[dannyc]

@dweaver

I was looking at the pics you posted, alongside that from Apricum's and Szadzik's.

I noticed that the fakes you got had bevelled IEM logos, whereas Apricum's and Szadzik's are more "flat", nearing the originals, except that the metallic portion on that logo are farther away from the edge (not sure if I'm explaining this correctly, sorry). The real ones have those metallic parts nearer the edge.

That being the case, it seems that there's more than one "type" of fake, and it looks like the counterfeiters are really trying to copy the real thing - think 1st gen, 2nd gen.. Now that's really scary.

BTW, thanks for posting the pics. It's truly appreciated.

 

[TheDeliveryMan]

Hello-

Sennheiser USA here. We encourage you to contact your local Sennheiser office for dealer and product integrity verification. In short, if you purchase from an authorized Sennheiser dealer (verified by Sennheiser's family of websites or a Sennheiser representative), you will not get a counterfeit and there is no need to waste time and money comparing questionable sources.

Note: by posting "real vs. fake" information, you give counterfeiters a chance to play catch-up and make fakes look even more like the original. We try to minimize the amount of information that can be ported to an illicit party, and encourage you to do so as well. Further, counterfeits range in quality from abysmal to poor, which makes each and every case somewhat different. Save yourself the headache and let us handle the inquiry.

Please, contact your local Sennheiser office in regards to counterfeit products, as we are closest to the product and its subsequent distribution network. We are happy to help.

A reminder: if the price is too good to be true, it is probably not true!

We appreciate your support.

 

[david1978jp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDeliveryMan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Note: by posting "real vs. fake" information, you give counterfeiters a chance to play catch-up and make fakes look even more like the original. .... Save yourself the headache and let us handle the inquiry. A reminder: if the price is too good to be true, it is probably not true!

Thank you. "Too good to be true...", my point has always been.

 

[dj nellie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDeliveryMan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello- Sennheiser USA here. We encourage you to contact your local Sennheiser office for dealer and product integrity verification. In short, if you purchase from an authorized Sennheiser dealer (verified by Sennheiser's family of websites or a Sennheiser representative), you will not get a counterfeit and there is no need to waste time and money comparing questionable sources. Note: by posting "real vs. fake" information, you give counterfeiters a chance to play catch-up and make fakes look even more like the original. We try to minimize the amount of information that can be ported to an illicit party, and encourage you to do so as well. Further, counterfeits range in quality from abysmal to poor, which makes each and every case somewhat different. Save yourself the headache and let us handle the inquiry. Please, contact your local Sennheiser office in regards to counterfeit products, as we are closest to the product and its subsequent distribution network. We are happy to help. A reminder: if the price is too good to be true, it is probably not true! We appreciate your support.

Thank you for taking the time to offer some clarification, DeliveryMan. However, some posters in this thread have claimed that they sent pictures of their IE8s to Sennheiser and asked for confirmation of their authenticity and did not receive any reply other than a warning to only purchase from authorized dealers. I realize that it may be difficult for Sennheiser to verify authenticity based on pictures alone, and you don't want the liability of potentially signing off on a counterfeit product, but it seems like there are a lot of customers who would like some more definitive ways to determine the legitimacy of their IE8s.

I realize that this thread and the "real vs. fake" pictures may be offering counterfeiters some guidance on how to improve the build quality of their fakes, but in the absence of any authoritative statements from Sennheiser, customers are going to have to share what information they have in order to protect themselves.

I myself recently purchased IE8s from a store that 2 Sennheiser employees have told me is an authorized dealer, but some posters in this thread have noted that they have received counterfeit IE8s from what they claimed were authorized dealers. This is alarming, since it raises the possibility that fakes have somehow entered the chain of supply of authorized dealers who should only be getting their products directly from Sennheiser.

Once again, I appreciate your offer to support customers in their effort to fight counterfeiting, but the reality is that there is still a lot of confusion about who is an authorized dealer, what features definitively make a product counterfeit, and whether authorized dealers may mistakenly carry counterfeits.

My suggestion is that Sennheiser offer a system whereby customers can send in their IE8s to one of your offices (shipping costs to be borne by the customer) and a Sennheiser employee can briefly inspect them and verify their authenticity. This way, customers have a near-definitive way to determine the legitimacy of their product while keeping valuable build-quality information away from counterfeiters.

Moreover, Sennheiser's website list of authorized online dealers is very incomplete. There seem to be many authorized dealers not listed; it would benefit both the customers and the dealers if this list was kept comprehensive and up-to-date.

Thank you for interacting with customers on this site and I look forward to seeing what solutions we can reach to this problem!

 

[Young Spade]

Wow thank you for the pictures man. This is definitely going to help a lot of people out. If I ever decide to get some IE8s and I'm not sure of their originality I'm definitely coming back to this topic.

 

[Hawaiiancerveza]

Ya this thread has helped me a lot in deciding weather to go through someone on ebay for cheap or going through an actual dealer. I choose the safer rout because of the input all these people have givin. Thanks a ton! Im lovin my EI8's!! =)

 

[egokun]

Now guys, you have me totally confused here

Background: just yesterday I received a pair of Sennheiser IE8. I bought them second-hand from another Head-Fi user (thread here). Price asked was €190 - slightly less than what some online European dealers ask, and currently equivalent to $260. I understand that retail price is higher in US$ than its equivalent in Euro, so I guess the price I paid isn't "too good to be true" (this is second-hand after all).

I did try the IE8 before coming here to check if they might be fake. Of course I don't know what the real IE8 is supposed to sound like

, but here's what I think:

- first impact: oh Lord, the bass. Deep. Powerful (and I come from Westone UM2 which many consider bass-heavy!). Almost overwhelming, actually, but then I swapped tips (from the hard-foam ones to bi-flanges) and everything became much more balanced.

- vocals are not upfront like with UM2, but they're excellent nonetheless. While the UM2 were overtly sibilant with short tips, my IE8 sometimes go to the verge of sibilance, but never quite over it.

- overall sound can only be described as 'smooth'. The highs can be rough at times, but never shrill like with the UM2. My IE8 are fast, impactful, engaging; totally PRAT, like I'd never heard before. They are clearly less sensitive than the UM2: I need to raise the volume a bit more to achieve satisfying volume. I do notice a slight loss of detail compared to the UM2 though.

So there, judging from the first impression, I could not even think I may have a counterfeit copy. But then I came to this thread... and my certainty shattered!

Thing is, some features of my IE8 seem to be genuine, but some others make me doubt. Would you guys be so kind as to give me your opinion based on the pics I took?

Here is the complete set of pics. Sorry the order is a bit messy, ImageShack did it all by itself

I'm sorry I'm posting more pics after what TheDeliveryMan wrote, but then again, I guess it's still the only way one can know one's got the real deal, right?

Thank you.

 

[dweaver]

egokun

This really is hard to do and can cause confusion. Do me a favor and PM me one picture of your Y splitter from the back using the same light so I can see the wiring inside it a bit, like your picture of the Y splitter from the side. But from your other pictures and your sonic description I think you are good to go.

 

[dweaver]

I have been emailing a senior Sennheiser employee about fakes and such and confirmed with him that the post by TheDeliverMan is legit (he actually is TheDeliveryMan). I hadn't replied to his post until now because I abstained from the Internet for a few days as part of Lent.

So having had a post from Sennheiser themselves, what do we do? We could ignore them and just keep posting pictures and the like since we live in a free country and all. But personally for me, I am in agreement with his post and had started to wonder if all we were doing was help the counterfeiters get better at making their fakes. So I am going to pull my pictures from my posts.

From this point forward if anyone wants me to look at pictures they have and compare them to my photos of the fakes I had and my real IE8 photos, please PM me and I will look at your pictures that way. I may not always be prompt in replies but will generally be able to help within a 1 day window. Note unless I am dealing with a longtime established headfi member my confirmation will be deliberately vague in how I come to my conclusion if I think a pair is fake or not as I want to minimize accidentally helping counterfeiters. For longtime members I will give more detailed explanations privately if I have time and it is requested.

I know this approach is more painfull and will require people to trust my judgement but I can't see any other way to do this. So if you don't like my approach please don't flame me, just use the existing pictures posted here by others and ask other members for help.

 

[koonhua90]

Hey, anyone thinks that the following seller could be selling the real stuff? doesn't seem real to me though...that's where the Ebay seller which sold me an IE8 said he got his stuff from. Most likely fake...

Sennheiser IE8 IE8 In-Ear Monitor Earphones (IE7 IE8 IE 7 IE 8) - China IE8, in ear earphone, headphone in Earphone & Headphone

 

[Hoho1222]

I think some of the photo apply to other IE series because I encounter some of the similarity between fake earphone.

 

[KMB2]

Thanks to this thread i was able to confirm that the IE8s that I just received (ebay)were fakes. The moment I first put them in my ears for a listen I knew something was wrong. They were worse (much worse) than the free ear buds that came with my Sansa. But they did look like the real thing until I found this thread and compared. The good news is I got my money back. Ebay indicated that there was a problem with the seller.

 

[Ridleyguy]

Thanks to the OP for this effort. I checked my IE8s out, and thank goodness they are not fakes.

 

[Frequen C]

I know that Amazon is infamous for selling fake headphones. I never get my stuff online, because it always causes more problems.

 

[ychao24]

Hi guys I'm kinda new here, so do bear with me!
I'm also looking to purchase a pair of IE8's but after following this thread I'm VERY concerned about the great number of fakes out there.

I'm in the UK (london) ATM and I happened to chance upon this deal:
Sennheiser IE 8 -IE Series Ear-Canal Phones

GBP140 for a pair sounds like a very good deal IMO, so I was wondering if anyone here has bought anything from this site before and/or can provide sound advice.

I know, I know, 'if the price is too good to be true, it probably is' and all that, it's just that I can't seem to decide where the line should be drawn (i.e. between a great deal and the too-good-to-be-true one). Granted, the lack of more pics aren't helping at all. And don't blame a miserable student like me for trying to get the best for the least... ESPECIALLY after stumbling onto THIS site...

Thanks a bunch in advance ppl!