Okay, so I took these things out of the box after spending an hour reading the "IE 80" impressions thread. I came to the conclusion that maybe I will give it a shot, and boy it was a great idea! These things sounded amazing right from the first beat, I remember the first time I got my IE 8's and felt as if I was robbed and wanted to take the earphones back to the store. However burn in time made a major difference and they started sounding awesome. I can't wait what the IE80's will sound like after burn in!
I'm not going to go too much into depth with my impression until I've burned in my headphones. But one thing that has certainly been fixed with these IEM's is the soundstage while having bass. With some heavy hitting songs the mids and the highs were just flooded by the bass and "ruined" the entire soundstage, personally I liked the overpowering bass. However with the IE 80's it seems as if the bass is almost identical (bit less though) however it will not choke the other sounds with it.
The clarity is considerably better and the headphones sound a bit (a very little tiny bit) more like speakers compared to the IE8's, as if the sound is not coming through the earphones themselves but from an external audio source.
The IE80's bass is still lacking compared to the IE8's, with the IE80's it's alot tighter and faster, so I don't receive that "subwoofer" feeling I had before which is a little dissapointing. However the IE8's so far still sound like the better option for me to listen to heavy hitting bass songs with constant bass. A good example of this would be "Siearra Leone - dubstep" whilst I myself don't really listen to dubstep but trance/techno/dance songs, I use the Sierra Leone track to test out bass frequencis since the whole song is pretty darn low. The IE80's just simply cannot match the IE8's with the bass reproduction in these types of songs. However my opinion may change towards the burn-in. Others may like it the other way around though...
I have the nozzle turned up for maximum bass as I had with my IE8's, and I would say that the IE80's sound like the IE8's with a few notches pushed down. It feels as if you could ump ap the bass more, but you hit the limit with the IE80's. However this did bring a few rewarding things like the better overall sound quality.
These are just my opinions, taste in audio performance may differ from person to person. I like to listen to alot of classical music, however I use my HD800's for that which are superb. But when it comes to trance/techno/dance, I won't be leaving anywhere without my IE80's. On the go without amping I use the Sennheiser HD380's for classical music.
Still having the problems with the IE80's not fitting snugly in my ears. They will fit and stay on as long as I don't go out for a walk (not to mention a jog), I have to re-adjust the earphones every 50 meters of walking or so...
I'll post this on the Impressions thread too... Just thought it would be nice here as well if someone finds this, maybe it will help.
** Thanks for your comment randomkid! Really motivated me to look up more info on these and try them out.
