Just wanted to share my recent experience with what I am convinced were counterfeit IE800S. Good counterfeits for sure, but fakes nonetheless.
I stumbled on some IE800S for a good price (~$600) on Amazon with Prime shipping. Nothing about the listing raised any red flags, even after subsequent closer inspection, and I didn't think about the possibility of receiving fakes until I saw a number of forum posts on the topic while searching for reviews in anticipation of receiving the headphones. At that point, I reviewed my order and found that the seller was a third-party, and not Amazon.com as I had expected. Needless to say, the third-party seller was not on the list of Sennheiser's authorized dealers, so I was hopeful but suspicious about my order. When I received the headphones, I checked as many points as I could against the lists of indicators of fake IE800/IE800S that others had identified. Against most these criteria, they seemed genuine. In particular,
- The packaging looked real and had all of the correct stickers, including the authenticity sticker with the hologram. The packing foam had clean cuts.
- All accessories and manuals were present and appeared genuine.
- The IEM bodies looked authentic and matched images I found of (claimed) genuine IE800S (more about this below).
- The strain reliefs attached to the IEM bodies had the correct marking ("L" and a small dot on the black relief, and an "R" on the red one).
- The carrying case was genuine leather and looked well-made (more about this below). The foam inside was appropriately rigid and had clean cut outs.
- The plaque in the carrying case was engraved and matched images of genuine cases in appearance.
- The serial number was not from a range of suspected/reported counterfeits.
- The card of extra tips seemed high-quality.
- The extension cable had the expected "small gap" when connected to the 2.5mm plug at the Y-split.
- The cables felt of reasonable quality.
- The sound was good. Not exactly what I had expected (more on this below), but the bass was solid and extended as reviews had indicated, the mids and highs were clean and detailed, and the sound stage was impressive (especially for IEMs).
The following things made me suspicious, though:
- The "S" logos on the ceramic bodies were a bit rough around the edges, having what looked like tiny cracks or mildly wavy lines around the outer rectangle.
- One "S" logo also didn't seem to have a fully uniform background texture throughout the entire shape.
- It is worth pointing out that I did stumble on some images in an online review (so should have been genuine IE800S...) which had a similar non-smooth appearance around the "S" shapes, so I cannot say with certainty this indicates a fake.
- With the extension cable attached, I could not get the cable wrapped around the carrying case in such a way that the plug wasn't dangling freely.
- Numerous reviewers and owners complained about the difficulty of wrapping the cable securely, but the plug on my cable was not even sort of close to the hole that would secure it in place.
- This didn't sit well with me, since I would expect better fit and finish from a premium product, but I was definitely unsure how big of a deal this was considering all of the reports of difficulties wrapping the cable.
- One individual who had purchased both fake and real IE800S had listed the extension cable lengths. The length of my cable matched neither measurement.
- The bass was very present, but not in a terribly overbearing way.
- So much so, that I thought at first that the EQ on my DAP had somehow become enabled, but verified that this was not the case.
- With music that already had a decent amount of bass, transients sounded very slightly distorted, which should not be present in a product of this caliber.
- This was not the sound signature I expected, having owned and used Sennheiser HD580 for over 20 years, but it was not unpleasant if perhaps less neutral than I wanted.
- The security code on the shiny part of the authenticity sticker was only three characters long.
- I had no frame of reference here for what the actual codes should be, but common sense (and a bit of work experience with hashing algorithms) suggested to me that only three characters doesn't provide much in the way of security.
Since I could not prove authenticity using the information I found online, and had the noted suspicions, I immediately started an Amazon return. My guess is that I received one of the real/fake hybrids that some people have reported seeing - most of the packaging and some accessories were real, but the IEMs and maybe the extension cables were counterfeit.
It is worth noting that all of the Amazon third-party sellers who have IE800S for sale have good seller ratings, so I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that some may be selling genuine products and those who aren't are unaware of what they're doing. The problem is that it is not possible to determine who is selling legitimate products (none are authorized dealers for Sennheiser) and with Amazon fulfillment being what it is, genuine products could be mixed in with counterfeits, making it a lottery to see what you might get if you do make a purchase. As such, I would definitely
not recommend purchasing from any of these sellers.
I have since purchased a pair of IE800S from Audio 46 (an authorized dealer), which I received today. They (obviously) have none of the issues I reported above in my "suspicions list", and sound better all around than the fake pair. Not night-and-day as others had experienced with some poor quality fakes, but there is a definite and noticeable improvement with the genuine IE800S. Bass is firm, textured, and extended, but not exaggerated; mids and highs are even cleaner and more detailed; the sound stage is even better. I am very pleased with the real thing and am glad I had the option to return the first pair to Amazon, but would have preferred to avoid the hassle of the return. Hopefully this post will help someone else avoid having the same initial experience as me while extending the list of "known information" about counterfeit IE800S.
