[LFC_SL]

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Not exactly, I phoned shure uk up. £999 confirmed release june at selfridges they are going to ring me back when its released here. edit Ive also been in contact with earphone solutions and $1000 deal is for North America only. Ive covered most the bases Im afraid.

 
Thanks for investigating
 
Am reading purely out of interest, my immediate focus is to upgrade my source. It's fine for everyone to be talking about smartphones and Sansa's (of which I have both), but once you hear these audiophile daps / triple stacks there is no going back. A window is opened to your music files with superior dac and amp, if people are going to talk about the effect of upgrading IEM

 

[spook76]

Does any know whether the nozzels on the SE 846 are the same diameter as the existing Shure IEMs? I know they are stainless steel but did Shure change the diameter.

 

[CantScareMe]

. 
ooooooo, nice!
 
 
Work pretty close to here. A few months ago they had the k3003 (in a glass box) but were reluctant to let me demo it. I think now they must be more open about demo policies as they have plenty other headphones out there for demo - like the hd800, ultrasone sig dj, denon d7100, beyer t50p, beyer t70, shures, and plenty others. I think it was harrods that kicked things off by launching a high end headphone lineup all for demoing and, well, being selfridges they like to compete with harrods..
 
Interestingly I asked a few staff members and apparently these kind of headphones all do sell pretty well. There are more audiophiles (or people with cash to burn for headphones) than I thought! 

 

[Currawong]

I met a guy in Tokyo who designed his own IEM out of frustration after being disappointed with most on offer. His normal rig is a top-end Stax rig, so I can see where he is coming from. Given my experience on the weekend with a modded AK100 and various top-end IEMs the idea of a ~$2k portable rig that comes close to that of a far more expensive Stax rig doesn't seem so crazy. There are definitely many people out there who are interested in IEMs at this level.

 

[music_4321]

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No date as yet, he said he will ring me when he knows more.

 
Thanks — please keep us posted when/if you hear more news from Shure UK.

 

[etys rule]

As I haven't read all 45 pages forgive me if this has been mentioned. While I applaud Shure for finally releasing what I hope to be a successful IEM for them, I am again perplexed. As a forever user of ER4P's and UM2's (almost always portably) I have always marveled at how people seemed to get caught up in the "more is better" thinking. As I only use IEM's while commuting or traveling, and almost never at home, I never felt the need to upgrade. Whatever improvements made would sure to be cancelled out by ambient jackhammers, buses, subways, etc.
 
I will probably mooch a pair off a friend for a weekend, but $1,000 is a lot of dough. IMHO, if I were to drop that type of coin, I'd have to go custom.
 
I guess Shure is simply pricing their newest flagship in line with the rest of the market. Except Shure's newest flagship product isn't custom and once cost $500. It was once known as E5. God Bless them. Only in America folks, only in America.

 

[jude]

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...I guess Shure is simply pricing their newest flagship in line with the rest of the market. Except Shure's newest flagship product isn't custom and once cost $500. It was once known as E5. God Bless them. Only in America folks, only in America.

 
Though I think you were being somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I wanted to make clear to those who might be confused by what you're saying that the Shure SE846 is not the Shure E5c, so the SE846 did not once cost $500 (though the E5c did).
 
If you've heard the E5c (I own one, and so have heard it), and you've heard the SE846 (I have one here, and so have heard it), you wouldn't ever suggest they're one and the same.

 

[dleblanc343]

Tell us more Jude, while you are here! We need more impressions

 

[warrenzn]

Quote:

 
Though I think you were being somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I wanted to make clear to those who might be confused by what you're saying that the Shure SE846 is not the Shure E5c, so the SE846 did not once cost $500 (though the E5c did).
 
If you've heard the E5c (I own one, and so have heard it), and you've heard the SE846 (I have one here, and so have heard it), you wouldn't ever suggest they're one and the same.

 
Hey Jude, great job on the video review on these BTW. You pretty much nailed it. I am interested to know: having just bought the SE535 Limited Edition (Asian version), how much of a difference is there sonically between the new SE846 and the SE535 Ltd-J? I know it might be difficult to quantify such a thing and there are many different aspects to sound but if you could perhaps just give an indication, i.e. significantly better treble, slightly better mids, mind blowingly better bass; clarity, etc, it might give a better idea whether this is worth saving up for until I can audition them for myself next year in my annual visit to the Far East. Unfortunately where I live (South Africa) we are unlikely to see these anytime soon.

 

[music_4321]

Quote:

As I haven't read all 45 pages forgive me if this has been mentioned. While I applaud Shure for finally releasing what I hope to be a successful IEM for them, I am again perplexed. As a forever user of ER4P's and UM2's (almost always portably) I have always marveled at how people seemed to get caught up in the "more is better" thinking. As I only use IEM's while commuting or traveling, and almost never at home, I never felt the need to upgrade. Whatever improvements made would sure to be cancelled out by ambient jackhammers, buses, subways, etc.
 
I will probably mooch a pair off a friend for a weekend, but $1,000 is a lot of dough. IMHO, if I were to drop that type of coin, I'd have to go custom.
 
I guess Shure is simply pricing their newest flagship in line with the rest of the market. Except Shure's newest flagship product isn't custom and once cost $500. It was once known as E5. God Bless them. Only in America folks, only in America.

 
You make some valid points, but if you have any real interest in this product, you may want to spend a bit of time and read the 45 pages you haven't yet read (you can easily skip many posts).

 

[gkanai]

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I will probably mooch a pair off a friend for a weekend, but $1,000 is a lot of dough. IMHO, if I were to drop that type of coin, I'd have to go custom.
 
I guess Shure is simply pricing their newest flagship in line with the rest of the market. Except Shure's newest flagship product isn't custom and once cost $500. It was once known as E5. God Bless them. Only in America folks, only in America.

 
Fwiw, going CIEM means that it's much harder to resell. Resale of a used 846 or used FitEar ToGo! 334 is much higher due to them both being UIEMs.
 
The pricing is what it is- it's in line with the top of the market and Shure needs to make money on the IEM as they would with any of their products.
 
To me we're in what seems to be a golden age for high-end IEMs. That we have so many high-end offerings for CIEMs as well as UIEMs is pretty amazing when only a few years ago the top end was $500 or so and much fewer selection.
 
Remember when the HD580 was high-end for over-the-ear headphones? That wasn't that long ago and the market for high-end headphones has totally exploded since then.

 

[Ultrazino]

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To me we're in what seems to be a golden age for high-end IEMs. That we have so many high-end offerings for CIEMs as well as UIEMs is pretty amazing when only a few years ago the top end was $500 or so and much fewer selection.

 
My view is not as beautifully colored as yours, sadly. Because I think we're in a world of rip-off when people accept to pay too much for products, like for example Beats. AKG, Sennheiser and Shure are taking advantage of that.
 
Production costs sink, capacities grow, machines get faster and work more precisely, engineers keep improving, etc. etc. Look at your smartphone how it improved in the last 4 years. Now look at the IE80 how it improved over the IE8 - it's a joke and a rip-off!
Sennheiser could *probably* put their IE800 technology in a plastic shell and sell it for the same price as the IE8. But they call it exquisite and charge triple the price - because people pay too much for Beats and accept that.
 
Compare your "high-end" to the improvements that happened in the budget sector. The sound you can get for 100 $ or much less (Sony MH1, LG QuadBeat) was unthinkable 4 years ago! Technology gets cheaper and better.
 
So Shure maybe did create a new flagship and came up with an innovative feature. Well, that's what happens if you hire engineers and product designers while your equipment gets more capable. How old is the SE535? They should replace it - but instead they will keep the price for the SE535 and add the SE846 on top. I don't see any reason to accept that.
 
I am very much interested to audit the SE846 because I have no doubt it will impress me (even if I don't like the tonal balance), but personally, I will take the money and give it to a customs guy, shake his hand and thank him for his talent and his many work hours he put into it, tuning four drivers to my liking and putting my very own logo on top.
If you think a piece of plastic (sorry, with metal rings inside) is worth the same, then go ahead.
 
It won't take long until Panasonic or JVC outclass the SE535 with a 100$ price tag. I am looking forward to that.

 

[eke2k6]

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Fwiw, going CIEM means that it's much harder to resell. Resale of a used 846 or used FitEar ToGo! 334 is much higher due to them both being UIEMs.
 
The pricing is what it is- it's in line with the top of the market and Shure needs to make money on the IEM as they would with any of their products.
 
To me we're in what seems to be a golden age for high-end IEMs. That we have so many high-end offerings for CIEMs as well as UIEMs is pretty amazing when only a few years ago the top end was $500 or so and much fewer selection.
 
Remember when the HD580 was high-end for over-the-ear headphones? That wasn't that long ago and the market for high-end headphones has totally exploded since then.

 
I respectfully disagree. Flagship iems used to cost under $500, but now it's no biggie if they're much more expensive for less than 10% improvements in SQ. It's actually a dark time, simply because the law of diminishing returns is evident more now than ever.
 
IMO, true innovation is making better technology cheaper and more accessible. True innovation puts several times the computing power of the first space rockets into the palm of your hand, for exponentially less money. True innovation makes solid state drives only slightly more expensive than their much slower and less durable spinning counterparts.
 
Shure had two options when deciding how to price the 846. They could have priced it at the level of the SE535, and widely expanded the number of people that would buy it, and kept their revenue at about the same level it would have been selling the units for double the price. Unfortunately they chose to cash in.
 
Before anyone says I'm just a Shure basher, I loved the SE215. It was my first "real" iem. It represented great sound and even better build quality, all at the tender price of $79 (I got a slight discount). I loved it so much that I saved up the money for a SE535. Luckily for me, I discovered the GR07 days before I was to call up Shure and hand them my debit card info. In the back of my mind though, I still wanted to audition the 535. A year later, I again had the money for the 535. I was in an airport and saw a store that had the 535 on display. After an A/B with the 535 my GR07, I found that the latter was simply more detailed, more extended, quicker, and better textured...all at about a third of the cost. THAT is true innovation.
 
CIEMs can get away with their prices because they require individual attention for each personalized set, a cost that has to be accounted for by the company, similar to companies like fitear, ocharaku, and transluscent. 
 
Look at Schiit. They started off extremely small, but the second they had access to better techniques and machinery they produced the Magni and Modi. The Asgard 2 is another example of them making better products for the same price as the older generation. Same goes for companies like Apple and Samsung that push the limits on their products without feeling the need to jack up prices. They each have huge networks and staff to account for, so that doesn't excuse Shure either.
 
Just my 2 cents.

 

[eke2k6]

Adding to my previous posts, which of you who are currently defending the 846 would comfortable buy Apple or Android products if they went up $200 in price for every new incremental iteration?

 

[jay19]

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Hey Jude, great job on the video review on these BTW. You pretty much nailed it. I am interested to know: having just bought the SE535 Limited Edition (Asian version), how much of a difference is there sonically between the new SE846 and the SE535 Ltd-J? I know it might be difficult to quantify such a thing and there are many different aspects to sound but if you could perhaps just give an indication, i.e. significantly better treble, slightly better mids, mind blowingly better bass; clarity, etc, it might give a better idea whether this is worth saving up for until I can audition them for myself next year in my annual visit to the Far East. Unfortunately where I live (South Africa) we are unlikely to see these anytime soon.

Hi Jude, It would be awesome if you could answer this question as I'm in the same boat as well. Just got my SE535-LTDs and torn between upgrading them so soon, or holding off. Thanks in advance!