togiff
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2009
- Posts
- 51
- Likes
- 10
If you go by the hype of Shure SE846- you would think they were actually better. They aren't. Its obviously paid product placement and commission/promotional interests at work.
I have used a lot of headphones over the years from Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pro, Shure SE530, Westone 3/4r, and now SE846 and W60.
SE846 are nice. They do have a boomey sub like performance. What you lose is sound stage, clarity, detail, mid and high frequency performance. I haven't yet tried the various nozzles but that is coming. SE846 has a unique sound that you might like though. These headphones could satisfy if you picked them they don't disappoint like a cheap pair of headphones might.
I picked up Westone W60 and these suckers were amazing. What they have over the SE846 is amazing sound stage, detail, and clarity- you should hear it immediately as the music comes to life in an amazing thrilling way when you hear all the precision. You can hear things - high res details missing on the SE846.. The full spectrum of sound seems nicely represented at a level above the SE846. Bass is actually really good and more detailed on these bad boys. Ample bass. You probably won't have to worry about Bass at all with these. Getting the right fit matters too, possibly might want custom molds to make sure the seal is tight and perfect and the sound is going into your ear. Same issue with the shure of course.
If you have "golden" ears and enjoy energy and find fine detail performance and precision more appealing you will probably like the W60 a lot. Big improvement over W4r's if you come from them like I did. Westone 3- those were so good by themselves.. Similarly they sound vastly different from SE846s and add things that will blow your mind if you really have golden ears.. You must be able to hear tracks precisely.. You will probably want to be using lossless.. You will want a proper amp/dac.. Listening from iPhone or Android directly isn't recommended because the built in DAC/AMP is cheap. Listening from a properly powered not low power dac/AMP helps a lot. If you do portable that means likely an external portable will be very beneficial. Some laptops have properly powered and HQ dac/amp's.. In which case that will be enough for you.. Luckily iphone and Android support external dac/amp over USB/lightning.. I can tell you the difference is huge listening on my laptop with all audio enhancements turned off versus my LG G5- the laptop properly powers these bad boys and properly renders sound but the cellphone only barely does (huge downgrade- you should be able to hear a good difference with the right ear).
I have used a lot of headphones over the years from Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pro, Shure SE530, Westone 3/4r, and now SE846 and W60.
SE846 are nice. They do have a boomey sub like performance. What you lose is sound stage, clarity, detail, mid and high frequency performance. I haven't yet tried the various nozzles but that is coming. SE846 has a unique sound that you might like though. These headphones could satisfy if you picked them they don't disappoint like a cheap pair of headphones might.
I picked up Westone W60 and these suckers were amazing. What they have over the SE846 is amazing sound stage, detail, and clarity- you should hear it immediately as the music comes to life in an amazing thrilling way when you hear all the precision. You can hear things - high res details missing on the SE846.. The full spectrum of sound seems nicely represented at a level above the SE846. Bass is actually really good and more detailed on these bad boys. Ample bass. You probably won't have to worry about Bass at all with these. Getting the right fit matters too, possibly might want custom molds to make sure the seal is tight and perfect and the sound is going into your ear. Same issue with the shure of course.
If you have "golden" ears and enjoy energy and find fine detail performance and precision more appealing you will probably like the W60 a lot. Big improvement over W4r's if you come from them like I did. Westone 3- those were so good by themselves.. Similarly they sound vastly different from SE846s and add things that will blow your mind if you really have golden ears.. You must be able to hear tracks precisely.. You will probably want to be using lossless.. You will want a proper amp/dac.. Listening from iPhone or Android directly isn't recommended because the built in DAC/AMP is cheap. Listening from a properly powered not low power dac/AMP helps a lot. If you do portable that means likely an external portable will be very beneficial. Some laptops have properly powered and HQ dac/amp's.. In which case that will be enough for you.. Luckily iphone and Android support external dac/amp over USB/lightning.. I can tell you the difference is huge listening on my laptop with all audio enhancements turned off versus my LG G5- the laptop properly powers these bad boys and properly renders sound but the cellphone only barely does (huge downgrade- you should be able to hear a good difference with the right ear).