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WARNING: Fake IE8s! Comparison pictures included!!
Dec 8, 2010 at 11:23 PM Post #706 of 1,210


Quote:
duffy1207 said:
Hi, I purchased these from ebay a few days ago. They were advertised as "barely used." They came without the original box but with the carry case (Which I'l get onto shortly), tips, clip, earclip thingies and the salt packet you get to put in the case with them. I thought they may be fake due to the fact they came with no box but thought I'd give them a try, as I have lost boxes in the past and hoped this guy had done so too. I see no evidence of the red chip that people say you should see where the cable plugs in to the right earpiece (some say left too). I saw some other guy saying you should see a green chip board and 4 solder points clearly where the cable splits from single to y formation, which I do see.
 
They sound pretty good from a couple of hours listening to various music, sounding nice on a few electronic songs. I have been using cheap JVC earbuds the last couple of months after losing the UE220's I bought to last me while I saved up for something nice after my Denons broke, so even fake IE8's might sound good to me at the moment?
 
I've seen reviews saying they have very powerful bass, and mine were set at the highest setting when I got them out of the case, but its not massively strong. I'm not a basshead, but I've come from Denon C751's and 710's in the past, which are considered quite heavy in the bass department from what I can gather.
 
A shot of the right earpiece, no "red chip" can be seen (by me at least)

 
Now the carry case, every one I've seen has been brushed alluminium, but mine has a funny texture? As far as I'm concerned this is either a massie give away they're fake, or they just made some cases like this I didn't know about. Anyone know any more? The texture is smooth, and theres a film of plasticy stuff thats hard to remove over the metal.
 

 
A closer look at the case and logo, apologies for the poor pic
 

 
Everything I received is below

 
 
Overview of splitter, jack and earpiece (the right earphone is the one you can see more of (can anyone see the red chip?)
 

 
 
In this pic, the right earphone is on top. Is it me or are the bass adjust screws quite recessed?
 

 
Finally, the back of the splitter, where the green board and four solder points can be clearly seen.
 

 
 
Apologies for the pictures again, no access to a proper camera at the moment. Can anyone tell me what they thin of these then, I'm fairly inclined to think fakes, but I might just be paranoid. Hear the red chip is very important though and I can't see one, and the case is suspicious.
 
Thanks, I await you replies. Joe.
Click to expand...


The case looks fake to me
 
Dec 10, 2010 at 1:57 PM Post #711 of 1,210
[size=medium]I went through this same process.  Emails from Sennheiser basically say “You get what you pay for.  The cost is standard and they offer no special discounts to their sellers".  My set cost $160.00 and sounded o.k. until compared to real high quality phones.  I sent them back and trashed the Seller EBay account. So consider this.  Your box looks fake, the sound is so so, its widely common to get fake IE8s or second hand phones (Even from approved sellers),  EBay is Fake nursery, if you were stuck with fakes you would sell them on EBay!.  So you should make your own call and whatever you do let other know on EBay.[/size]
 
Dec 11, 2010 at 1:10 PM Post #713 of 1,210
Why are there so many fake IE8s??? There doesn't seem to be many fake Shure, Westone or UE around. 
confused_face.gif

 
Dec 11, 2010 at 8:34 PM Post #714 of 1,210
maybe it because everyone looks to the Red wire in the cables as a clear identifier.  Heck if I were selling fakes I would just get standard Senn cables and no one would complain.  Everything else is so slight you would never know unless someone pointed it out to you.  Of course the sound quality thing, but heck if you tell yourself these are $500.00 ear buds that sound may be good enough.  In my case the sound didn't even match up to my stock Clip+ ear buds and then when I tested my Westone UM3x I was sure and off cancel my Paypal payment. Quality sound is very subjective if you don't know what your looking for.  Also your players EQ settings can play into the equation.
 
Dec 11, 2010 at 9:06 PM Post #716 of 1,210
Duffy your pics look a lot like my fakes did and nothing like the real ones. I would say those are fake.
 
Dec 18, 2010 at 2:06 PM Post #717 of 1,210
Hello. I was able to compare my IE8 to genine ones in a Sennheiser retail shop. Briefly my doubts were confirmed, my IE8 were fake.
 
When I received them I didn't have that same "Wow" feeling I had when i tried genine ones. But then I found out this topic.
 
To add some updates to that topic, you can't trust details like the "thin" lines anymore, or the box, nor the bar code. If you looked at my IEMs, all the "Sennheiser" logos looked good, thin lines, almost touching the S, same "shineness" as the real ones. For the box it looked like exactly the same, only the surface was a bit diff when you touched it.
 
The details that were really different between my fake and the genine ones were those ;
 
- The L/R signs were straight on my fakes
- a bit of red stuff near the drivers, but the real ones have 2 red wires easily visible and you can see "silver" hook to retain the cable.
- The place wheres theres a IE8 logo has a "large" green chip when it was reallyyy tiny on the fake ones
- The cables on the fake were a lot more rigid when the original one were smooth when you flexed them
- overall the fake cable was a bit longer than the genine one
- The logo Sennheiser near the plug was shiny on my fakes, and not shiny at all on the genine
- The earphones on the genine was a bit smaller than the fake ones, but you really have to put them close to each other to see the difference
- The setting for the bass was "deeper" with the genine, you cant slip on it with the screwdriver, although with my fake it was possible to miss the screw, if that makes sense
- the earbuds are seriously from a poor quality with the fakes, its like they are much too elastic and just will be lose in the ears.
 
 
- colour of the front cover was really the same, the imprint was a bit more important on the original one, but hard to tell the difference.
- the description of the earbuds was diff with the fakes
- there was a serial number sticker on the original box
- the hologramm on the original model shows clearly the senheiser logo, and if you move the box, you can see the  text message. On my fake box, the logo sennheiser is really hard to see.
 
 
 
 
Well unless you have real genine ones, its really hard to tell the difference ... except for the sound.
 
I mean the 'IE8' i got were like decent, not too bad, but really nothing compared to the real one. You need like 2 sec to feel the difference lol.
 
I got mine for 150 euros on ebay from a seller called cato_co. I'm not sure if he's aware that he has fake model sold. I've seen in his comments that ppl thank him for ORIGINAL IE8 ... That's sad. But as long as they're happy with their stuf... 
 
Well this is my experience.
 
Dec 19, 2010 at 6:09 PM Post #719 of 1,210
Don't worry Danz03 - www.ownta.com has fake Shure as well as Sennheiser from $9 up. (click electronics - hearphones). How is Sennheiser not finding this and shutting it down? At least some of these ebay and Amazon fakes must be coming from places like this. Everything is being ripped off.
 
Dec 19, 2010 at 6:11 PM Post #720 of 1,210
best deal, call JR.com, tell them a ebay seller has them at around $250, and they will honor it (they did for me anyways)
 
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