[beeman458]

Either way, I think it's safe to just stick with official sennheiser cable as opposed to a chinese fake.
 
Not to worry.  I've already bought and paid for a pair of them.
 

 

 

[backstormer]

along the line of the red "mark"
ive owned a base model of sennheiser for 2yrs, cost me $89 au from jbhifi. its been ripped out of my ears countless times and been through the wash about 5 times, its been squashed, stretched and dropped. and it still works... oh yeah its original. recently the cable tore and pulled away from the driver and also from the join seperating the two drivers, low and behold. one of the wires is RED. quite a thick wire to. still works

but i thought id upgrade, and to save money i used ebay (stupid me)

i got this pair of ie7, thought they were the bees knees. didnt sound to bad, good packaging, anyway a week later the drivers fell out of top pocket and into a drain. slight tug later and the cable snapped (at the join) had a look, hmm no red cable. FAKE.
 
so yes there is a quality difference in cable between the real macoy and a fake. the red cable is much thicker and stronger which will provides a few benefits
1. durability
2. better solder connections
3. less signal loss through length of cable
4. kinking less of an issue, and disrupts signal less (electrical pulses "DO NOT" like traveling around sharp corners...)
 
hope this sorts your battle of the cables.
cheap is good. genuine is better, and will save you $$$ in the long run

 

[beeman458]

hope this sorts your battle of the cables.
cheap is good. genuine is better, and will save you $$$ in the long run
 
Oh, don't worry, I lost this battle way back when I said: "Sure, send me two."
 

 
What's seems to continue to be missed, I've already purchased these knock-offs.  So should I have need, there's no reason to trash what I've already paid for.  If they don't work, no biggie as I've already thrown my money away.
 

 

 

[SolidVictory]

Quote:

But the cable from the fake IE8 is most likely fake (hence no red mark) and thus it's useless and no use for replacement.
 
Not arguing but isn't the cable just transmitting an analogue signal?
 
???
 
and on legit IE8, the red mark is on the right side and not the left
 

 
http://img4.imageshack.us/i/iem2.jpg/
 
Ya got me on this one.  The only problem for me, the right side best fits my left ear when the ear piece cables hang down.  I haven't been using the over the ear loop thingies so I've been listening to them upside down.  Oh Kr@p!  Okay, now I feel stupid.
 

 

 
What I meant by "Real IE8 (left)" is that the left image is the real IE8, not that the left IEM has a red wire inside the connector. From what I remember, the right IEM had the red wire inside the connector.

 

[beeman458]

The good news, either which way, it all ends up in my ear, and hopefully, the correct ear.
 
 
 

 

[roniehan]

Hello guys, I am new here. Actually I stay for along time reading here but this is my first post. I stay in Manila, Philippines, recently I bought IE8 from one authorized US Sennheiser reseller through Ebay and shipped from the US here's the link http://cgi.ebay.ph/Sennheiser-IE-8-Noise-isolating-IE8-Pro-Earphones-/310262749337?pt=Other_MP3_Player_Accessories&hash=item483d19d899
 
Currently I am still waiting for the item to arrive. As soon as I got my hands on this I will review it and let you guys know what I think. I have my Klipsch Custom 3 and AKG K318P to compare with then I also can compare with friend's Denon AH710 and ATH CKS90.
 
But before that have anyone had experience with this reseller yet? So far their response through emails are good.

 

[roniehan]

Is there anyone here had experience with this seller before? Update please....

 

[m4rcu5]

Hi,
 
I would like to ask someone to take a look if these are the real thing or not. From what i can see they do. From what i can hear they sound a bit to dark.
The cable has the red chip in it, and a nice connector instead of a blurry one. The package looked good, but had the barcode starting at the R.
 
I have 2 pictures of the IEM's them self.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9660/dsc7835.jpg
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/4648/dsc7824.jpg

I would really appreciate it!
 
-m4rcu5

 

[j57park]

Looks legit to me.
- thin angled lines around the S
- red chip in cable
 
They do sound a bit dark at first. With burn in they get more and more refined.
Quote:

Hi,
 
I would like to ask someone to take a look if these are the real thing or not. From what i can see they do. From what i can hear they sound a bit to dark.
The cable has the red chip in it, and a nice connector instead of a blurry one. The package looked good, but had the barcode starting at the R.
 
I have 2 pictures of the IEM's them self.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9660/dsc7835.jpg
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/4648/dsc7824.jpg

I would really appreciate it!
 
-m4rcu5

 

[m4rcu5]

Thanks,
 
The packaging worried me a bit with the bar-code and the little tape, but its the IEM that counts.
 
I am running them trough the IsoTek cd now, and see if they start to sound a bit brighter. They now are very nice for acoustic and electro, but rock not so.
 
-m4rcu5

 

[Spurt]

I just ordered a pair from Play for £130.... hmm. I'll be eager to check them out.
 
Quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiFi-Freak /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wonder if it is possible for an 'authorised dealer' to stock fake IE8's? I'm not sure how exactly the authorised dealers are supplied so I'm wondering whether their suppliers have to be acknoweldged by Sennheiser themselves as a genuine supplier or if these authorized shop dealers just go ahead and pick any supplier. If the latter is the case, couldn't it be possible that an authorised dealer chooses a fake supplier and then mistakenly sells fake products from their authorised dealership? I wonder if anyone here can shed some light on this. -edit- Oh and thanks for posting this comparison SolidVictory

My thoughts too. I bought mine from play.com for £180 although they do appear to be genuine (red colouring in the right phone).

 

[roniehan]

Hi guys just want to update headfiers, my Sennheiser IE8 just arrived on Friday Nov 5. I have verified that they are authentic and 100% original. I compare it with my Klipsch Custom 3, my impression is that when wearing Klipsch seems like I am using smaller speaker compared to IE8 it's like wearing bigger speaker in my ears. The sound stage is way bigger, out of the box the mid is a bit lay back but with only one night burned in then the mid and high are more pronounced. I like it a lot it's really a good buy for those people who like trance, hip hop, rock and most other genres and bass-headed will like IE8 for sure. Once again www.sonicsense.com is a real deal, I got it from ebay.com for $279 plus $49.9 shipped to Manila Philippines. One thing was a bit bugging me is that the shipment took more than 2 weeks to arrive. When I got a chance I will post the pics, with the thin lines in the Sennheiser logos, the red wire, the angled "R" and "L" letters, the box etc, but be noted that the plastic cover has some kind of tape but I personally think it's doesn't matter because the most important is the sounds that come within. IE8 is a fantastic piece of IEMs that I have ever tried among the rest.

 

[Effiniya]

Hi, thanks for your pictures. I purchased a pair of Sennheiser IE8's for my husband because he loved my brothers so much.  On receiving them I was horrified when all the signs on the box and headphones lead me to believe they were fake's. I was so distraught although I did only pay $150.00 not $500.00 but I was still really devistated about my purchase. I told my husband I would try and get a refund.......his response was NO WAY........these ones are better than your brothers and I'm not getting rid of them.
Maybe a fake but definately not a flake.
Great sound and really affordable. 

 

[Zangetsu]

sometimes knockoffs are ok but this is not one of those times

 

[Liebrich]

Just joined the thread so I could double check my pair. Btw, thanks heaps to the OP for the heads up. Cazy how similar fakes are becoming. So I bought these of eBay and haven't left any feedback yet, I would love to get a second opinion before I give him negative, as Im prettttyyyyy sure they're fake. I can't see any red clips but it seems that doesn't mean anyhting anymore. I have no experience with high end earphones and the last pair i had were the cx95 also of sennhesier. Wehn listening to these I DID think they were much better and thought they sounded amazing, bass was nice and full yet sharp, and the treble seemed to jump out at me, bit hard to describe. The did have the cut the plastic band that was surrounding the packaging.  
So please, let me know what you think, any response appreciated. These photos were taken with my iphone, So color wise I wouldn't rely on the pics so much as true colour replication is not the camera's strengths.