Hanging around here this was bound to happen.
Yesterday I "just happened" to find myself at
Addicted to Audio in Melbourne, and "just happened" to walk out with an emptier wallet. Hopefully this post provides the catharsis needed to alleviate morning-after guilt.
Firstly I must thank the
audio crack dealers lovely chaps at A2A for allowing me to demo three particular IEMs I'd read about but had yet to hear - the Sennheiser IE600, Sennheiser IE900 and Final Audio A8000. If it isn't already obvious I'm a single-driver DD diehard, since no IEM (or speaker) in my life has ever pushed my buttons the way single-drivers do, not for fatigue-free sustained listening sessions. Coherence is king, and can't be faked.
My listening session at A2A was quite brief so I'll keep my descriptions equally cursory, with the disclaimer I put only minimal stock in impressions gathered under demo or meet conditions, since IEMs are like people - frustratingly yet charmingly imperfect, and only by living with them on a daily basis do we really learn who they are.
The IE600 & IE900 are easier to discuss as a pair, since they share so much in common. Physically, their surface textures differ to the touch but in terms of weight and form factor they seem almost identical, and what a delightful form factor it is. Both have the coherence and sub-bass impact I crave, with the IE900 perhaps a tad weightier down below. The IE900 also had noticeably more sparkle up top, along with a wider, grander soundstage.
However even after flicking through a handful of tracks it was obvious this was an artificially-enhanced soundstage which delivered something of a hall or echo effect, meaning it would be present regardless of album or genre played. Suffice to say there would be times that isn't ideal, say when listening to girl-with-guitar acoustic stuff it might lead to the performance lacking intimacy and feeling further away than ideal. There also appeared to be something wonky about the IE900 midrange, resuscitating nightmares of the HD580's I owned what felt like a lifetime ago. Timbre seemed off in that famously-sterotypical Sennheiser way, not to such a drastic extent it would prevent me enjoying owning a pair by any stretch, but as audiophiles any defect no matter how minuscule must be noted.
Whereas the IE900s felt slightly V-shaped, the IE600's were far better balanced. Indeed their wonderful balance across the frequency spectrum appears to be their defining characteristic. To my regret I've yet to hear a pair of U12T's but they are frequently spoken of in similar terms, of being magnificent all-rounders with few weaknesses other than unsatisfying BA-bass, and (owing to their 12 driver configuration) the lack of coherence many audiophiles assume they've no choice but to live with in exchange for top-tier sound. (you don't!)
Another reported U12T weakness is they can be excessively polite, or put more plainly, boring. This may be the result of their purportedly poor dynamics, though I wonder if their frequency response could be a contributing factor. By definition, audio that sounds excessively flat or correct can fail to rouse one's attention. Perhaps that's why musicians and audio engineers love adding so much reverb to their mixes, for the extra drama or colour it can lend. So, the IE600's immediately stood out as being much more balanced and correct than the IE900's, but perhaps did not shimmer to quite the same extent.
What I can also say about the IE600s is both their soundstage and imaging were excellent for a single DD (though slightly behind the IE900s), their timbre was faultless, bass impact was satisfying and to my ears manifestly adequate without attracting excessive attention to itself, midrange was satisfyingly liquid and again, by single DD standards there was no lack of top-end sparkle nor corresponding detail whatsoever. Their weakness was a tendency towards politeness, along with a very slight hint of muddiness I would've missed had they not been tested alongside the IE900 & A8000.
Lastly on the subject of these two curvy Sennheiser beauties I must dissect their physical attributes. First the bad - their proprietary MMCX connectors differ slightly in spec from the norm and as such won't fit every MMCX cable out there. My MMCX Penon Audio Leo Plus cable worked fine, my MMCX ALO Reference 8 does not. I don't know what Sennheiser was thinking there and will leave it at that. Thankfully the good firmly outweighs the bad, because the form factor of both IEMs (for my ears) is simply unbeatable. To hear magnificently high-end sound pour out of such tiny enclosures is nothing short of a testament to the wondrous age we inhabit.
Finally, the A8000. These were substantially larger & heavier than the Sennheiser IEMs and visually commanded much more attention. Comfort was a mixed bag, the shells fit my ears extremely snugly and their weight was not dramatic enough to affect a purchasing decision. However like others who've owned them, I found the right-side's shell would occasionally bite into my ear in a mildly-painful fashion owing to its' excessive sharpness. I've noticed that
A8000 silicon cases are available on Ebay, but it's a little ridiculous such a solution should be needed in the first place.
Sonically, sharp & edgy is an apt description I can't resist making. That said, they instantly grabbed my attention as something truly special. Having owned the Dunu Luna I had an inkling of what to expect from true beryllium drivers - the captivating feeling of speed & immediacy, otherwise the province of BA drivers. That was there, as was a soundstage & imaging perhaps slightly ahead of the IE900 (difficult to say with minimal time comparing the two), and most vividly of all a level resolution neither Sennheiser IEM could match, beyond anything I've yet heard from a single-DD IEM.
Of course there's always a downside -price aside- and the abundance of treble was it. On the whole I didn't find it too debilitating, but immediately recognised the A8000s aren't great all-rounders, and would probably relegate substantial chunks of my music collection off-limits. In much the same way as the IE900's soundstage felt artificially boosted, so too did the A8000's treble. Yet the speed of the driver, brutal clarity of presentation, sublime resolution & superb technicalities encourage me to overlook this shortcoming and label them a superb, albeit flawed achievement. If my library were largely or exclusively classical they'd be unbeatable in the single-DD world.
In the end "there can be only one" so I walked out with the IE600s. These are basically the Ghandi's of the IEM world - bordering on offensively inoffensive, but destined to be loved by millions. Anywhere else they'd laugh if I suggested these USD $700 earbuds are 'good value', but compared with some of the FOTM stuff paraded around the Watercooler they probably seem like a steal. What's funny is if Sennheiser had've released them with the IE900s simultaneously and reversed the pricing of the two, I would not have batted an eyelid after hearing both. The IE900's almost look and sound like the beta version.
Thanks again A2A - and now to the overwhelming task of purging all memory of your store's existence until my wallet recovers!
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