[Brooko]

Agree 1000%. Unfortunately, we've only ourselves to blame for this situation. When Apple ditched the headphone jack, most of the world didn't even blink. I understand the convenience factor - I have BT devices myself - but I hate that Apple (and now others) force you to use BT (or some silly dongle). Apple will no doubt claim in a couple of decades (once BT eventually matches the reliability and SQ of wired) that they were way ahead of the curve. In the meantime, people are buying inferior-quality audio products like Airpods and rewarding Apple for their courage corporate greed.

In my experience, Apple devices don't measure all that well, especially in regards intermodulation distortion (one of the more insidious forms of distortion). Here's a comparison against an Android device (admittedly, a better-than-average Android device - I'm sure you can find bad examples too). All measurements into a 32-Ohm load:



Note that Apple doesn't support a 96 kHz sample rate (in fact MFi licensing specifically forbids it). There's a deeper question of whether you can hear these differences. I guess Apple proved that 99% of people don't care, but it's presumptuous to assume those differences aren't audible to anybody. Of course the uneducated masses will still queue up for their shiny new iPhones that are vastly improved this year by virtue of the model number being incremented by 1, but what I find slightly disappointing is that many people I know and respect on this site are also still carrying iPhones or jackless-Android phones. If we don't vote with our wallets, we can expect to get exactly what we deserve.

Um - cherry picked a little csg?

2 x dongles
1 x Nano
Vs a flagship phone where the audio hardware is specifically targeted towards audio lovers?

Try measurements of the SE - then we can talk

 

[csglinux]

Um - cherry picked a little csg?

A little But that was the latest lightning dongle that you'd be using with all recent (version 7+) iPhones. Actually, I do have access to an SE. I'll try to update that table when I get time...

 

[Brooko]

A little But that was the latest lightning dongle that you'd be using with all recent (version 7+) iPhones. Actually, I do have access to an SE. I'll try to update that table when I get time...

Yeah and to be fair chuck it against your average Android phone ........

 

[csglinux]

Yeah and to be fair chuck it against your average Android phone ........

I was simply comparing against the Android phone I use. But as I mentioned, there are bound to be worse examples. Choose some numbers of your own that will make your point nicely and mentally insert them into the table. Voila!

To really be fair, we should only be comparing phones that actually have audio jacks. Even the SE is a bit tenuous there, because it's an old phone which you can't buy (new) any more and, due to Apple's planned obsolescence, is reaching the end of its lifespan. The only choice you have now with a new iPhone is that dongle.

 

[davidcotton]

Agree 1000%. Unfortunately, we've only ourselves to blame for this situation. When Apple ditched the headphone jack, most of the world didn't even blink. I understand the convenience factor - I have BT devices myself - but I hate that Apple (and now others) force you to use BT (or some silly dongle). Apple will no doubt claim in a couple of decades (once BT eventually matches the reliability and SQ of wired) that they were way ahead of the curve.

Not quite, in a couple of decades Apple will announce they are ahead of the curve by reintroducing the headphone jack so you won't need those cumbersome dongles

 

[435279]

Not quite, in a couple of decades Apple will announce they are ahead of the curve by reintroducing the headphone jack so you won't need those cumbersome dongles

Absolutely, however it won't be a 3.5mm socket, it will be a 3.7mm socket of their own design so they can charge a royalty fee for every headphone, IEM and adaptor sold.

 

[Chupi383]

I don’t use them much at all any more, maybe a few hours a week. I do have pretty salty skin but yeah I agree it’s weird that they’ve gone like this. I’m guessing Shure has seen this problem before but I couldn’t find anyone online with the exact problem.

I haven't had my SE846s very long and they're the blue color ones anyway, but my old silver SE425s had this happen. I'd had them about 5 years when I noticed the glue was a little discolored. Over time it felt like there was a little bit of give between the halves of the shells. Eventually they started to come apart and I used them with a thin twist tie around them for a while. Then they came apart completely. Not wanting to mess with sending them in, I scraped away the old gooey glue with a small knife and stuck them back together with super glue. This had no noticeable effect on their sound, and they've held together since. But I started thinking about an upgrade and the stuff about the laser-cut low-pass filter, changeable filters, and overall upgraded internals sold me on the 846s and I haven't used the 425s much after that.

 

[a-LeXx]

Made an unexpected discovery with my SE846. Until recently I was using it on a DFR or BTR3. Couple of days ago I tried it on a Fiio A5 (DFR as source), and it sounds so much better. This can‘t be just power, SE846 barely needs any, nor is it output impedance, DFR/BTR3/A5 all have comparable output impedance... But the overall sound signature transformed from pretty warm but dry to sparkly and musical... That was pretty unexpected, because A5 has a pretty linear FR and theoretically shouldn‘t affect sound signature. The balance moved towards upper mids and lower treble though...

As a bonus, the hiss problem with DFR is solved by my A5. With DFR at max-3 steps (ios) and A5 at low gain, there is no hiss, because A5 is dead silent by itself, and the hiss from DFR is now gone because SNR at high volume is much better than at low volumes suitable when SE846 is directly running off DFR...

So, on a go I will be still using my BTR3 for convenience, but at home I‘m now switching to a DFR+A5 for better SQ.

 

[unispeed]

Engineer Mod has now been improved and finalized with Revision 6. Instructions on recreating this modification can be found at the following link (Please use discernment when reading posts after the one I am linking to as they are referring to previous revisions of the mod) The following post is updated as of Sept 26, 2019.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/se846-filter-mod.802350/page-15#post-15138382



So, what do they sound like? Well here is a quote from a PM I received yesterday:

"All I can say is WOW! ...The sound signature is exactly what I constantly have been striving toward when carrying out these mods, to almost completely remove any sense that you're listening to IEM's and completely open up. It's more immersive than I've experienced and there is no lacking area, or anything I've wanted to adjust via EQ..."

I would describe them as airy without harshness while retaining a good amount of bass, certainly more than a stock white filter and maybe even more than a stock blue.

 

[118900]

Does anyone have any experience with the SE 846s vs the typical Audeze signature sound? I upgraded from SE 425 to the SE 846s (driven by dragonfly cobalt) as a portable alternative to my Audeze’s as I had read several reviews likening the two sound signatures but I find that with the neutral filters the SE 846s sound noticeably less bright than my Audeze’s (which are certainly not “bright” sounding HPs).

I appreciate that to do a proper comparison it is up to me to change to the brighter filters on the SH846’s and do some A/B comparisons against the Audeze’s but in general can anyone else confirm that they feel the two sound signatures are similar or is that a myth?

 

[unispeed]

Does anyone have any experience with the SE 846s vs the typical Audeze signature sound? I upgraded from SE 425 to the SE 846s (driven by dragonfly cobalt) as a portable alternative to my Audeze’s as I had read several reviews likening the two sound signatures but I find that with the neutral filters the SE 846s sound noticeably less bright than my Audeze’s (which are certainly not “bright” sounding HPs).

I appreciate that to do a proper comparison it is up to me to change to the brighter filters on the SH846’s and do some A/B comparisons against the Audeze’s but in general can anyone else confirm that they feel the two sound signatures are similar or is that a myth?

The foam on the stock blue filters is too far out for many. Simply pushing the foam in a few mm on each side equally will yield more treble. Push it all the way in and it will yield quite a bit more treble (Trishd mod). My opinion on the stock filters (I have bought many to mod) is that no 2 pairs are setup alike due to differences in foam length and depth which essentially translates into No 2 individuals are hearing the same thing when talking about "stock" filters (with the exeption of the white filter because it does not have any foam). Having said that, if you think stock blue is too muddy and stock white is too bright you're looking at filter mods to fine tune the sound acoustically. Filter and damper position within the plastic insert is MUCH more relevant and audible than the brand of cable you are using.

 

[118900]

The foam on the stock blue filters is too far out for many. Simply pushing the foam in a few mm on each side equally will yield more treble. Push it all the way in and it will yield quite a bit more treble (Trishd mod). My opinion on the stock filters (I have bought many to mod) is that no 2 pairs are setup alike due to differences in foam length and depth which essentially translates into No 2 individuals are hearing the same thing when talking about "stock" filters (with the exeption of the white filter because it does not have any foam). Having said that, if you think stock blue is too muddy and stock white is too bright you're looking at filter mods to fine tune the sound acoustically. Filter and damper position within the plastic insert is MUCH more relevant and audible than the brand of cable you are using.

Thank you very much for this interesting tidbit of info. So the further I push back the more treble then?

By pushing back do you mean towards the end with the red ring or towards the opposite “open” end of the filter?

 

[unispeed]

Thank you very much for this interesting tidbit of info. So the further I push back the more treble then?

By pushing back do you mean towards the end with the red ring or towards the opposite “open” end of the filter?

The plastic insert has an Inlet and an Outlet. The inlet is the side with the rubber o-ring and the filter cloth. The outlet is the side closest to your eardrum. If you push the foam a couple of mm towards the inlet it will become less efficient and let more high frequency content. However, if you dont do this to the same extent on both sides the two sides will sound different. That is why I suggest that you create yourself a depth tool like the one shown in Step 2.2 of my filter mod ( https://www.head-fi.org/threads/se846-filter-mod.802350/page-15#post-15138382 ). Even though this mod is more involved than what you are doing, you can craft the tool shown to set the depth of the foam units accurately.

 

[fablestruck]

Anything will be better than your iPhone.

Hey ppl.
I have been using the Fiio M11 for a month with my SE846 and I can tell you that the difference in SQ with them being connected to my smartphone is gargantuan!

 

[118900]

The plastic insert has an Inlet and an Outlet. The inlet is the side with the rubber o-ring and the filter cloth. The outlet is the side closest to your eardrum. If you push the foam a couple of mm towards the inlet it will become less efficient and let more high frequency content. However, if you dont do this to the same extent on both sides the two sides will sound different. That is why I suggest that you create yourself a depth tool like the one shown in Step 2.2 of my filter mod ( https://www.head-fi.org/threads/se846-filter-mod.802350/page-15#post-15138382 ). Even though this mod is more involved than what you are doing, you can craft the tool shown to set the depth of the foam units accurately.

Very clear. Thank you very much