[GrindedDown]

  Thanks! Can't wait for my delivery tomorrow.

Ahhhh so you DID pull the trigger! Enjoy them. I'd be curious to hear your impressions with them too so be sure to come back and chime in.
 
I'll also be giving my initial impressions of the 846 and AK100ii pairing tomorrow as well. 

 

[madwolfa]

  Ahhhh so you DID pull the trigger! Enjoy them. I'd be curious to hear your impressions with them too so be sure to come back and chime in.

 
Yes! Found a good deal... and bit the bullet. FedEx is killing me, though. They've been here since Sunday, but they still wouldn't deliver before the "Estimated Delivery" date. Ugh. UPS is always taking it early if possible.

 

[GrindedDown]

I have to concur with your assessment of these bad boys. Just received mine yesterday and am having a blast trying my reference tunes with my Hugo, iPhone 6 + and my Questyle. All sound magical and unfatiguing but the Hugo is my favorite. I have to admit I enjoy these almost as much as my HD800s and the portability and sound isolation makes them an everyday joy. Can't wait to try all the tubes.

Yeah these things certainly are delicious and really just very impressive the sound that comes out of something that is so small. I'm kinda jealous of that Hugo.....I'll probably get one this year, but not until much later or else I'll probably have first degree murder charges pressed against me for killing my wallet....

 

[GrindedDown]

   
Yes! Found a good deal... and bit the bullet. FedEx is killing me, though. They've been here since Sunday, but they still wouldn't deliver before the "Estimated Delivery" date. Ugh. UPS is always taking it early if possible.

Lol that really can be the most agonizing thing ever. Yeah there are deals to be found on these if you dig. That's what I did and got a great price. Enjoy the painful wait mwahahaha........

 

[jelt2359]

As a proud 535 owner as well I will attest it is an able foot soldier on the road to sonic bliss.
 
But the 535 is, to borrow from one of my earlier Battlestar Gallactica analogies, like a Cylon Centurion. Drones in the war against humans.

 
 
The 8s well they are the much more evolved and stunningly beautiful Cylon Skin Jobs.... 

There is no question which I prefer to have inside of my head, Just call me Gaius Baltar
 
This explains why my 535s have been boxed where they shall remain until they are needed in the inevitable war against the Apes
 
 
 
I was tempted to go with a Sex and Condom analogy but that is reserved for the SCS... Like wearing nothing at all  

 

Just HAD to give props to a Battlestar Gallactica reference.

 

[nightdance]

   
Yes! Found a good deal... and bit the bullet. FedEx is killing me, though. They've been here since Sunday, but they still wouldn't deliver before the "Estimated Delivery" date. Ugh. UPS is always taking it early if possible.

Can you share the deal please? 

 

[madwolfa]

  Can you share the deal please? 

 
http://www.agiprodj.com/shure-se846-cl-sound-isolating-quad-driver-earphone-w-detachable.html
 
You just have to register to get an "Elite Level Pricing" - $799 (no tax), unfortunately it's Out of Stock now.

 

[jelt2359]

  Some more impressions as a new owner of the SE846:
 
Initially the bass seemed very overwhelming when I first hit play with these bad boys in. I think it was mostly that I wasn't expecting such impact even despite the marketing and "true subwoofer" performance. I'm happy to report that the bass response is excellent, tight and controlled, never muddies, has excellent extension and sub bass response is just awesome. 
 
At first, I had changed through all the filters to see which I liked the best. I obviously started with blue and they had great bass, but will great clarity across the spectrum and awesome instrument separation which can suffer a lot when bass colors phones too much. White was very good, had awesome detail and introduced enough sparkle up high, but still had some bottom end impact. It did take away some of the oomph and made this earphone sound maybe a tad more analytical to me. The black filter was my least favorite at first. It sounded like the bass went from tight and controlled to overly exaggerated and colored everything too much. Now that my brain has begun adjusting to the sound signature of the 846 and I can identify its strengths and weaknesses better, I thought I'd try the filters again. 
 
So I tried the black filter and I've got to say that I enjoy it much more than I initially thought. Actually I first thought "oh I'll never use this". It certainly adds additional impact and takes a tad off the clarity and detail of the bass frequencies, but it really doesn't seem to impact the rest of it's sound signature qualities. Soundstage still sounds good, the mids remain creamy and forward without being muddied and the highs still have detail albeit a bit rolled off. 
 
Overall, its very impressive how these filters seem to tune the sound to your liking just enough without taking away the characteristics of the 846's sound signature. I'd be interested in seeing mods for these filters or shure even selling a multi-pack that allows further tuning options. Kinda like EQing your music, but at the driver level instead of source level. Verrrrrryyy cool. 
 
Also did some quick A/Bing vs UE900S. UE900s has some good clarity, mids are indeed recessed and not nearly as good, bass is obviously lacking, but only by comparison. The bass is actually pretty clean and controlled sounds, just lack sub bass response and overall impact or oomph. Clarity and detail retrieval are very good tho and music definitely enjoyable. What has surprised me and excited me the most about the 846 vs the UE900s is how much more listenable the 846 is at lower volume levels. The UE900S needs to be driven to higher volume or else it loses most of its sound quality rather quickly whereas the 846 seems to maintain it at low volumes. Thats very nice to help prevent fatiguing.

Echos my experience too. At first brush it was soooo muchhhh bassss. But then you realise that this is a low-end that is not trying to shock and awe. It's acts as the bottom layer of the musical pyramid, adding support and structure to the music. That's also why listening to these on low volume works well- the 846 doesn't lose its sense of coherence or balance, because the bass pulls everything together very nicely. The bass adds texture, body and depth in spades.
 
I also think explains the filters' good performance. That beautiful body and structure is there throughout; this is not one case where the bass disappears with one filter, and reappears with the next. While not drastic in changing the identity of the 846, the filters' effects are not exactly subtle either. The frequency response can certainly be easily and competently tweaked with these small pieces of plastic I think you're in for a fun ride with modding the whites, blacks and blues (try removing the foams; swapping the foams around eg. black foam to blue filter, blue foam to white filter, and so on; and also other material like cotton wool).

 

[nightdance]

   
http://www.agiprodj.com/shure-se846-cl-sound-isolating-quad-driver-earphone-w-detachable.html
 
You just have to register to get an "Elite Level Pricing" - $799 (no tax), unfortunately it's Out of Stock now.

Thanks!

 

[jelt2359]

Jelt,

Do you find with your Chord Hugo that the soundstage and imaging of the 8s improve?

I recently switched from the RSA Lightning amp to the RSA Intruder DAC/amp. When I utilize the USB DAC in the Intruder I find the imaging becomes spot on and the soundstage increased by at least 25%. I was actually surprised by the amount of improvement considering I used the balanced out on both amplifiers.

One thing 8s also excel at is their ability to scale up as you improve your amp, DAC and/or DAP.

I will do some comparisons and get back to you...

 

[threephi]

One thing I found when changing the nozzles was that the metal nozzle itself gets mighty seated into the metal casing. What you have to do is insert the nozzle without tightening the faster. Slowly rotate the nozzle and apply a very light amount of pressure until it gets seated in its slot. The screw on the fastener. That's the only thing I could tell you as I don't have any give with the nozzles so if that doesn't work or if there is an issue beyond thar, I don't know what to tell you.

I do know that dinerenblanc has mentioned it before and much earlier in the thread there were others that mentioned something similar so maybe it isn't in fact defective.

 
Yeah it took me two or three fiddles to get the hang of seating the nozzles correctly, and I'm confident the problem is deeper in the unit than what you're describing.  I didn't have an opportunity to call Shure about it today but that's first on my agenda for tomorrow.  I haven't detected any issues with SQ at all, not that I expect there to be any, at least not yet, but as time goes on the range of motion will inevitably increase and that could conceivably lead to unwanted vibration or resonance.  This is more me having an overabundance of caution and wanting my new skull-mates to be as perfect as possible. 

Btw congrats threephi, but send my condolences to your wallet lol. I can't wait to get my ak100ii. Currently using my 846 out of a iphone 6 plus and hoping the sound quality is a step up with the ak and 846 combo. I'll be running lossless of course.

How you liking your ak100ii so far with the 846? What improvements you notice over idevices and whatnot? (I'm basically asking for a mini review haha).

Haha thanks, he can take it for now but I'm going to try to rein in buying any more major toys this year.

The thing that set me on this road was listening to a friend's AK100 with my 535's a month or two ago.  We were able to compare the exact same tracks (Beatles "white album", him flac and me wav's) between that and my iphone 6, and I was instantly blown away by what playback from a quality DAC can do.  The main thing that struck me was how much quieter the noise floor was, which in turn opened up room for appreciation of the increased detail and dynamic range.  Once I heard how much cleaner and crisp the music was, I was a goner.  I'm guessing you'll have the same reaction.  

I haven't done a direct comparison between the 100II and my iphone 6 since receiving the latter, because why bother?

 Listening on the 100II is more analytical than my ears were used to using the iphone, so there was a little bit of a mental adjustment period, but looking back I think a lot of that was ear fatigue I referred to in my earlier post, and the 846's are a lot better in that department.

I very seriously considered trading in the 100II for a 120II, but I did manage to exercise some discipline there. If I had found a nice discount price which would help defray the restocking fee on the 100II I probably would have pulled the trigger.  I haven't listened to the 120II but I'd be curious to see how much difference there is.

 

[jmbgator]

Hi Everyone:
 
I'm kind of a newb here and would like your input...
 
I have a set of Shure 846 and Shure 535. Do you recommend that I buy a DAC/Amp or just a portable Amp if I'm going to be driving these from the following sources?
 
1) Iphone 5s
2) Iphone 6
3) Ipad Air
4) 2014 Macbook Pro
 
If so, which portable amp or dac/amp would you recommend that would work well with all of the devices listed above?  If not, will driving directly from the sources be sufficient in regards to overall sound quality and without any risk of damaging the IEMs?
 
Thanks!

 

[Loquah]

  Hi Everyone:
 
I'm kind of a newb here and would like your input...
 
I have a set of Shure 846 and Shure 535. Do you recommend that I buy a DAC/Amp or just a portable Amp if I'm going to be driving these from the following sources?
 
1) Iphone 5s
2) Iphone 6
3) Ipad Air
4) 2014 Macbook Pro
 
If so, which portable amp or dac/amp would you recommend that would work well with all of the devices listed above?  If not, will driving directly from the sources be sufficient in regards to overall sound quality and without any risk of damaging the IEMs?
 
Thanks!

 
You'll get decent sound out of the 8s from the iPhones (not sure about the laptops), but you will be able to squeeze a little more out of them with a good DAP or DAC / amp. What sort of budget are you working with?

 

[jmbgator]

You'll get decent sound out of the 8s from the iPhones (not sure about the laptops), but you will be able to squeeze a little more out of them with a good DAP or DAC / amp. What sort of budget are you working with?

 
If I can find something under $350 that will make a difference and drive both the 8's and 5's from all those sources perfectly that will be great.  I can possibly go a little bit over that amount if necessary though. 

 

[spook76]

Hi Everyone:

I'm kind of a newb here and would like your input...

I have a set of Shure 846 and Shure 535. Do you recommend that I buy a DAC/Amp or just a portable Amp if I'm going to be driving these from the following sources?

1) Iphone 5s
2) Iphone 6
3) Ipad Air
4) 2014 Macbook Pro

If so, which portable amp or dac/amp would you recommend that would work well with all of the devices listed above?  If not, will driving directly from the sources be sufficient in regards to overall sound quality and without any risk of damaging the IEMs?

Thanks!

One word of caution or warning, if you plan on using an iDevice with an external amp or DAC/amp you have to disable both the cellular and wifi connection. If not, the amp or DAC amp with pick up the radio frequency interference and you will be treated to some serious hissing.