Well i actually prefer the IE800 by a lot. Funny thing is, i bought thr SE846 first as the majority of people preferred the SE846... there was a poll and 65% of people preferred the SE846 so i bought that. And i was very happy with it but i was curious about the IE800 so i bought that a year later and my SE846 was in for repair at the time but ive just got it back and wow what a downgraded sound compared to the IE800... the IE800 beats the SE846 in all areas with the exception of bass. The detail omg. The moral of the story here is never buy something based on a poll and reviews. Always test before buying whenever possible.
that's the beauty of trying to invent a moral high ground on subjectivity. there are only losers in that game. it's like trying to prove to everybody else that a Celine Dion song is better than a Lou Reed one. nobody's wrong for having their very own preferences, but everybody's is wrong when trying to force them onto others as the one true stuff.
now if we're pretending to talk about objective superiority, good luck proving overall superiority of an IEM while including different settings, different sources, personal listening levels, and no clear FR target because there isn't even one that fits all humans for IEMs.
at least "test before buying whenever possible" isn't a bad idea. not easy, but not a bad idea.
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Has anyone started a thread on the best phones to buy for the super-low-impedance SE846 to match correctly? Or is it a simple one-product answer?
I don't want to hijack this thread with a phone discussion, so if a thread does not already exist discussing this (I could not find one), then I'll start one up.
Terry
you will have a hard time getting more than random anecdotal opinions. pretty much nobody measures DAPs or phones into such a low impedance( which is stupid IMO given today's IEMs). what happens into 16 or 30ohm( a little more likely to be measured), doesn't tell anything conclusive about what will happen with the se846. in other word, you'd need someone with many phones and the shure to measure stuff himself, and we all know that audiophiles in general aren't big on doing measurements. so while I agree that it would really help for such a special kid as the SE846, I'm not optimistic about the data you'll get from your topic.
maybe a list with the phones impedances, some websites often check that. it could help at least to know what to expect as a signature, but doesn't tell anything about potential hiss or distortion levels.
ideally Shure themselves should offer suggestions on the matter, after all it's their fault for making such a sensitive and low impedance IEMs, but they aren't exactly famous for talking to the consumer.
they usually behave more like "my dad isn't home, talk to your reseller".
