[Monty Burns]

  The only problem I have so far is wearing comfort. IEM body itself is great and I hardly notice it outside (even the cable isn't too bad), but even the smallest foams (while being more comfortable than olives) are slightly too big and putting too much pressure into my ear canals, so I can't wear them for more than 20-30 minutes (even my jaw starts to hurt). I'm going to see if Westone tips (silicone or foams) have better fit. My ear canals are really tight.

It was discomfort with the UF tips for use longer than 30+ minutes, especially after the first month, that drove me to the SCS (Sensaphonics Custom Sleeve) Since then and I have posted extensively on Extended wear of 4+++ hours...O bliss, bliss and heaven, oh it was gorgeousness and georgeosity made flesh...
They really are the ultimate upgrade

 

[Monty Burns]

  Hi guys, if you're interested, I dusted off my camera, found my other tips and completed a full review- the Sensaphonics Custom Sleeves for the Shure SE846.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/749859/review-chi-town-chi-sound-sensaphonics-custom-sleeves-is-a-slice-of-the-windy-city
 
I've changed my avatar to one of the pics used in my review. Hope you enjoy it!

Excellent Review. A must read.
 
In fact I see Sensaphonics liked it so much its on their Facebook Page. (As is Moe's from the summer).
 
They are you hope for and all of what you have been missing..... Putting the SCS on is... well like having the condom off...
 
And with that I am off to put them on.

 

[jelt2359]

  Excellent Review. A must read.
 
In fact I see Sensaphonics liked it so much its on their Facebook Page. (As is Moe's from the summer).
 
They are you hope for and all of what you have been missing..... Putting the SCS on is... well like having the condom off...
 
And with that I am off to put them on.

Thanks for the kind words! Had no idea they put it on their FB. That's awesome!

 

[Monty Burns]

  Thanks for the kind words! Had no idea they put it on their FB. That's awesome!

https://www.facebook.com/Sensaphonics  Top of the page, .... for today

 

[Monty Burns]

Waking the 8s
 

 

[Dinerenblanc]

Waking the 8s

Nice! I hope the SCSs are serving you well.

 

[Monty Burns]

Nice! I hope the SCSs are serving you well.

The SCS serves me well indeed, so I can better serve the will of the all powerful A.I..... Thus saving me from the terrible fate that will befall the vast majority surviving humans....

toiling in the Bauxite mines of Africa.

Oh and as for the music .. They turn the 8s into 9s.

The SCSs are bathed and put to sleep ... Sleep now there is a novel idea

 

[madwolfa]

Looks like Westone TRUE-FIT foams for me (smallest green). STAR silicones are OK, but foams are more comfortable and seem to isolate better, because the sound is fuller with better bass. With STAR it's like something is missing. I should be fine for now and maybe will start looking into SCS direction soon!

 

[madwolfa]

After some fiddling, I think I'm back onto STAR silicone tips. I think my ears were too dry for a good seal, after some lubricant they fit much better and in fact are more comfortable than foams in a long run. They still provide slightly less isolation, but it doesn't seem to impact bass quality. FWIW, it's tighter now and the sound overall is cleaner.

 

[Whazzzup]

Happy days madwolfa

Whazzzup - what kind of improvements are you hearing over the direct-out from your iPhone 6 plus? The internal DAC and amp in the 6 plus are already pretty stellar - and measuring better than many external DAC/amp combos.

Sorry for a tardy reply. I really don't listen to my iPhone six plus anymore directly, although when I do it's not a bummer. I Use the six to usb camera adapt direct into my chord Hugo and blow subsequent sonic mind from there through the 846. Still blues. Waiting still for my th900 new cable refit in the states.

 

[Whazzzup]

I've a question for anybody with an 846, iPhone 6 (Plus) and amp/DAC.  I've been testing the JDS labs C5D and - well, if I had to give my honest opinion on it, based on its performance with the Shure 846, I'd have to say it was a steaming pile of doggy doo doo.  And that's being generous. Firstly, there's a very perceptible noise floor with the C5D; with the iPhone 6, it's totally black - I hear no noise floor at all. Secondly, the bass just disappears with the C5D DAC. Kiss that lovely subwoofer goodbye But wait... there's those bass switches - surely they can save the day?...  Nope. These work great on IEMs like the ER-4S, but on the Shure 846 they don't add bass at all, only a very narrow range of sub-bass. The kind of sub-bass you get when you roll the windows down in your car at high speed causing the resonance to bang in your ears - only more unpleasant than that. So with the 846, the C5D gives you three settings: 1) no bass, 2) no bass, but an unpleasant resonant pounding in your head, or (on the lower/medium setting), 3) no bass, but a slightly unpleasant resonant pounding in your head.  The C5D sounds so much worse than the direct output from my iPhone 6 that I contacted JDS labs thinking I must have a dud.  They said the C5D was never tested with headphones of less than 16 ohm impedance.  Seriously?!?

I have not yet heard the Hugo, but am now somewhat nervous about dropping $2500, only to find the output sounds worse than that of my iPhone. (Check out Ken Rockwell's comparison of the internal iPhone 6 Plus DAC/amp vs the Beyerdynamic A200p: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm#measurements). The problem I have with any external DAC/amp is, even if right now we can detect some small nuance of improvement, it will have a relatively short shelf life. There'll be a new iPhone in another 6 months.  Heck, there'll be a new Android phone in another 6 hours. The internal DAC/amp technology in these portable music players isn't standing still. I believe we may already be at the point of not just diminished returns, but no-more returns. I know there'll still be people that believe in 24 bit-depth audio sampled at 240 kHz and other fluff like that, but for those of us not born on the planet Krypton, if the human ear can't hear the difference, or (in the case of the A200p or C5D) if the external DAC/amp sounds WORSE than the internal DAC/amp in our portable media player, what's the point

Sorry for the rant.  I'm just feeling like a sucker now for parting with that $250  If anybody else out there has heard the 846 being driven by a C5D, I'd love to hear your experiences.  If anybody else out there has heard ANY DAC/amp that sounds better at driving the 846 than an iPhone 6 (Plus), I'd also be interested to know what product you were using and how it improved the sound.

Ok didn't realize you were at the is there a difference phase. Absolutely there is. I took a two step approach and started with an ohm mismatch vamp verza which even with some low end bloat ie lack of sharp roll off was very impressed with the sound upgrade from the six. Then from reading reviews here and others, fine recommendations from moe dawg, jelt, etc... They soaked my wallet to drop 2400 and go for the chord Hugo. Frankly I was not nervous and beleive me you won't be, the hugo is a spectacular sound stage of expansive bliss. I mean from sub base to highs. Granted not fatiguing ing in the high end, some folks recomend white filters with the chord in the 846, and I can only imagine why. I'm still nervous about going in there and changing, but some day I'll buck up and get it done.
Seperation, detail, sound expanse bass within the base. Possibly if there is a knock against hugo is the detail too much, and im using no cross fade which is a seperation option on the chord, but for my liking I'd say it's just awesome. Now could I live with just the i six and have saved a ton, sure. I'm i happy and feeling any post purchase dissonance, none. I mean the hugo could be a desktop replacement itself, except for maybe power hungry lcd3 or he6 unless someone has tried it before.
In synapsis I don't listen to my six direct anymore, I don't listen to my verza except it's small so there are some instances where that size is practicle. I bought the chord Hugo carry case but it won't be a pocket option. So yes Virginia there is a Santa and it's chord Hugo.

 

[Whazzzup]

Ps. Westone stars for me.

 

[FidelityCastro]

I've a question for anybody with an 846, iPhone 6 (Plus) and amp/DAC.  I've been testing the JDS labs C5D and - well, if I had to give my honest opinion on it, based on its performance with the Shure 846, I'd have to say it was a steaming pile of doggy doo doo.  And that's being generous. Firstly, there's a very perceptible noise floor with the C5D; with the iPhone 6, it's totally black - I hear no noise floor at all. Secondly, the bass just disappears with the C5D DAC. Kiss that lovely subwoofer goodbye But wait... there's those bass switches - surely they can save the day?...  Nope. These work great on IEMs like the ER-4S, but on the Shure 846 they don't add bass at all, only a very narrow range of sub-bass. The kind of sub-bass you get when you roll the windows down in your car at high speed causing the resonance to bang in your ears - only more unpleasant than that. So with the 846, the C5D gives you three settings: 1) no bass, 2) no bass, but an unpleasant resonant pounding in your head, or (on the lower/medium setting), 3) no bass, but a slightly unpleasant resonant pounding in your head.  The C5D sounds so much worse than the direct output from my iPhone 6 that I contacted JDS labs thinking I must have a dud.  They said the C5D was never tested with headphones of less than 16 ohm impedance.  Seriously?!?

I have not yet heard the Hugo, but am now somewhat nervous about dropping $2500, only to find the output sounds worse than that of my iPhone. (Check out Ken Rockwell's comparison of the internal iPhone 6 Plus DAC/amp vs the Beyerdynamic A200p: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm#measurements). The problem I have with any external DAC/amp is, even if right now we can detect some small nuance of improvement, it will have a relatively short shelf life. There'll be a new iPhone in another 6 months.  Heck, there'll be a new Android phone in another 6 hours. The internal DAC/amp technology in these portable music players isn't standing still. I believe we may already be at the point of not just diminished returns, but no-more returns. I know there'll still be people that believe in 24 bit-depth audio sampled at 240 kHz and other fluff like that, but for those of us not born on the planet Krypton, if the human ear can't hear the difference, or (in the case of the A200p or C5D) if the external DAC/amp sounds WORSE than the internal DAC/amp in our portable media player, what's the point?

Sorry for the rant.  I'm just feeling like a sucker now for parting with that $250  If anybody else out there has heard the 846 being driven by a C5D, I'd love to hear your experiences.  If anybody else out there has heard ANY DAC/amp that sounds better at driving the 846 than an iPhone 6 (Plus), I'd also be interested to know what product you were using and how it improved the sound.

That's a fantastic rant. One of the better ones. Haven't heard "steaming pile of doggie do" for years.

I'm going +1 on whazzup's reply.

iPhone 6 with lossless files and really good IEMs - including Shure 846 (or even the 535) - sounds amazing......compared to iPhone 6 with MP3 and fairly cheap earbuds. That's your biggest uplift in audiophile land right there. Nice job, sonic bliss in comparison.

Once you've done that, the Hugo will kick it all up again: iPhone 6 with Apple camera connection kit and, in my case, the Onkyo HFPlayer iPhone app, which lets you play at the 24/192 176/192 etc etc on your iPhone with the Hugo. It's not the same 100% leap as the first step above, but the detail and clarity is VERY noticeable and, more importantly, enjoyable. The iPhone 6 will sound slightly muffled, or at least one dimensional, in comparison on some types of music.

I also have an amp/DAC from Onkyo, the HA200, which sits in that whole Cypher Labs, FiiO bucket. Plugging the iPhone 6 into that delivers a noticeable but quite small improvement in spaciousness and warmth; but it's the kind of uptick that you might struggle to notice outside in the busy real world. So it fits more into your point about "small nuance of improvement". The Hugo is 'bloody hell that sounds great' Improvement. You said you dropped 250 and feel suckered. Add a zero, get the Hugo and you won't get 10x the improvement. But you won't get buyer's remorse. It really does sound good.

Then if you feel like another rant (I know I do, often), start dropping 250 on upgraded headphone cable, or x10 on dedicated DAPs, for 5%-20% SQ uplift depending on the product and your ears / vulnerability to placebo effect.

In terms of shelf life, things are definitely moving fast. I'm looking at some of the head-fi etc headline products coming out of CES in Vegas and I've no doubt that my very small head-audio collection will be outdated by March. But bear in mind there are other ways for things to move on beyond sound quality, e.g. smaller packaging, more features in those smaller packages, cheaper price for those improvements, better user interfaces etc. Plus in my case, I started to work out what kind of sound I like, which means I don't need to buy the newest toy for reasons other than it being the new one (let's be honest, us iPhone users could really skip at least one generation each time before we upgrade, and our lives would be none the worse for it).

I use just my IPhone 6 and the Shures often - v. portable and great sound, especially since I discovered the Tidal streaming service. But I have a dedicated DAP that sounds even better with that quality of music (FLAC etc), and I will always throw the Hugo in a bag for travelling.

 

[RubenV]

I also use a iPhone 6 (128gb), Camera Connection Kit, Chord Hugo and Shure Se846's. I really like this combination, and adding the Hugo is well worth the money in my opinion.

 

[Whazzzup]

Have never heard the lcd 2.But had the hd800 a while ago.They had an big soundstage,and where extremly detailing.But the lack of bass,and harsh/clinical/cold sound,just didnt do it for me.When listen on them,i got tired in my ears after a while.Almost like some kind of pain.For studio engeneering they must be king of the crowd,but for laid back music session at home the se846 are much better.For me at least.But that is my personale opinion.They are very neautral sounding hd800.The se846 have great bass,and good mids and treble.Maybe they are not that neutral (more colored sound),but i just love the sound.So warm and dynamic.I can listen for them for hours,without beeing tired in my ears And they suits all kind of music,and even good at low volumes.So an exellent allround iem and a good compromise

Th900 is another natural pairing with 846, true sonic bliss.