[Monty Burns]

Ah but this is an opportunity. Now that he has heard them speak. You can let him borrow them, for a nominal  hourly fee of course. In no time you will have enough for SCS .... Then you can cut him off - as any good son would do. He will be I his own pair in no time. And you direct him where to buy them at "better than Airport" 
 
Airports From hot coffee to headphones MSRP + 50% +tax

 

[Spyro]

I have been using the W40's for about 5 months now.  Love them, have no complaints and think they are one of the greatest values in audio at their pricepoint.  I came into some money recently and couldn't resist checking out the SE846.
 
SE846's arrived today!    Have played around with all the filters and tips and have settled on the factory installed blue filters with the Westone Star tips.  The filter concept is nothing new for Shure.  For those of you that remember the E4, it was basically the same concept.  Nice touch in the event you bust a tip where you don’t trash the whole housing.
 
I have only had about 30 minutes or so with them so these thoughts are strictly preliminary.  Source is an Ipod Classic  (little to no difference amped or unamped).  Yes, they  sound excellent but no I am not blown away.  I think this has more to do with how great the W40 are than anything inherently wrong with the SE846.  Yes, it is basically a SE535 with an improved enveloping fullness of sound.  From memory there does not seem to be any other changes to treble, midrange, soundstage or general tonality.  Its surely still the Shure house sound.  For me this is a very tough pill to swallow for $1000 when I find the W40’s just about as good or 90-95% as good.    A quick rundown on comparing the two:
 
Overall, the W40 is smoother without a doubt where the SE846 is slightly brighter making it slightly more fatiguing at higher volumes.
 
Treble:  W40 has more shimmer and extends a little bit more yet is STILL smoother.  Pretty amazing actually. 
 
Midrange:  Both are excellent.  It is definitely a preference thing.  The SE846 is MORE forward which I do NOT like, but the W40 has the lower midrange veil which is a drawback as well.  I will call it a draw.
 
Bass:  Slight edge to SE846.  I have played several key excerpts of music which are really hard hitting multi layered drums and percussion and the SE846 and W40 sound very similar with a little more dynamics on the Shure.  Nothing close to a night and day difference.  More of a slight improvement, slight edge to the SE846.  I would love to measure both to confirm what my ears are hearing.
 
Soundstage: W40 is somewhat intimate and on the smallish side.  SE846 is slightly larger but not BIG by any means.
 
The Shures are not known for extended treble.  Instead, their house sound incorporates an upper midrange spike that gives a “brightness” to the presentation with sort of an illusion of extended treble.  At high volumes it can come across a little harsh or fatiguing.  Westone takes a different approach of extending the treble but softening the lower midrange to give an overall warmth and lushness which offsets any fatigue from the extended treble.
 
Given the pricetag if I had to make a choice right now…..I would send the SE846 back and keep the W40.  But I need to spend a lot more time with them and more comparisons to the W40.  This should NOT be read as a negative review on the SE846.  They are great sounding IEM’s.  But If you want to take anything away from this preliminary review, it should be that the W40 is one hell of an IEM in the $400 range.   Or maybe I just prefer the Westone sound sig?  And no, the SE846 is NOT at the level of the JH16.  JH16 was more detailed and holographic sounding.
 
I will surely post more comments after much more listening.

 

[LFC_SL]

Having posted on this thread for so long assumed you owned se846

White filter more balanced than blue filter for my tastes. It is the most balanced sound. Better mid range clarity without too much trade-off in bass

No no, the new Shure Olives come with a little guard filter right on the things. You can't pop 'em out. They're actually part of the plastic sleeve now. 

Yes I know and had this discussion about a month ago. They come right in the box. Ditto yellow foams with wax guard. Have had no luck finding them online. Shure seem to be selling first gen olives and yellow foams still.

The yellow foams sound great but do not last long. The yellow foams are same height as nozzle so you get this very close fit. Great for sq.

 

[daviemcc]

I have been using the W40's for about 5 months now.  Love them, have no complaints and think they are one of the greatest values in audio at their pricepoint.  I came into some money recently and couldn't resist checking out the SE846.

SE846's arrived today!    Have played around with all the filters and tips and have settled on the factory installed blue filters with the Westone Star tips.  The filter concept is nothing new for Shure.  For those of you that remember the E4, it was basically the same concept.  Nice touch in the event you bust a tip where you don’t trash the whole housing.

I have only had about 30 minutes or so with them so these thoughts are strictly preliminary.  Source is an Ipod Classic  (little to no difference amped or unamped).  Yes, they  sound excellent but no I am not blown away.  I think this has more to do with how great the W40 are than anything inherently wrong with the SE846.  Yes, it is basically a SE535 with an improved enveloping fullness of sound.  From memory there does not seem to be any other changes to treble, midrange, soundstage or general tonality.  Its surely still the Shure house sound.  For me this is a very tough pill to swallow for $1000 when I find the W40’s just about as good or 90-95% as good.    A quick rundown on comparing the two:

Overall, the W40 is smoother without a doubt where the SE846 is slightly brighter making it slightly more fatiguing at higher volumes.

Treble:  W40 has more shimmer and extends a little bit more yet is STILL smoother.  Pretty amazing actually. 

Midrange:  Both are excellent.  It is definitely a preference thing.  The SE846 is MORE forward which I do NOT like, but the W40 has the lower midrange veil which is a drawback as well.  I will call it a draw.

Bass:  Slight edge to SE846.  I have played several key excerpts of music which are really hard hitting multi layered drums and percussion and the SE846 and W40 sound very similar with a little more dynamics on the Shure.  Nothing close to a night and day difference.  More of a slight improvement, slight edge to the SE846.  I would love to measure both to confirm what my ears are hearing.

Soundstage: W40 is somewhat intimate and on the smallish side.  SE846 is slightly larger but not BIG by any means.

The Shures are not known for extended treble.  Instead, their house sound incorporates an upper midrange spike that gives a “brightness” to the presentation with sort of an illusion of extended treble.  At high volumes it can come across a little harsh or fatiguing.  Westone takes a different approach of extending the treble but softening the lower midrange to give an overall warmth and lushness which offsets any fatigue from the extended treble.

Given the pricetag if I had to make a choice right now…..I would send the SE846 back and keep the W40.  But I need to spend a lot more time with them and more comparisons to the W40.  This should NOT be read as a negative review on the SE846.  They are great sounding IEM’s.  But If you want to take anything away from this preliminary review, it should be that the W40 is one hell of an IEM in the $400 range.   Or maybe I just prefer the Westone sound sig?  And no, the SE846 is NOT at the level of the JH16.  JH16 was more detailed and holographic sounding.

I will surely post more comments after much more listening.

Did you try the three filters out?
My brother was going to pick me up a pair in Florida in a couple of weeks as the £/$ exchange is great but they wont ship to uk.
Do you wish you had opted for the W60?

 

[hertzsogood]

  I have been using the W40's for about 5 months now.  Love them, have no complaints and think they are one of the greatest values in audio at their pricepoint.  I came into some money recently and couldn't resist checking out the SE846.
 
SE846's arrived today!    Have played around with all the filters and tips and have settled on the factory installed blue filters with the Westone Star tips.  The filter concept is nothing new for Shure.  For those of you that remember the E4, it was basically the same concept.  Nice touch in the event you bust a tip where you don’t trash the whole housing.
 
I have only had about 30 minutes or so with them so these thoughts are strictly preliminary.  Source is an Ipod Classic  (little to no difference amped or unamped).  Yes, they  sound excellent but no I am not blown away.  I think this has more to do with how great the W40 are than anything inherently wrong with the SE846.  Yes, it is basically a SE535 with an improved enveloping fullness of sound.  From memory there does not seem to be any other changes to treble, midrange, soundstage or general tonality.  Its surely still the Shure house sound.  For me this is a very tough pill to swallow for $1000 when I find the W40’s just about as good or 90-95% as good.    A quick rundown on comparing the two:
 
Overall, the W40 is smoother without a doubt where the SE846 is slightly brighter making it slightly more fatiguing at higher volumes.
 
Treble:  W40 has more shimmer and extends a little bit more yet is STILL smoother.  Pretty amazing actually. 
 
Midrange:  Both are excellent.  It is definitely a preference thing.  The SE846 is MORE forward which I do NOT like, but the W40 has the lower midrange veil which is a drawback as well.  I will call it a draw.
 
Bass:  Slight edge to SE846.  I have played several key excerpts of music which are really hard hitting multi layered drums and percussion and the SE846 and W40 sound very similar with a little more dynamics on the Shure.  Nothing close to a night and day difference.  More of a slight improvement, slight edge to the SE846.  I would love to measure both to confirm what my ears are hearing.
 
Soundstage: W40 is somewhat intimate and on the smallish side.  SE846 is slightly larger but not BIG by any means.
 
The Shures are not known for extended treble.  Instead, their house sound incorporates an upper midrange spike that gives a “brightness” to the presentation with sort of an illusion of extended treble.  At high volumes it can come across a little harsh or fatiguing.  Westone takes a different approach of extending the treble but softening the lower midrange to give an overall warmth and lushness which offsets any fatigue from the extended treble.
 
Given the pricetag if I had to make a choice right now…..I would send the SE846 back and keep the W40.  But I need to spend a lot more time with them and more comparisons to the W40.  This should NOT be read as a negative review on the SE846.  They are great sounding IEM’s.  But If you want to take anything away from this preliminary review, it should be that the W40 is one hell of an IEM in the $400 range.   Or maybe I just prefer the Westone sound sig?  And no, the SE846 is NOT at the level of the JH16.  JH16 was more detailed and holographic sounding.
 
I will surely post more comments after much more listening.

Maybe you need more time to really get to know the 846. Most of who just demoed or received the 846 will say the 846 is similar to the 535. There is more to the 846 then you think.

 

[Marshal Banana]

The first listening I had with those se846 one year ago didn't impressed me at all (it was with the silicon tips during an audio festival), after more encounter with those, I finally decided to get a pair several months ago, and after tip rolling (I ended up using the shure olive L size which sounds significantly better to my ears than any other tips I tried) I didn't stop to love more and more the sound of the 846s.
I also own some Fitear MH335DWSR which are pretty amazing too, but the 846s spend as much time in my ears than my Fitear customs. The 846s are that good to me.

 

 

[Spyro]

Did you try the three filters out?
My brother was going to pick me up a pair in Florida in a couple of weeks as the £/$ exchange is great but they wont ship to uk.
Do you wish you had opted for the W60?

Yes, tried all the filters.  I find the changes subtle.  Like the blue on best.
Yes, at this point perhaps W60 would have been better choice for me.  But I will certainly spend a lot of time with the SE846 and give them every benefit of the doubt.  Cable may need some break in as well.  Perhaps in a few days I will find them absolutely better than W40 by a larger margin.  Gonna play around with some comply tips and EQ and try to find my "sweet" spot.  It must be there somewhere.
 
I absolutely love the rugged heavy duty cable.  It provides nice piece of mind.  Yes it's big and heavy but it is virtually tangle proof!  I get so frustrated with the easy tangling of other lighter cables.   I hope it doesn't turn green over time.  I suspect the kevlar will keep that from happening. 

 

[Mitchell4500]

Why are they called the SE846  - like thats a really specific number. All of shures Headphones are like that. 

 

[hertzsogood]

  Why are they called the SE846  - like thats a really specific number. All of shures Headphones are like that. 

 
Just wait for the SE1072 model.

 

[Mitchell4500]

Just got my 8s.
 
Amazing packaging. 

 

[Sludig]

Only some impressions about it: I was trying Roxannes (universal) and SE846 together and, being an excellent earphone, I think Shures are worse by a good margen. Separation, clarity, extension (specially high extension) are clearly worse. Shure has amazing kids and bass, but while roxannes sound like big headphones, shures are an excellent IEM. I did some blind test to a few friends of mine who don´t know about them, and they confirm these impressions. Difference is evident if you compare them at same time. Anyway, I understand some people prefer shure house´s sound, and price range, and roxanne´s big size...
 

 

[Trey36]

I use my 846 4+ hours a day to include heavy uses during workouts. Has anyone had any issues with the stock cables? Does anyone have any recommendations for a heavy duty aftermarket cable for workouts? I've looked at a lot of after market cables but none of them look like workout cables. 

 

[Audiowood]

  Only some impressions about it: I was trying Roxannes (universal) and SE846 together and, being an excellent earphone, I think Shures are worse by a good margen. Separation, clarity, extension (specially high extension) are clearly worse. Shure has amazing kids and bass, but while roxannes sound like big headphones, shures are an excellent IEM. I did some blind test to a few friends of mine who don´t know about them, and they confirm these impressions. Difference is evident if you compare them at same time. Anyway, I understand some people prefer shure house´s sound, and price range, and roxanne´s big size...
 

 
What filter is on the SE846 ? 

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  I use my 846 4+ hours a day to include heavy uses during workouts. Has anyone had any issues with the stock cables? Does anyone have any recommendations for a heavy duty aftermarket cable for workouts? I've looked at a lot of after market cables but none of them look like workout cables. 

 
I cannot imagine wearing these to the gym. I would never have $1000+ at the mercy of an accidental cable snag or heavy sweat. 

 

[Sludig]

What filter is on the SE846 ? 

All of them. I prefer blue one, but white is very good sounding too.