[buppyjr]

So, I decided to finally take the plunge and order my SE846.  Chose overnight shipping as I didn't want to wait.  As it was waiting for it to arrive today was killer enough.  Get home, open up the shipping box and spend about 2 minutes trying to find the flap or sticker I need to cut so I could open the box.  Turns out I just have to peel the damn thing!  Anyway, looked over the package contents before plugging it to my phone to try out the sound. 
 
I was using my GSIII trying out the new music app that Samsung released, Milk.  Wasn't really impressed by the sound straight from the phone.  And when Janie's Got a Gun was playing the drums sounded more to the left.  I never really recalled that song sounding that way.  Decided to stop using Milk (Didn't realize there was a high-quality option for it that I had to tick on.) and plug it to my Cowon S9.  Sounded good, but it just didn't jump out at me.  Listened to a few songs on the S9 before really getting down to some serious listening.
 
Having finished the sampling with my S9, I grabbed my SE530s to make A/B comparisons between the two.  Just using 320Kbit MP3s from the Zune player from my PC > Modi > Vali.  I kept the volume level the same and all I did was switch the two IEMs.  Started going through song after song, and to my ears, there wasn't a massive difference.  Sure the 846 bass on the blue filter sounded more "there", and there was better separation of instruments.  Strangely, the SE530 sounded louder which I thought was really odd.  I looked at the foam tips I was using (The medium sized ones.) and noticed that the mediums that come with the 846 was slightly smaller than the ones that came with the 530s.  So I swapped tips between the two.  Still the same result.  SE530 sounded louder and the 846 only resulted in a slightly better sound.  Finally dawned on me that with the 530s I was able to seat the foam tips deeper into my ear canal than with the 846s.  So went back to the bag of tips and pulled out the triple flanged tips.  Started playing the next track and instantly I could hear the difference.  Better resolution and greater separation of the instruments.  Female vocals just sounded that much better!  Didn't even have to go back to the SE530s to check!
 
Now, I just need a portable amp/DAC.  Looking at getting an RSA Intruder to go with the S9, any of you guys out there have thoughts to share on this setup?  Other suggestions on an amp/DAC combo?  I'd prefer to keep the amp/DAC to one device.  Also actually thinking of replacing my S9 with a Fiio X5 in a few months 32GB is just not enough!). Just let me know if I should be switching this last question to another thread.

 

[goldendarko]

From the early reviews I've read the X5 and SE846 have great synergy and pair well together. That is the pairing I plan to use myself but since the X5 hasn't been released quite yet I have no impressions of the 2 yet.

 

[ag8908]

  So, I decided to finally take the plunge and order my SE846.  Chose overnight shipping as I didn't want to wait.  As it was waiting for it to arrive today was killer enough.  Get home, open up the shipping box and spend about 2 minutes trying to find the flap or sticker I need to cut so I could open the box.  Turns out I just have to peel the damn thing!  Anyway, looked over the package contents before plugging it to my phone to try out the sound. 
 
I was using my GSIII trying out the new music app that Samsung released, Milk.  Wasn't really impressed by the sound straight from the phone.  And when Janie's Got a Gun was playing the drums sounded more to the left.  I never really recalled that song sounding that way.  Decided to stop using Milk (Didn't realize there was a high-quality option for it that I had to tick on.) and plug it to my Cowon S9.  Sounded good, but it just didn't jump out at me.  Listened to a few songs on the S9 before really getting down to some serious listening.
 
Having finished the sampling with my S9, I grabbed my SE530s to make A/B comparisons between the two.  Just using 320Kbit MP3s from the Zune player from my PC > Modi > Vali.  I kept the volume level the same and all I did was switch the two IEMs.  Started going through song after song, and to my ears, there wasn't a massive difference.  Sure the 846 bass on the blue filter sounded more "there", and there was better separation of instruments.  Strangely, the SE530 sounded louder which I thought was really odd.  I looked at the foam tips I was using (The medium sized ones.) and noticed that the mediums that come with the 846 was slightly smaller than the ones that came with the 530s.  So I swapped tips between the two.  Still the same result.  SE530 sounded louder and the 846 only resulted in a slightly better sound.  Finally dawned on me that with the 530s I was able to seat the foam tips deeper into my ear canal than with the 846s.  So went back to the bag of tips and pulled out the triple flanged tips.  Started playing the next track and instantly I could hear the difference.  Better resolution and greater separation of the instruments.  Female vocals just sounded that much better!  Didn't even have to go back to the SE530s to check!
 
Now, I just need a portable amp/DAC.  Looking at getting an RSA Intruder to go with the S9, any of you guys out there have thoughts to share on this setup?  Other suggestions on an amp/DAC combo?  I'd prefer to keep the amp/DAC to one device.  Also actually thinking of replacing my S9 with a Fiio X5 in a few months 32GB is just not enough!). Just let me know if I should be switching this last question to another thread.

 
Eventually I learned that the  SE846 are very source dependent. For example, when driving them with my LG G Flex phone, I hear plenty of bass, but when driving them with my Galaxy Note 2 I hear much much less bass, an odd hissing tone, and extra treble that can sometimes sound good but which can sometimes be annoying.
 
I never tried the Galaxy S3 though (but that might have the same DAC/amp/sound as the Note 2 since they came out around the same time I think).

 

[ubs28]

My Shure SE846 came with the 2 x black filters and 2 x white filters. I assume my Shure SE846 has 2 x blue filters installed by default? Else I'm missing 2 x blue filters

 

[Solude]

Yes they come assembled

 

[ubs28]

  Yes they come assembled

Thanks, I just got them

 

[ag8908]

By the way, has anyone lost a filter yet? I know it's going to happen to me soon and I'm wondering how much they cost.

 

[FangJoker]

So, I decided to finally take the plunge and order my SE846.  Chose overnight shipping as I didn't want to wait.  As it was waiting for it to arrive today was killer enough.  Get home, open up the shipping box and spend about 2 minutes trying to find the flap or sticker I need to cut so I could open the box.  Turns out I just have to peel the damn thing!  Anyway, looked over the package contents before plugging it to my phone to try out the sound. 
 
I was using my GSIII trying out the new music app that Samsung released, Milk.  Wasn't really impressed by the sound straight from the phone.  And when Janie's Got a Gun was playing the drums sounded more to the left.  I never really recalled that song sounding that way.  Decided to stop using Milk (Didn't realize there was a high-quality option for it that I had to tick on.) and plug it to my Cowon S9.  Sounded good, but it just didn't jump out at me.  Listened to a few songs on the S9 before really getting down to some serious listening.
 
Having finished the sampling with my S9, I grabbed my SE530s to make A/B comparisons between the two.  Just using 320Kbit MP3s from the Zune player from my PC > Modi > Vali.  I kept the volume level the same and all I did was switch the two IEMs.  Started going through song after song, and to my ears, there wasn't a massive difference.  Sure the 846 bass on the blue filter sounded more "there", and there was better separation of instruments.  Strangely, the SE530 sounded louder which I thought was really odd.  I looked at the foam tips I was using (The medium sized ones.) and noticed that the mediums that come with the 846 was slightly smaller than the ones that came with the 530s.  So I swapped tips between the two.  Still the same result.  SE530 sounded louder and the 846 only resulted in a slightly better sound.  Finally dawned on me that with the 530s I was able to seat the foam tips deeper into my ear canal than with the 846s.  So went back to the bag of tips and pulled out the triple flanged tips.  Started playing the next track and instantly I could hear the difference.  Better resolution and greater separation of the instruments.  Female vocals just sounded that much better!  Didn't even have to go back to the SE530s to check!
 
Now, I just need a portable amp/DAC.  Looking at getting an RSA Intruder to go with the S9, any of you guys out there have thoughts to share on this setup?  Other suggestions on an amp/DAC combo?  I'd prefer to keep the amp/DAC to one device.  Also actually thinking of replacing my S9 with a Fiio X5 in a few months 32GB is just not enough!). Just let me know if I should be switching this last question to another thread.

I have the RSA predator and it sounds fantastic and I'm sure the intruder is even better. I decided on the predator because I doubt I would ever get headphones with balanced cables to take advantage of it and I don't plan on going back to full sized cans which is another reason to go with the intruder. I'm happy with my choice and it wasn't about the money difference. I just didn't need balanced outputs and more power to drive full sized 600ohm cans.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

[spook76]

By the way, has anyone lost a filter yet? I know it's going to happen to me soon and I'm wondering how much they cost.

I damaged my white filters way back in September. I just called customer service then emailed a copy of my receipt and Shure sent new filters at no cost. The usual great Shure customer service.

 

[ag8908]

I damaged my white filters way back in September. I just called customer service then emailed a copy of my receipt and Shure sent new filters at no cost. The usual great Shure customer service.

 
Phew! Yes Shure has good customer service based on my experiences as well. They and Sennheiser are the best two headphone companies, in that respect, that I've dealt with.

 

[ubs28]

So the standard filter is the blue one, which supposedly is "neutral" according to Shure? Maybe I'm not used to this kind of bass, because it sounds far from neutral to me? The bass is massive with the "neutral" / blue filter.
 
The first few hours of using them are extremely positive. Very happy with it, well worth the $1000

 

[ag8908]

  So the standard filter is the blue one, which supposedly is "neutral" according to Shure? Maybe I'm not used to this kind of bass, because it sounds far from neutral to me? The bass is massive with the "neutral" / blue filter.
 
The first few hours of using them are extremely positive. Very happy with it, well worth the $1000

Yes. You'll get used to it. It's really not that much bass; e.g. I think it's less bass than my neutral HD800. Also, it's heavily dependent on what you plug it into.

 

[Solude]

It would take one seriously high output impedance to get the HD800 to have as much bass as the SE846
 

 
SE846 is objectively bassy even with the bright filter but I like it =)

 

[ag8908]

  It would take one seriously high output impedance to get the HD800 to have as much bass as the SE846
 

 
SE846 is objectively bassy even with the bright filter but I like it =)

 
Just telling you what I hear.
 
But that chart has to be way off. The SE846 blue filter doesn't have anywhere near that much bass.

 

[ag8908]

Nor anywhere near that much treble roll off. Based on my ears, that chart has to be off.