I was inspired by a recent post from
@ThomasHK (
https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/shure-se846-impressions-thread.675219/page-1195#post-13504011) on tip measurements. For sure, my measurement rig is not as sophisticated as that used by
@ThomasHK, and my mic/compensation curves/etc., are all likely very different. However, the following measurements are all consistent and entirely repeatable, with no visible shift in the curves from measurement to measurement using the same tips. All curves here are diffuse-field compensated and were all made using brown Knowles' dampers in my SE846. Here are the tips I tested:
Probably most of you know tips 1, 3 and 4. The Symbio's are an interesting hybrid made by a fellow headfier (I believe it is
@garcsa). These tips are a bit like SpinFits on the outside, with Comply-like foam on the inside; their bore is slightly too wide for the SE846 nozzles, hence the Monster supertip adapter you see above. Here are the measurements from my VibroVeritas coupler:
Some comments on the above:
1) I didn't expect to see such large differences, but as I said, these measurements are totally repeatable. This shows why any measurements need to describe the eartip used - a different eartip could give you a very different FR.
2) Comply foam essentially completely eliminates the resonance peak at ~8kHz; the SCS enhances it.
3) Both Comply foam and SCS see the biggest roll-off past that 8 kHz resonance peak.
4) The Symbio tips do the best job of preventing high-frequency roll-off in the immediate region around 10+ kHz.
To my ears, Symbio tips win on SQ. Unfortunately, that comes at a price, because I find the Symbio tips pretty hard and uncomfortable to wear for long periods (and actually, even for relatively short periods). I may need to persevere with different size tips and possibly Frankensteining them by putting their interior foam into some softer silicone (SpinFit?) shells.
ER=175721]@garcsa[/USER] - do you sell a version of your Symbio tips that would directly fit the SE846 nozzle?