[cn11]

Well... so much for coming to this thread and hoping to learn anything more about the actual original topic, over the last several pages!   

  

 

[Oof Oink]

Every single time I come back to this thread, I'm reminded of the scene from Dumb & Dumber, where Harry and Lloyd pick up the hitchhiker, and introduce him to their ways.

"Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?"

*pause*

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

So, why then do I keep coming back? Because Dumb & Dumber happens to be my favorite comedy of all time, that's why.

On another note, I hate to bring things back on topic. But, I have to get this off my chest. Jude, are you a lefty, and what's your favorite sandwich meat?

 

[cn11]

Agreed, this is getting comical.

 

[Sinocelt]

Quote:

Wow! Look guys, I'm a small business owner. I am not a professional reviewer. I cannot write about sound like most of you can. I have the SE846 here in Orlando. If anyone of you are in the central Florida area and would like to spend 2 hours with them to write an article for Earphone Solutions, I can arrange for you to come over and try the earphones and write something that would suck less than what I did (it shouldn't be hard, right?
 
The only experience I have is the fact that I listen to many different models, spend time with them and have been doing this since 1995.
 
What I wrote, aside from not meeting the expectation of many of you, is my honest opinion. They sound incredible. I never pretended to be able to write and compare like many of you can. I can't. And that's why I have many times reached out to some of you in the past.
 
When UE launched the Triple.fi many customers that called and asked for my opinion I would tell them I preferred the 5 Pros. "But they are $150 less!" But for me the treble on the triple.fis were too much. So I do give my personal opinion. And when I find my self in a position of not loving a new model, I simply don't say I love them. We try our best.
 
I apologize if my family's history is boring, off topic, or if it came out like "cheap marketing" and whatever else.
 
I apologize I can't translate into words the sound quality of the SE846. I was hoping I could do that later this weekend doing an A/B comparison with my other earphones. Our customers know what we are and what we are not. We strive to provide the best, honest, customer service we can.
 
This was not meant to be an in-depth review (certainly I can't write one that would satisfy some of our customers) but I felt anxious to publish some quick first impressions. My mistake in the title.
 
The criticism is noted. Thanks for the feedback. Brutal. Not something I'd like to start the weekend with but it is what it is.
 
IMHO the SE846 is the best earphones I've ever listened to. I know music from a listener perspective. That's my experience. And yes, I can't write very well like an audiophile / copywriter would and I'm sorry I disappointed some of you with my first impressions article.

 
You still haven't told us, though: Which $1200 customs do you have, that you prefer the SE846 over? 

 

[music_4321]

Quote:

Please tell me you are joking??

 
Do I really need to tell you whether I was joking or not? I don't think you need to read too many of my posts—which I know you have—to know the answer to that question.
 
Quote:

So a small business owner has no reason to be honest? Both from a business standpoint AND from a personal integrity standpoint?

 
Is that what I said? I suggest you go back and look carefully at the part of your post I highlighted which prompted my response (your sweeping generalisation is what it was).
 
There are small businesses that are indeed honest and some that are not. There are some that are a little dishonest, some quite dishonest, others very dishonest, and some shamelessly dishonest. The degree of honesty / dishonesty isn't always that easy to gauge since we either have no clue about how that business is/should be run, or some of the questionable business practices only come to light (many) years later (depending on the sort of industry/sector/business we're talking about). The conclusions we reach also depend on our very own personal definition of what is honest, integrity, etc.

I won't talk specifically about Flavio's integrity, honesty & business practices because it's not my place to do so. I did state, however, that I personally "haven't always appreciated some of the marketing techniques Earphone Solutions & other companies use", and I'll leave it at that. I also pointed out misleading / inaccurate information in his 'review'. Whether he posted that in the his site is irrelevant in this case as some of the information was, er, misleading / inaccurate.

On a related note, good customer service (CS) is not necessarily a virtue or a sign of honesty & integrity, but more often than not just a very sound / intelligent business practice, or put another way: many successful businesses (big and small) are well aware of the tremendous importance of good CS, which tends to generate more business / revenue, specially in our Internet age where things are reported virtually in real-time. I have seen numerous times how several Head-fiers have complained in public about some CS or quality control related issue only to suddenly receive a private message or find a post written by the sponsor / manufacturer in question telling that member they'll be taken care of immediately.  Good CS in some cases is not unlike what is known as "corporate social responsibility", a practice which not so infrequently is a means for a business to survive (or not lose market share) by attempting to change people's (increasingly worse) perception of it, ie when there's a real risk of losing business.

Head-fi has become a (very) powerful community and several MOTs / sponsors / manufacturers know that often what is written in these forum threads can make a significant difference—and in some cases all the difference—in the success or failure of their business; some of these (small) manufacturers / start-ups / MOTs / sponsors almost completely depend on customers from this very community which, BTW, seems to be growing by the minute.
 
Quote:

Who said anything about cost comparison per performance? Who cares about that? Everybody's barameter is different so that is pointless. I am talking straight up comparisons

 
Think again about that last part of my post and perhaps you'll see more clearly my brand of humour (which I thought did not require a smiley or emoticon)

 

[kerrys30]

Flavio.

One question - are you able to test them with the AK120?? I am currently thinking of giving my se535 to my dad and looking for another set and may hold on another couple months for the se846 but have read that the impedance would not match well!

Thanks if can help.

 

[AmberOzL]

Quote:

 
You still haven't told us, though: Which $1200 customs do you have, that you prefer the SE846 over? 

If my memory is relieble, he said, the customs were some kind of gift to him from manufacturers and it is not cool to give their names. I think he mentioned he has 4 customs, all in this way. So I guess we won't get any name.

 

[up late]

Do I really need to tell you whether I was joking or not? I don't think you need to read too many of my posts—which I know you have—to know the answer to that question.

 

Is that what I said? I suggest you go back and look carefully at the part of your post I highlighted which prompted my response (your sweeping generalisation is what it was).

There are small businesses that are indeed honest and some that are not. There are some that are a little dishonest, some quite dishonest, others very dishonest, and some shamelessly dishonest. The degree of honesty / dishonesty isn't always that easy to gauge since we either have no clue about how that business is/should be run, or some of the questionable business practices only come to light (many) years later (depending on the sort of industry/sector/business we're talking about). The conclusions we reach also depend on our very own personal definition of what is honest, integrity, etc.


I won't talk specifically about Flavio's integrity, honesty & business practices because it's not my place to do so. I did state, however, that I personally "haven't always appreciated some of the marketing techniques Earphone Solutions & other companies use", and I'll leave it at that. I also pointed out misleading / inaccurate information in his 'review'. Whether he posted that in the his site is irrelevant in this case as some of the information was, er, misleading / inaccurate.


On a related note, good customer service (CS) is not necessarily a virtue or a sign of honesty & integrity, but more often than not just a very sound / intelligent business practice, or put another way: many successful businesses (big and small) are well aware of the tremendous importance of good CS, which tends to generate more business / revenue, specially in our Internet age where things are reported virtually in real-time. I have seen numerous times how several Head-fiers have complained in public about some CS or quality control related issue only to suddenly receive a private message or find a post written by the sponsor / manufacturer in question telling that member they'll be taken care of immediately.  Good CS in some cases is not unlike what is known as "corporate social responsibility", a practice which not so infrequently is a means for a business to survive (or not lose market share) by attempting to change people's (increasingly worse) perception of it, ie when there's a real risk of losing business.


Head-fi has become a (very) powerful community and several MOTs / sponsors / manufacturers know that often what is written in these forum threads can make a significant difference—and in some cases all the difference—in the success or failure of their business; some of these (small) manufacturers / start-ups / MOTs / sponsors almost completely depend on customers from this very community which, BTW, seems to be growing by the minute.


Think again about that last part of my post and perhaps you'll see more clearly my brand of humour (which I thought did not require a smiley or emoticon)

no one's above using an emoticon music. and this thread sucks.

 

[music_4321]

Quote:

no one's above using an emoticon music.

 
I do use smileys (not emoticons) now and again, but I do my best to stick to my green philosophy of doing all I can to save cyber ink.
 
Quote:

... and this thread sucks.

I know… If it wasn't in large part for those posts by our charming sparrow, this thread would be so much better and much more informative. But rest assured, once the SE846s start shipping, a new thread will soon be started (though believe me—since you haven't been here long enough—there will be plenty of off-topic posts there, too, and once a Rin FR graph is published, all hell will break loose and the massive SE846 scam will be exposed).

 

[Sinocelt]

Quote:

If my memory is relieble, he said, the customs were some kind of gift to him from manufacturers and it is not cool to give their names. I think he mentioned he has 4 customs, all in this way. So I guess we won't get any name.

 
A comparison to unnamed models is worthless. In a similar fashion, I keep reading reviews of microphones that are "a lot better than other microphones in the same price range" but without any name provided. After a while, it dawned on me that all microphones were better than all other microphones in the same price range. Go figure.

 

[dleblanc343]

Quote:

While everyone is awaiting the release of the SE846, I was surprised that no one (to my knowledge) has mentioned their full sized headphones flagship, the 1840, and questioned why Shure didn't try and take on top tier headphones with it like the Sennheiser HD800, for example. It is interesting that the company has chosen to compete only in the TOTL IEM space.

Because Shure has much more success with stage monitors/iems. Their headphones aren't the most competitive.

 

[AmberOzL]

Quote:

 
A comparison to unnamed models is worthless. In a similar fashion, I keep reading reviews of microphones that are "a lot better than other microphones in the same price range" but without any name provided. After a while, it dawned on me that all microphones were better than all other microphones in the same price range. Go figure.

Couldn't agree more. Well said.

 

[truckdriver]

You can take a freshmen level paper and grade it on a Harvard grad-school curve if you so choose. I think Flavio T did a good job of explaining that his review was not a Joker-level review but rather his purely subjective interpretation of what he heard.
 
Remember, Flavio T did not post his review here. He is under no obligation to issue specifics about custom comparisons here and I think his reasoning shows decorum.
 
The fabulous group of top notch reviewers on Head-Fi will make comparisons (and name names) for certain.

 

[gelocks]

Flavio's comparisons already started:
 
http://www.earphonesolutions.com/se846-vs-um3x.html
 
BTW, I have bought most of my Full-sized Shure's from Earphone Solutions. Don't have a bad thing to say about them!

 

[roy_jones]

Kind of funny that Flavio mentions he's a 16 year old.  While I think that might be the average age demographic of most of the posters in the IEM section of the forum, I suspect it's not the case for Flavio.

I like that he did a comparison to the UM3X as it's my primary IEM. 

I really like the concept of Shure's low pass filter.  I suspect that some of the advantage that the new hybrid designs have could be based on a similar goal of isolating the bass driver from the rest of the spectrum.