And even more fun with a Vibro Veritas coupler:
It seems hardly a week goes by without somebody jumping on this thread to bash the SE846 for its lack of treble extension. So, we should get this out of the way first... Yes, the SE846's treble does roll-off a bit sooner than one might like. This is, I feel, the one legitimate criticism of the SE846. However, there are things you can do to help here by swapping filters and eartips. Beyond the stock Shure filters, you have the option of installing Knowles' dampers, thanks to
@Jamnperry's ingenious little trick with cotton-swab tubing:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/se846-filter-mod.802350/
In my experience, the Knowles' dampers increase the lower treble by accentuating the ~8kHz peak, but they also slightly lower the extension past 10 kHz. (There are measurements showing this in
@Jamnperry's thread, linked above.)
Tips play a surprisingly huge role, with SpinFits or Symbios giving the most extension at/beyond beyond 10 kHz:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/shure-se846-impressions-thread.675219/page-1205#post-13617865
In the measurements in the figure above, I compared the stock blue, trishd mod on the blue filter (shoving all the foam down to the damper-end of the filter) and the modded blue and modded black (all foam removed from the filter tubes). Some thoughts/observations:
1) Modded blue and modded black are almost the same, but not quite
There's a tiny bit more amplitude at those resonance peaks with the modded blue filter.
2) The modded blue, modded black and trishd mod all have more energy at ~10 kHz (about +5 dB) relative to that of the stock blue filter.
3) If you don't think the SE846 has enough treble extension, try these filter mods with silicone tips like Symbio, SpinFit, or Westone Star.
Now for those other IEMs out there that are "better" than the SE846...
For sure, better treble extension does exist. I like the KSE1500, the FLC8S and the Xelentos. But better treble extension isn't the only consideration. You'll also need to sacrifice some isolation or carry an electrostatic amp (for the KSE1500). As for those Noble IEMs, I'm not sure what's happening to Noble these days. I hope they're doing ok. Their CanJam presence has been very light this year (only SG) and it's unusual to see these low prices from a relatively new flagship on Massdrop. The Kaiser Encore isn't a bad-sounding headphone, but it doesn't isolate all that well, has a huge chunky body with huge chunky nozzles and in terms of treble extension, it also starts rolling off around 8 kHz - pretty much the same as the SE846 with the above mods.
