[RCBinTN]

Yes! That's the schematic of the cable plug mod that I was looking for.
You guys are amazing and really fast.
I understand it's the cable plug, not the IEM itself, that needs surgery.

Thanks to @moedawg140 and @csglinux for the information.

Moedawg140 won on response speed, but csglinux posted the original schematic. I call it a tie.

Moedawg, I also appreciate your idea about the different connectors...
I'm not a big fan of the SE846 connectors in the first place.
My plan is to doctor the Forza plugs so they work, then gift the IEM's to my son in law.
He's been drooling since he first heard them a year ago. That's a lot of drool.

One more thing: moedawg, you have got to win the Head-Fi award for the most IEM's.
How many you got - at least 200? I tried to count them, but my eyes went blurry.

Enjoy your music!
RCB

 

[moedawg140]

Yes! That's the schematic of the cable plug mod that I was looking for.
You guys are amazing and really fast.
I understand it's the cable plug, not the IEM itself, that needs surgery.

Thanks to @moedawg140 and @csglinux for the information.

Moedawg140 won on response speed, but csglinux posted the original schematic. I call it a tie.

Moedawg, I also appreciate your idea about the different connectors...
I'm not a big fan of the SE846 connectors in the first place.
My plan is to doctor the Forza plugs so they work, then gift the IEM's to my son in law.
He's been drooling since he first heard them a year ago. That's a lot of drool.

One more thing: moedawg, you have got to win the Head-Fi award for the most IEM's.
How many you got - at least 200? I tried to count them, but my eyes went blurry.

Enjoy your music!
RCB

Yeah, @csglinux is awesomesauce! It's always a pleasure hanging out with him and talking all things audio!

Hopefully you can get the plugs to work for you - if not, Ted Allen is a great resource, and the Tri-Metal connectors will work without any issue, from experience.

I haven't counted, but it's definitely a lot more than 200. I have multiple pairs of the same IEMs as well that I haven't mentioned either. I've got a couple of amazing sounding IEMs coming in today (may be on the front step now), the Tidal Force Wave 5 plus a speaker pair came in yesterday, and other stuff is on the way. One system I've got to pick up -- should be super legit when I'm able to test it out. Looking forward to using the Questyle Audio QP2R case as well.

Good luck with your connector endeavors!

 

[tompaz909]

Just picked up a set of 846s today, sounding great with the white filters.

Does anyone have spare Knowles filters that they are wanting to sell. Mouser now charge $2 a pop for these.

 

[moedawg140]

Just picked up a set of 846s today, sounding great with the white filters.

Does anyone have spare Knowles filters that they are wanting to sell. Mouser now charge $2 a pop for these.

I'd just go with getting the new green, red, brown and maybe another color of your choice. Shipping plus purchasing used dampers may not offset the new dampers price very much. Also, I would personally purchase new, just so you will know without a doubt that the dampers won't have dander or dirt in them.

 

[tompaz909]

I'd just go with getting the new green, red, brown and maybe another color of your choice. Shipping plus purchasing used dampers may not offset the new dampers price very much. Also, I would personally purchase new, just so you will know without a doubt that the dampers won't have dander or dirt in them.

Good call, thanks for your input.

 

[moedawg140]

Good call, thanks for your input.

No worries at all! Just want you to have the best experience that you possibly can with the dampers!

 

[sneen]

Can someone call me a difference to the Fischer Amps FA4eXB. Above all, in sub bass? Because I find the FA4 can also be good sub bass. I'm thinking about whether I should get the FA4 and a neutral IEM or just the Shure.
THX.

Translated with Google!

 

[trishd]

Hi group - I am newby to this group. My problem is that I had a clog in one of the blue filters and had to use a fine needle to get it out - so, I mistakenly pushed all 4 of the little rounds of foam out of the 2 filters. I've listened to se846 'as is' now and definitely want to go back to having the foam. I thought I'll use 'the back end' of that fine needle to stuff the foam back in. How do I 'place' the foam, please??? One pc' of foam on either end? 2 pcs' in middle? Space the 2 out 'a little' ?? tyia

 

[joshnor713]

How do I 'place' the foam, please??? One pc' of foam on either end? 2 pcs' in middle? Space the 2 out 'a little' ?? tyia

I'm curious if it matters how exactly they're placed in the tube. In my mind it just matters if they're in there or not.

 

[csglinux]

Hi group - I am newby to this group. My problem is that I had a clog in one of the blue filters and had to use a fine needle to get it out - so, I mistakenly pushed all 4 of the little rounds of foam out of the 2 filters. I've listened to se846 'as is' now and definitely want to go back to having the foam. I thought I'll use 'the back end' of that fine needle to stuff the foam back in. How do I 'place' the foam, please??? One pc' of foam on either end? 2 pcs' in middle? Space the 2 out 'a little' ?? tyia

Welcome to the club, @trishd And great question! Well, this question turned out to have a more complicated answer than I first suspected. My initial reaction was exactly that of @joshnor713 - i.e., it shouldn't matter where the foam is, as long as it's in there. On the other hand, whenever I've assumed (based on some scientific reasoning) that a particular change would have no audible effect, I've always been wrong. Well, except perhaps w.r.t. hi-res audio, but that's an argument for another day I believe @ThomasHK posted some measured effects of foam damping in hearing aid acoustic tubing on another thread several months ago and at the time I dismissed the effect as the tubing in question was about 10 times longer than that in the SE846 filters. Anyway, I put my SE846 in my coupler this morning and ran a few measurements with the foam in one of two positions: 1) All at the nozzle-end (NE) of the blue filter 2) All shoved down to the filter end (FE) of the blue filter:

I made three measurements with each configuration of the foam. In each case the IEM was removed and replaced in the coupler, trying to achieve the exact same insertion depth. There are still small differences from re-inserting the SE846 in the coupler (I doubt we ever insert our IEMs the exact same way twice), but the differences between the foam positions are consistent and definitely large enough to be audible:

The main effect of the foam all at the FE is to lift the upper treble. It's not quite as dramatic as the effect from some of the Knowles' damper mods, but it also has a couple of advantages - there's no left shift in the (~8 kHz) resonance peak and the roll-off after that peak isn't as dramatic. BTW, in the early SE846 models there was only one piece of foam in the filters; for whatever reason, later models had two (smaller) pieces of foam. I did try one piece of foam at the filter end and the other at the nozzle end, and the results were pretty much in the middle of what you see above.

This is a really interesting mod to try (and cheaper/less hassle than the Knowles' damper mod) - I guess we should call this the trishd mod, in honor of our newest headfi member I don't think there's any wrong or right as to where these foams should go - you have to try these things for yourself and see what works best for your ears. I'm listening to Tidal now using the trishd mod For sure, it makes an audible difference. Just be careful not to damage the fabric filters when shoving or retrieving foam from the filter end (FE) of these filters. As long as you don't destroy the fabric filters or lose any little tiny pieces of acoustic damping foam, all these mods are easily reversible.

 

[trishd]

TY TY TY !!! What a fun 'club' I've joined ! (LOL.) And hahahah 'the trishd mod' !!

I am absolutely NOT a tech'ie, but I sure do admire your knowledge and skills - I sensed that placement of the foam would make for subtle diffs'. Hey: Shure tech' sent me an email - do you want me to cut&paste it here - I emailed Shure asking about foam/no foam & got a technical answer (that I don't und', but I'm sure you will....).

A little about myself: I tend to have 'low mood' and music changes my brain - music 'lights me up' and I 'come alive' - I LOVE listening to music I like. I tend to get 'hooked' on a group - it was U2 a few years back - I convert youtubes to mp3 so I only have 'completely free music' fyi. With U2, I'd listen to all the live versions - anything with nice sound quality. So: I'm pretty sick of U2 now lol!

Right now, I am TOTALLY into Keane if any of you happen to know of those 3 (for a while - 4) guys. The 3 of those guys together make beautiful music. My understanding is the group is kinda' 'taking a hiatus' and the lead singer, Tom Chaplin, is out on his own right now, came out with his own c.d. I've been patient in listening, giving things time, and I do appreciate the beauty to the music Tom's made all on his own. But, it's just not the same as those 3 guys altogether creating the music and performing as Keane.

I 'live' for music.

I studied online long before risking ordering earbuds for $1K like I did - I've never bought anything so lovely as these Shure SE846s - I love how I hear Tom Chaplin and his (I mean this nicely) asthmatic breathing/inhalations lol as he sings.

I bought these Shures off Ebay from a 'shipped from USA' seller with good ratings. The going price EVERYWHERE was $1K - this was oh Febr. 2017? I paid $810 but I Freaked when YES the package showed up literally one solid day after I'd ordered it - but it came from HONG KONG !! I would not have ordered from H.K. deliberately, but I checked things out and I know I bought the real product. Yes, I read here and elsewhere that you could find these for ~$720-730 online but I couldn't at the time I was buying.

It was a Very Big Deal for me to buy these se846s - the only other product I would have bought was the Shure $3K 'ultra' version. FYI: I contacted Shure, too, and asked about wired earbuds v bluetooth and received a Very Very tech' reply about why 'you gotta have those wires' !!!!

Oh - fyi - I myself own 2 'old' but IMO excellent (at the time.........) Bose earbuds - I think they sold for $100 at Target years ago. I felt 'ecstasy' listening to music with the Bose, but the Bose sound like complete tin cans compared to the se846----------------- actually EVERYTHING sounds like tin can Junk but for these se846.

I even think of the se846 as a 'medicine' I need to take - when I'm working at my desk, I will listen (mostly to Keane - but I like some other stuff, too......) with volume low - it brings my mood up - I feel so alive - I feel terrific, sharp, 'smarter' from my listening. As I said, I KNOW it has a big, powerful positive effect on my brain chemistry for me to 'make myself' listen. It's akin to me getting physical exercise each day - I have to nudge on my own self to get exercise done - I have to nudge on myself to put the se846s in as I work at my desk - gets me so happy !!

I also want to comment that literally there is only 1 classical music piece I like and that's this exact clip - I heard it years ago while watching a movie that used it in the film & loved it ever since - never tire of it - it makes my heart feel peace, calm, 'with God':

TY TY TY for replying to me !!!

 

[csglinux]

I love "Under The Iron Sea"! The extended version of "Atlantic" is one of my all-time faves I do recommend buying your own collection of lossless music (i.e., FLAC) though. It's not just supporting the artists (though that's good too) - mp3 conversions from YouTube won't sound as good and you won't be doing full justice to your SE846, which would be sad If you're on a budget, check out sites like discogs or murfie.com - these let you legally trade old CDs (in the case of murfie, you can buy/sell "virtual" CDs as lossless FLAC downloads, often for just $1 or $2).

BTW, I think many people here would be interested in seeing Shure's reply on the issue of damping foam in their filters. I don't know if Shure are aware of just how much we've been butchering improving their headphones

 

[moedawg140]

I love "Under The Iron Sea"! The extended version of "Atlantic" is one of my all-time faves I do recommend buying your own collection of lossless music (i.e., FLAC) though. It's not just supporting the artists (though that's good too) - mp3 conversions from YouTube won't sound as good and you won't be doing full justice to your SE846, which would be sad If you're on a budget, check out sites like discogs or murfie.com - these let you legally trade old CDs (in the case of murfie, you can buy/sell "virtual" CDs as lossless FLAC downloads, often for just $1 or $2).

BTW, I think many people here would be interested in seeing Shure's reply on the issue of damping foam in their filters. I don't know if Shure are aware of just how much we've been butchering improving their headphones

Good job with regards to the foams, and everything else!

Shure is most definitely aware -- I talked to a Shure manager at AXPONA last year, and he surprisingly knew all about the thread, knew about me (posting in the thread), etc. I totally understand their reason(s) for not posting publicly here (at least as of this specific post), though.

 

[trishd]

TY TY TY !!!

Shure is Super Nice to me.

I read about FLAC, & I've googled 'flac + keane' and I couldn't figure things out & gave up on that. BUT BELIEVE ME: I 'HEAR YA'' AND DEFINITELY I'LL BUY THOSE !!

I agree, too, that Shure shouldn't post here -- they kinda 'can't' post here.

Here's my email to&from Shure, redaction for privacy is all I did to it.

hahahah about 'butchering' their product!

PS - I meant to write before, too, that it's good how you cautioned me to be 'gentle' about anything I do - we humanoids only learn about how we have to 'be gentle' fiddling with electronics...........by wrecking a bunch of Stuff by not being gentle - I see there are adorable emoticons here lol


Reply from Shure:
Hello,

Looking at your photo, I believe that the "white thingy" could have been the blockage! I wonder if it could have been picked out from the end of the nozzle with the needle instead of pushed out from inside.

The two tiny pieces of foam that came out of the blue nozzle insert affect the frequency response of the earphone. There should be two other sets of inserts that also came with the SE846 earphones, which can be installed to achieve different frequency responses.

The black inserts probably have more foam inside them, which effectively blocks some of the high frequencies from passing and yields a "warm" sound. The white inserts, as far as I can tell from the ones I'm inspecting here, don't have any foam at all and will yield a "bright" sound.

It's probably fine to reinstall the blue inserts, but without the foam you may notice an increase in high frequencies akin to using the white inserts. Unless you order replacement blue inserts, there also won't be anything to prevent other foreign objects from entering the nozzle. If you prefer a sound with more bass, try the black inserts.

Here is a link to the SE846 user guide, for reference: http://pubs.shure.com/guide/SE846/en-US It includes instructions on changing the nozzle inserts.

The replacement part number for the blue insert is 90C16950, and they can be ordered through our Parts department - (800) 516-2525, option 3.

Aside from all of that, I'm glad to hear how much you have been enjoying the earphones!

Take care,
X
---
My email to Shure:

Hello Shure,

I had a 'clog' in one ear of these WONDERFUL earbuds - I tried gentle h20/little detergent and that didn't work. Online I couldn't figure out anything else to do to get the clog out, so I VERY VERY GENTLY twisted a very, very fine needle through the clogged blue piece. Out came a little white 'thing'y' which is in the pic' below on top of the black pen (so you can see it clearly). The 2 little black matching pieces came out.

So, I twisted the needle through the 'good' earbud blue piece and out came the same 2 little black matching pieces (but NO white 'thing'y').

Did I just ruin the 2 blue pieces and need to get replacements from you?

If I did ruin the 2 blue pieces, wasn't that tiny white 'thing'y' a clog, and I have no idea how else I could have 'pushed' that out of the blue piece??

Pic' is attached of all, including the needle I used. TY. Trish in MN

PS - Please know the SE846 earbuds are amazing for me - they've downright changed my life for the better - I have ongoing/nonstop 'low mood'/'depression' and so I now listen to music on low while I'm working at my desk and it definitely has me feeling happy and 'up' - TY so much!!

 

[moedawg140]

TY TY TY !!!

Shure is Super Nice to me.

I read about FLAC, & I've googled 'flac + keane' and I couldn't figure things out & gave up on that. BUT BELIEVE ME: I 'HEAR YA'' AND DEFINITELY I'LL BUY THOSE !!

I agree, too, that Shure shouldn't post here -- they kinda 'can't' post here.

Here's my email to&from Shure, redaction for privacy is all I did to it.

hahahah about 'butchering' their product!

PS - I meant to write before, too, that it's good how you cautioned me to be 'gentle' about anything I do - we humanoids only learn about how we have to 'be gentle' fiddling with electronics...........by wrecking a bunch of Stuff by not being gentle - I see there are adorable emoticons here lol


Reply from Shure:
Hello,

Looking at your photo, I believe that the "white thingy" could have been the blockage! I wonder if it could have been picked out from the end of the nozzle with the needle instead of pushed out from inside.

The two tiny pieces of foam that came out of the blue nozzle insert affect the frequency response of the earphone. There should be two other sets of inserts that also came with the SE846 earphones, which can be installed to achieve different frequency responses.

The black inserts probably have more foam inside them, which effectively blocks some of the high frequencies from passing and yields a "warm" sound. The white inserts, as far as I can tell from the ones I'm inspecting here, don't have any foam at all and will yield a "bright" sound.

It's probably fine to reinstall the blue inserts, but without the foam you may notice an increase in high frequencies akin to using the white inserts. Unless you order replacement blue inserts, there also won't be anything to prevent other foreign objects from entering the nozzle. If you prefer a sound with more bass, try the black inserts.

Here is a link to the SE846 user guide, for reference: http://pubs.shure.com/guide/SE846/en-US It includes instructions on changing the nozzle inserts.

The replacement part number for the blue insert is 90C16950, and they can be ordered through our Parts department - (800) 516-2525, option 3.

Aside from all of that, I'm glad to hear how much you have been enjoying the earphones!

Take care,
X
---
My email to Shure:

Hello Shure,

I had a 'clog' in one ear of these WONDERFUL earbuds - I tried gentle h20/little detergent and that didn't work. Online I couldn't figure out anything else to do to get the clog out, so I VERY VERY GENTLY twisted a very, very fine needle through the clogged blue piece. Out came a little white 'thing'y' which is in the pic' below on top of the black pen (so you can see it clearly). The 2 little black matching pieces came out.

So, I twisted the needle through the 'good' earbud blue piece and out came the same 2 little black matching pieces (but NO white 'thing'y').

Did I just ruin the 2 blue pieces and need to get replacements from you?

If I did ruin the 2 blue pieces, wasn't that tiny white 'thing'y' a clog, and I have no idea how else I could have 'pushed' that out of the blue piece??

Pic' is attached of all, including the needle I used. TY. Trish in MN

PS - Please know the SE846 earbuds are amazing for me - they've downright changed my life for the better - I have ongoing/nonstop 'low mood'/'depression' and so I now listen to music on low while I'm working at my desk and it definitely has me feeling happy and 'up' - TY so much!!

Welcome to Head-Fi!

For clarification: Shure can and has posted in the past. I do not believe that Shure (or any other manufacturer) "should not" post on Head-Fi, but I do understand why Shure (as of this specific post) chooses not to do so.