I don't buy that at all. Where was that rule written and I missed it? Compare headphones to IEMs? Wouldn't that be a little unfair to the headphones? I mean, these days, what size drivers do heaphones use - like, what? 50mm? Now, add up the total surface area of the 846 BA foils pushing the air and the result is sad indeed, in comparison. Takes headphones so much more material....so much more weight...so much more power - not to mention almost twice the price (Sennhieser HD800 from sweetwater = 1499.00 - same place I bought my 846s for 900.00) for marginally better sound at, in my case, a 75% reduction in usability....its just a stupid comparison that ends with SQ achieved per grams of material used. End of story.
You say portability, but a better word would be 'usability'. I mean, come on. People buy IEMs over headphones for some very good reasons. Take me for example. If I were limited to a set of headphones as my only headgear, the time I spend listening to music would easily be reduced by at least 70%. Sorry, but I am not driving around looking like the dork of the century with a pair of headphones on. It would cost me roughly 3 grand or more to install a car audio system that would replicate the quality of sound the 846s produce. But more than that, one of my favorite things to do is to put my girlfriend on the back of my Yamaha, get on I-35 just around sunset and make that trek north to Lake Texoma on the Oklahoma border. So nice. STP purple CD at 110mph and we are the only ones on the road. So sweet. Me with my 846s and my girlfriend with her SE215 special editions, connected to the fuze player and feed through a FiiO bass boosted amp. Its kinda what life is all about, and you know what? Aint happening with HD800s. Not while wearing full coverage helments. Sorry, just the way it is. I mean, really. Toss applicability aside and look at power consumption alone. I get 8 to 10 hours of constant play from my player and amp. I make that round trip to Lake Texoma driving 2 sets of IEMs with power left over. How do you suppose two sets of HD800s at those volume levels would fair?
But if you don't think usability factors in to the equation, you simply haven't been to very many live performances - well, not as close as I have, anyway. Creed, Black Crowes, 3rd Eye Blind and all the rest of them? The band themselves use IEMs. Now, the sound engineers, the technicians and everyone else backstage or in the dark wear headphones. Its that way because Eddie Vetter, Neil Young, Sammy Hagar and Tina Turner do not find headphones very usable for live performances. And who, my friend, is going to tell them any different. You?
But if you insist on comparing IEMs to headphones, at least do it in a way that makes some sort of sense, like price levels, maybe. And in the sennheiser world that gives you what? The HD700s in the SE846s price range? I know too many people that have tossed their HD650s aside in favor of the 846s, but how, exactly, do the HD700s compare? Anyone know? You know?
I guess if I could do with headphones what I do with IEMs, it would make sense - comparing them. But I can't, so it doesn't. I listen to IEMs on an average of 6 hours a day. Sometimes more. Being limited to headphones would reduce that figure to 2. So you can see how it is hard for me to get all warm and fuzzy over headgear that so cripples my enjoyment of music. Because I can assure of this much - NO ONE enjoys listening to music more than I do. It may be possible that someone enjoys it as much, and maybe they are better at it, but for sure, not more.
And yeah, I take it THAT seriously, so yeah, I use IEMs. And that is not likely going to change.
) firmly honed in on doing the same later in the year.
