[Duncan]

A real good test of the quality of the bass on these for me was the nightclub scene on 'as above so below', that really gives them a workout and they come back at you asking for more

 

[Chodi]

 
Have been reading up on the SE846 threads and decided to get one based on the reviews. Received mine today and have been listening to it for 3-4 hours now.
 
Unfortunately, I have been used to my Grado PS500e and these $1000 phones while sounding decent are nowhere near my PS500es'. The mid-range sounds pretty decent, but lacking in the lows and highs. For e.g acoustic guitar tracks don't seem to have the punch due to this. Soundstage seems ok.
 
Haven't used any quality IEMs in a while, is this as good as it gets with IEMs?
I am assuming these will get better after burn-in, but by how much??

Just like Andrew said it is all about getting a good seal. I have collected several iem's and they each have their own quirks about fit. I can use the same tips on some and I have to experiment and use different tips on others. Once you get a good seal you will find the bass on the 846 are among the best out there. There was no mention of what source you are using. The Shure is only 9 ohms so you want to be careful to use a source with an output impedance of 1 ohm or less ( the Pono seems to be an exception). Impedance mismatch and you get no bass even with a good seal.

 

[HiFiChris]

.Impedance mismatch and you get no bass even with a good seal.

Have you looked at the SE846's impedance response? A high output resistance actually leads to more bass (and highs). You will get a loss of low bass withe the low impedance Shure if your source has got wrong imensioned decoupling capacitors (e.G. Cowon, Colorfly C4).

 

[Chodi]

Have you looked at the SE846's impedance response? A high output resistance actually leads to more bass (and highs). You will get a loss of low bass withe the low impedance Shure if your source has got wrong imensioned decoupling capacitors (e.G. Cowon, Colorfly C4).

Ok lets agree that source impedance counts. The general rule is that the impedance of the earphone should be at least 5 times that of the source output. Some say even more like 8 times. To be safe for most very low impedance headphones you are generally best with a source output of 1 ohm or less. That is why the vast majority of portable source devices and amps are rated at 1 ohm or less. 

 

[animan]

Thanks for the quick response guys!
 
I have tried pretty much all types of sleeves included. The foam one don't do anything for me. The large grey olive ones seems to have the best seal and bass which is what I have settled on. Yet to try the inserts.
 
I have tried these sources, Sony NW-ZX2, Fio X5, Galaxy Note 3. IPhone 5S. The Sony NW-ZX2 sounds the best.
I believe I have a decent seal and do feel the low bass in certain tracks. Just disappointed in the quality of the sound as compared to my PS500e, I guess I was expecting more.
 
These phones seem quite comfortable pleasant to listen to though.

 

[animan]

Worked on the seal a little more and that seems to have improved the bass.

 

[HiFiChris]

Ok lets agree that source impedance counts. The general rule is that the impedance of the earphone should be at least 5 times that of the source output. Some say even more like 8 times. To be safe for most very low impedance headphones you are generally best with a source output of 1 ohm or less. That is why the vast majority of portable source devices and amps are rated at 1 ohm or less. 

Yep, I agree. Iems with varying impedance response need a source with a low output resistance or the output frequency response will be more or less bent, depending on the iems' specific impedance response and the source's output resistance.
For that reason, I connect all of my xritical multi-ba's to sources with a maximum of 0.97 Ohms (though most of them are even lower and closer to 0 Ohms).
Though, in some cases the altered frequency response due to the higher output resistance may be perceived as better sounding in some cases.

On the other hand, iems and headphones with a flat impedance response (mostly dynamic iems and planar cans) have got a perfect ruler-flat impedance response and don't really gife a f@(& about high output impedance as the output frequency response won't be altered by any means.

 

[fzr100098]

  Haven't used any quality IEMs in a while, is this as good as it gets with IEMs?
I am assuming these will get better after burn-in, but by how much??

 
As others have said, you're not getting a seal with those little earbuds - the foamies and better than silicone but they still wear out fast and lose seal
 
Get the Sensaphonics custom sleeves and the bass will kick your azz - those guys with the full size mickey mouse cans in the gym make me laugh

 

[fzr100098]

I running the white filters now with the Sensaphonics sleeves and the bass is still great

 

[chailee80]

Worked on the seal a little more and that seems to have improved the bass.

You should be able to get much more bass out of the se846 compared with the ps500, especially sub bass. In regards to mids and highs they have quite a different tuning will not match the ps500. You would be better off trying the gr10e imo.

 

[Whazzzup]

.Impedance mismatch and you get no bass even with a good seal.

Have you looked at the SE846's impedance response? A high output resistance actually leads to more bass (and highs). You will get a loss of low bass withe the low impedance Shure if your source has got wrong imensioned decoupling capacitors (e.G. Cowon, Colorfly C4).

Disagree with Chris. Just as an FYI. I have vamp Verza 16 ohm and chord Hugo less than an ohm. I keep both just cause the vamp has an easy and solid connection to my iPhone and it's way smaller and easier to carry about. So last night on the way to effimen ballet and back on the train with my soul mate I used the vamp. Now the Hugo is inherently superior dac and that aside the vamp is fine through my 846 and dhc fusion 8 braid cable. The bass my be extended some and the highs are fine. Now I'm not advocating miss match but what I'm introducing is that there are a lot of potentially false claims made to miss match, from hiss, distortion, and overall sound dynamics. There may in fact be some thinness. But the dac amp itself is really the overall factor. Sure I'd prefer my Hugo, but I'll vamp whenever I like, no qualms about it.

 

[HiFiChris]

I just took a look at the SE846's impedance response again (now that I am on my desktop PC and not on my tablet PC which is also the reason why is made a typo when I wanted to write "with" and "dimensioned") - there will be a high frequency increase, as I said, but it will be at about 20 kHz -> inaudible.
In fact I was right that the SE846 will have more highs beeing connected to a high impedance source and one will be able to measure it, but you'll not be able to hear it. 

 
As I said, the ammount of which areas of the frequency response will be altered by which amount depends on the source's output impedance and the iems' impedance response.

 

[olddude]

On my Pono, which is NOT a low-impedance DAP, my 846s sound great except for the highs (an area  I love).  I love the richness in the bass and mids, but I was having to reach to hear the highs, even in balanced mode.  And the tickety-tack noises?  Nope.   The white filters were the best at bringing them out, but even then it wasn't doing it fully for me.  So I went bareback with these suckers, no filters at all, and now I have upper end.  Not quite as much as the Fidues, and certainly not as much as the Altones, but neither of those gave me the mids and bottom I get with the 846.  So far I really like this sound, I have good bass and mids, although the mids are not quite as syrupy as with the blue-modded filter.  There will always be tradeoffs.  
 
So if there is a treble spike due to impedance, it must be above my threshold of hearing.  
 
I'm going to demo the Cayin N6 on its tour, am interested to hear how it plays with the 846 as it's a low-impedance DAP.

 

[jayaudio116]

These things are really something amazing, the other day my ears for irritated from having them in all day so I took one side out and left it hanging outside my ear and the other side was on the side of my keybored and I turnt the volume up to 90% and even tho they were not directly in my ears they still created some kind of sonic field, they still had great imaging I could hear something coming from my left, right, at a corner ECT. All the things these things can do inside my ear they were doing outside my ear

 

[chailee80]

The se846s seemingly unpredictable impedance response always bugged me. I found the sound seemed to change a lot depending on what i had it plugged into and i constantly had to change around filters and tips to get it to sound how i liked. It seems to be a common problem with multi ba iems imo.