[Andricop]

While watching videos to hype myself up for my upcoming VE EXT, which I traded for the U18s with the incredibly kind @Blanchot, I clicked on this comparison. I found it interesting, besides him making the same points over and over and apologizing for his own opinion, that this guy mentioned the Shure KSE1200 as his benchmark IEM. Since the Shure SE846 (Gen 2) turned out to be some of my favorite sounding IEMs now as well, brain burn-in is real, I am now interested in the Cooler's opinion of today:

Have you ever tried the Shure KSE 1200? What did you think of it? Are they still relevant in their price bracket? (knowing Shure IEMs, they probably aren't) Are all these E-Stats built into modern chimera IEMs (yes, that's how I will call them from now on) the same technology, just more matured or do they work differently?
If you still own them, did your opinion change over time, with new releases coming in? Just any thoughts you have about them, I would really appreciate

Just to clarify, don't want to buy them right now at all, I just find them interesting because of their kind of clunky nature, what with their proprietary amp and all, and I thought it would be cool to listen to them one day.

I have lots of questions guys, please enlighten me!

I had the KSE1200 for a long time, paired with AK SP1000M and WM1Z, and I loved them a lot! They were for a long time also my benchmark IEM.
I was never a big fan of the SE846, and found the KSE1200 a lot better, more resolving, clear, reference but organic at the same time.
I regret selling them for their SQ but not for comfort : having a second device that you need to charge and a chunky cable is not great.

 

[maegnificant]

Most 'electrostatic' drivers in IEMs are electret driver. Rather than requiring high voltage on the driver plates, a small, effectively permanent charge is applied to the driver diaphragm itself. There were several over ear electret based electrostats over the years - some of the earliest electrostatic headphones were made by Koss and were electrets. More recently there were some hybrid chinese models I saw around that had a dynamic driver with an electret thrown in for the highs.

As with all things in this hobby, historically over ear people would claim an electret isn't a true electrostat, but in practice there isn't much performance difference, at least at small scale. Over ear, not sure you could get the motive force for kicking bass etc, but in IEMs, particularly the hybrid variety you just use the electrets where they make sense (in the highs). I've never seen a full range electret IEM, but given they existed over ear back in the 60s I would assume they could offer passable performance but there's just little point when you can get better performance from a BA, planarmag or dynamic in the same small enclosure down there.

In other words, the KSE are a solution to a marketing problem that doesn't really exist... I also always found it cute how they had to add the disclaimer that they were the first 'sound isolating' true electrostatic earphone, since STAX has been offering electrostatic in ears for decades already.

Also, funny, you should bring up the SE846.2... did Shure ever start even selling the new green filter to existing owners? I get the blowback on Fatfreq here today, but telling owners to buy an entire new IEM for the filter, that seems like a whole other level. I guess it's not technically a 'microtransaction' if you have to rebuy the full game for that DLC lol.

Thanks for this technical explanation, that was very interesting and enlightening!
Regarding the SE846, the new red filter is still not sold seperately. Best of all, it is based on a community mod filter that was made for the "Gen. 1" version... I got them used for a good price and they are super durable and useful for my purposes. Shure makes some incredible hardware and gear for musicians, some of them even at great prices. But their research department doesn´t seem to be that well staffed anymore. (completely baseless speculation here)
Their stuff works, their prices sometimes don´t reflect the current market that well, but their brand reputation is what sells, and for a reason.

 

[gazzington]

Yeah, It’s definitely disappointing and not a good look on FatFreq in my opinion. They seem to be undermining their dealer (in this case MusicTeck but I can’t comment on any others) by encouraging customers to buy through them directly. I also enquired with FatFreq about purchasing the gold upgrade cable for Grand Maestro which normally costs SGD $450, but they said because I’m buying my GM through MusicTeck, I have to pay SGD $830 for the cable. I understand they want to incentivise people to buy from them direct but I think that’s an excessive price difference.

I emailed FatFreq earlier today asking them why their website shows GM has 4 bass tuning options but is not available out of the box, and they’ve now updated their website with this disclaimer:

Not a great way to deal with customers. I’ll avoid buying out of principle

 

[Scubadevils]

My son asked one of the AI image generators to design an IEM, 10 seconds later…

 

[gLer]

My son asked one of the AI image generators to design an IEM, 10 seconds later…

AI did a better job in seconds than many manufacturers can do full stop. Makes you think...

 

[Scubadevils]

AI did a better job in seconds than many manufacturers can do full stop. Makes you think...

Phenomenal technology, but definitely worrying too.

 

[Leonarfd]

Phenomenal technology, but definitely worrying too.

AI is scary and many artists are afraid of it since it's seems like it will steal their work going forward.
And its very impressive what it can achieve, and this is still early stage. Give it some years and who knows how far it will go.

Before we know it we will have AI made music.

But I truly believe that the more we get AI to do stuff, the more we will appreciate the human touch of real artists. Atleast I hope so for my wife who paints oil paintings, but here its back to physical media made by a human.

 

[wolfstar76]

AI is scary and many artists are afraid of it since it's seems like it will steal their work going forward.
And its very impressive what it can achieve, and this is still early stage. Give it some years and who knows how far it will go.

Before we know it we will have AI made music.

But I truly believe that the more we get AI to do stuff, the more we will appreciate the human touch of real artists. Atleast I hope so for my wife who paints oil paintings, but here its back to physical media made by a human.

AI making music is not worrisome for me, what really worries me is that in the future, it may be the AI who listen to my IEMs.

 

[Bret Halford]

My son asked one of the AI image generators to design an IEM, 10 seconds later…

Eartips look like stitched leather lol...

I wonder how long until Pentaconn Gold cored, leather sheepskin eartips hit the market?

 

[Leonarfd]

AI making music is not worrisome for me, what really worries me is that in the future, it may be the AI who listen to my IEMs.

Some real I, Robot stuff there.

 

[emdeevee]

Low tides here so I went out to botanical beach.

My new love interest then took me 4X4ing. LOL

Stunning shots and a perfect looking pizza, looks like a great weekend!!!

 

[phiemon]

Are there any fans of the stock cable from Jewel with Jewel (say, compared to FT)?

 

[slumberman]

AI did a better job in seconds than many manufacturers can do full stop. Makes you think...

No need to think. AI will do it for you !

 

[F700]

Listening to some good tunes while starring at the moon

 

[maegnificant]

Eartips look like stitched leather lol...

I wonder how long until Pentaconn Gold cored, leather sheepskin eartips hit the market?

Thinking about putting these into my ears made me shiver in disgust