How is the sound stage on the SE846?
Does it sound like the music is being drilled into your brain?
Does it sound open and further away?
Can I mentally pick out the coordinates of different instruments or vocals depending on their location and intensity" on stage"?
The bass is the official selling point (?) of the 846, but to my mind (and ears) its strengths lie in the slightly less tangible areas of soundstage, imaging and texture.
The soundstage itself is a tad difficult to pin down, for the 846 will create an open or airy presentation or something tighter and more intimate depending on the music being played, the recording, etc.
Listening to Machine Head performing live in New York (man I wish they went all the way and recorded the whole set instead of just two tracks for a limited
Burn My Eyes release), the recording creates a totally palpable sense of being there, front row centre in a small to medium-sized venue. Amping the 846s might help bring out the crowd noise even more to help paint this picture, but I digress. If electronica is more your thing, expect the bass-heavy kick drum to resonate toward the back of your mind while sound effects that quickly transpose from right to left (such as a record being played in reverse) take on a 3D, circumpolar effect - I kid you not.
To put things in perspective, the Sennheiser IE8 features a very wide, horizontally protracted soundstage. Ultimately this was as good of a thing as bad, for it always put the listener several rows back, so to speak. The Burswood Dome of IEMs (for anyone who knows Australian music venues). The 846' soundstage is nowhere near as protracted. Instead it envelopes the mind.
Soundstage and imaging are intrinsically linked. You are likely to discover this for yourself if your musical tastes span everything from "Albatross" (Fleetwood Mac) to James Zabiela, which really does pose the question as to why so many people believe the IE800s to be more genre-versatile than the Shures.
the unmodded white is doing me quite alright. I'm not going to fix some'ink that ain't broke, unless slightly recessed musical elements (which are so minor they could hardly constitute being "broken" in the grand scheme of things) are brought forth at no expense to anything else.
