26db isolation. Can't wait to see the impedance specs of the new Senns...

 

[M0T0XGUY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tygger /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've got a slight premonition that the new Senn IE line uses the drivers currently found in Yuin PKs. If it is so, then IE8s are going to be really good, combining excellent PK1 driver, carefully engineered housing and 26db isolation. Can't wait to see the impedance specs of the new Senns...

And what evidence do you have to support such a connection?

 

[tygger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M0T0XGUY /img/forum/go_quote.gif And what evidence do you have to support such a connection?

Well, the facts are, there's a brand nobody has ever heard of appearing out of nowhere with the best-sounding earbuds on the market. I can only speak of PK1s which I own, but I'm pretty much sure the other two are not just FOTMs too. The only thing that differs them from cheap stock no-name buds are the drivers.
It takes a lot of time, money and professionalism to design a dynamic driver, especially a good-sounding one, therefore a developing/manufacturing company should be somehow interested in returning the investments.
There is no info on Yuin anywhere except Headfi and a small forum located here with about 40 members and 100 posts. No press exposure, no promotion, no English manual in the box, nothing.
Those are just my assumptions, I'll be only happy if they're proved wrong.

 

[espire]

Tygger, while you make some great points, you bring us no proof, only speculation. Additionally, earbud drivers and IEM drivers are designed as such from the start, and using one in place of the other does not result in the quality that is expected from Sennheiser at that price.

 

[ClieOS]

The (same) guy who own, designed and developed Yuin is an well known audiophile in China. He stated to a Chinese reviewer that his main goal is to build a earbud that top the current earbud market. That is why we have PK1 - which is actually short for Player Killer #1, signifying how he feel about his earbud: the one to end all.

Yuin is currently doing IEM research/prototyping of their own (ask Fang of Head-direct and you will know), and it is said to be ready on first half of 2008. It will be very foolish of them to do OEM for Senn at the same time. Plus, no one heard anything about Yuin doing OEM business so far.

Oh, Yuin did have massive web coverage on Chinese audio/electronic related website when they released PK1 as the most expensive earbud ever produced and sold in China. Since most of the Head-fi'er don't read Chinese and Yuin had no intention to sell it oversea at first (due to their small company size / production rate), it is no wonder why thing are so quiet here.

 

[Audio-Omega]

No new full-size headphones means I will get a better amp to go with my HD650.

 

[tygger]

I admit I was wrong in my assumptions, and frankly I'm glad about it.
The new Senns are all rated 16Ohms, so it's obvious they use genuine drivers.
My apologies.

 

[Edwood]

Copying and Pasting my new comments in the Member's Lounge CES thread. I met up with Jude and had a two man Head-Fi meet.

Thanks for the ride, Jude.

Had a great time chatting and checking out the IE7 and The New Wireless Hotness.

Sennheiser definitely shouldn't have used te Hip Hop setting on those iPods. Had a good listen to the IE7 with my Pico and laptop.

In a nutshell, the IE7 is the closest IEM to sounding like the HD650's.
It's not my personal taste, so it does have that "veil", but the soundstage was very very wide. Imaging was not as centered as I would like, though. THe bass was definitely not distorted, but it was too thick and boomy for my tastes.

But the Wireless ones really interests me. They are ear buds and don't go into the ear canal like IEMs, and have a lot of bass impact. If you were to blindfold me, I wouldn't be able to tell they were wireless. I still don't know about the comfort, but I suppose with the different pieces it might fit me better.

Also got a chance to compare the Jude's Predator with my Pico.

Anyways, I'm at an event, and have to run.

-Ed

 

[Edwood]

Oh, yeah, I forgot the name of the new wireless ear buds, the MX W1's. Those excite me alot more than the IE7 or IE8.

I was considering getting the AKG Hearo 999 wireless set, but the MX W1 as me reconsidering, if the street price is right. It all depends on the wireless range of the MX W1 as well.

-Ed