Please comment on my long review of the ie800

I wanted some feedback on my observations to make sure I wasn't imagining it. I was really amazed by how good these were relative to the BA iems. (I posted this at the website of the store where I purchased them; can't link that review here though).
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When you use one driver, you get a cohesion and a crispness that you just can't achieve when you're trying to coordinate 4 or 12 drivers; and when you use a dynamic driver you get a natural sound that is difficult to create with balanced armature drivers. That's the story of the ie800.

First, this review is for serial number 32xxx (since Sennheiser is known to make tweaks over time to their products).

1. It has a detailed and crisp/fast sound. This driver is just excellent. It sounds like a top of the line over the ear headphone. You can't get this sound with multiple drivers; you would have to match and time the drivers with a precision that's practically impossible. I've heard every TOTL iem out there and this out-details all of them. I'm guessing the Shure KSE1500 will be as good or better than this, because that too uses a single driver (and an electrostatic at that), but that's going to cost $3,000 and require its own dedicated amp!

2. This produces a natural sound. BA drivers have a slightly synthetic and kind of weird sound when compared to dynamic drivers. If you like the dynamic driver sound, you'll like these.

3. These produce bass, mids, highs, and everything in between. Other iem manufacturers have to use multiple drivers and engineering tricks to get all the frequencies, and it never comes out perfect. There are always spikes and valleys, and a lot of them have treble roll-off, because they have to make compromises when tuning the drivers, cross-overs, resistors etc. But Sennheiser didn't seem to compromise at all; they nailed it with this driver (which, by the way, is made by Sennheiser as opposed to most other iem makers, who buy their drivers from third-parties like Knowles).

4. It has a neutral sound signature. DO NOT TRUST the frequency charts on innerfidelity. Something is wrong with Tyll's measurement of the ie800. They do not sound anything like the frequency chart on his website. His chart shows a bass boost, followed by a massive 20db roll-off above 1000hz, suggesting this is warm headphone with very weak mids and highs. But in reality, the ie800 sounds flat across the frequency range and its bass is like the hd800's; it has the hd800's neutral and dry-ish sound.

5. Many other reviewers complained about microphonics with these, and I have to believe them because I saw this complaint in so many reviews. I don't know if Sennheiser fixed the problem in the latest batches? I can't get the cable to make much microphonic sound. There's a tiny bit of easily-ignorable cable noise if you tap it, but all iems have that. And you can get rid of that by wearing them up with the cable hooked over your ears, in which case I hear zero cable noise even when exercising.

6. You'll need to experiment with tips and position to get the best sound. I can't fully angle them into my ears when wearing them down, so I wear them up and hook the cable over my ears. That produced a noticeable improvement in sound for me.

7. There are tons of fake ie800s out there. Get yours from an authorized dealer. Checking the hologram on Sennheiser's authentication website is a first step -- but it's not enough. That's because counterfeitors have even faked the hologram sticker ( http://www.head-fi.org/t/700604/fake-senheiser-ie800/45 )!!! So the only way to be sure is to call Sennheiser, give them the serial number, and ask them when they sold your particular ie800 and which retailer they sold it to (when I did this, they said they sold my ie800 to Amazon three weeks before I purchased it from Amazon, which all makes perfect sense.) I could have gotten mine for $650 from an unauthorized seller on Amazon ("sold by xxx and fulfilled by Amazon"), but I paid $800 to get it directly from Amazon because the cheaper ones are probably fakes. Not to mention that you won't get warranty coverage from Sennheiser.

8. These sound particularly good when paired with a great dac/amp; and they really distinguish themselves at higher volumes.

Every top of the line IEM has its positives and negatives.
• The Roxannes sound warm, gooey, fun and they produce a great 3D image, but they're colored-sounding as opposed to neutral, and they're not quite as detailed as other TOTL iems causing them to sound "veiled" to some.
• The Laylas are a more neutral and more detailed version of the Roxanne, but they're bulky, super expensive, they lose the Roxanne's interesting sound, and they're still not as precise as the ie800.
• The Shure SE846 sounds fun, and it's highly resolving, but it has a notorious spike in the lower treble region that can sometimes be annoying.
• The Noble K10 is very good but it really can't distinguish itself from the pack in any way.
• The ie800 has a clean, detailed and crisp sound, but it's perhaps a little sterile sounding, it doesn't isolate as well as the others and its treble may be tiring after a while.

 

Well, my super best audio friend, you can join me as one of the few who really gets what the ie800 is about.

The ie800 is very, very hard to measure in a way that reflects what you and I hear.

I do however, hear an increase in the bass, different than the hd800. An increase in subbass has been found to sound more natural to listeners. I think it's a valid tuming choice for iems which are meant to be heard on-the-go with deep external noise being so common.

In terms of mids and treble: If you look at Tyll's measurements, he has an earlier set hidden away, one side of which may match what you hear subjectively better.

I've had two pairs of ie800s, one two years ago for two months (excellent return policy), then one I kept for a year now. The first initially sounded like what I think many people hear and what you will probably see people say, which was that they had a sort of piercing treble and hyper thin, almost disconnected from the quality of the bass sound. As though it were a hybrid iem with a BA for a tweeter. A 24hr period of hard driving at very loud (125 dB) levels changed this. The next set didn't really ever have that. Perhaps some interaction with the helmholtz resonators and the diaphragm loosening? In any case, the cohesiveness you describe is the proper sound for sure.

I'm surprised by your finding of no microphonics for the cable. Seriously, that's amazing. I wear mine over-ear to deal with the cable.

Anyway, I think there are a number of really innovative factors to the ie800's design and it should be seen as something ground-breaking. If one gets the sound you and I hear, I'd also say it's one of the best iems out there.

 

Yes I agree that it has a little bit more sub-bass than the HD800, which I like. I'm not a basshead, but I like a little extra bass.

I was surprised by the lack of microphonics since ever review complains about them. I thought I had gotten a fake. So I called Sennheiser and they said that this serial number was shipped to Amazon like 2 weeks before I got it, so it had to be real. I think Sennheiser just fixed that problem without publicizing it, so as not to upset all the people who purchased microphonic ie800s.

 

I'm betting these work well , due in part that Sennheiser was unable to "FUBAR" the driver's capabilities by placing a "Ring Radiator" inside of the IEMs & screw them up like they did with the HD800.

The HD800 sounds fantastically good.... Minus the "RR" nonsense, of course .

 

Well, I think you'll find that the hd800 are very, very well respected on SBAFs (although, people tend to mod them to lessen the 6khz spike), the hd800S has generated a lot of interest.

The neat thing is that a helmholtz resonator they used in the ie800 is, in a different way, being used in the hd800S.

 

How does this compared with another flagship dynamic driver like ocharaku kuro/kaede and sony ex1000?

 

Having both the ex1000 and the ie800, my subjective impressions:

The sound has more "body" with the ie800. ex1000 might sound a bit thin compared to the ie800.
I personnally love the bass on the ie800.

The soundstage, detail retrieval, coherence is just top notch in my experience with the ie800.
Isolation: ie800 >>>>>>>>>>>> ex1000
ie800's isolation is pretty good
Comfort: onpar even if ex1000 is initially a bit weird to adjust to

ie800 is the winner when compared to the ex1000.

 

ahhh man i was about to buy the ex1000. i guess you saved me a return

 

I've often wondered why more people using the HD800 are'nt bothered by what my Equitech 1.5Q line conditioner tells me isn't part of what is on the recorded music I listen to. While my HD800 is modded to address the 6khz peak it really didn't address the excessive resonance completely.

The only thing that erased this characteristic to a state that appears to be an acceptably "Neutral / Natural" state of resonance (for acoustic Instrumentation being played in an acoustic environment) & became immediately noticeable was removing the Radiator element from the headphone.

I honestly have no interest in Electronic instrumentation (other than some occasional electric bass.) Anyting other than the acoustic representation of music comes in a very,very distant second for me.

Now that I think of it, the difference that I hear is I'm unwilling accept sound characteristics that may prolong the decay of a played note that may interfere with the start of other notes of an Orchestration. Without the "Radiator" mucking things up the notes retain their correct aural relationships within the Orchestration. The drivers that are in the HD800 are amazingly articulate enough to present music in this manner..... If they are "allowed" to operate of their own capabilities.

I can appreciate the fact that with music that has completely different requirements many find the HD800 exceptionally suitable for their needs. I suppose I'm not that Democratic in my needs, but fortunately I didn't have to go that much further to tap into the HD800 potential to work as a Dedicated headphone for my listening priorities

 

Why don't you share your de-ring-resonator-ing on the hd800 mod thread in headphones? Sounds interesting, thanks!

 

Sorry, I realized I was guilty of "thread jumping" , but once I get myself going I loose track of things.

I actually have mentioned my removing the "Ring Radiator" parts from the HD800 in a few places in the Mod threads. I forget to mention that unless you have an extremely low noise floor at all times when you're listening to music I'm not sure if the Radiator's "footprint" on the music is objectionable.

Thanks for being Diplomatic in suggesting I post in the more subject matter specific area.

 

Hey, no worries, I'd love to see pictures and read more about what you're doing in the hd800, feel free to post a link here to your hd800 mod thread posts.

 

I do find IE800 tend to sound super dry in my ear. I do had them twice and I felt first set (it's serial was 008**) was pretty decent. Then few years latter, I just got them couple month before, It sounded like a crap...mid was gone...no mid detail, no richness on vocal. it sounded like paper...I wonder if Sennhieser changed their way of manufacturing these iem

 

Hey slim welcome! Go to the new person thread and introduce yourself for us.

 

Hi guys, been lurking on this forum for the past few weeks, and just noticed this thread.
Whiteconvertible, may I ask when did you get your pair?

I've owned mine for a little over 1 year. The microphonics is horrible, the cable is also too short to be comfortably worn looped around the ears. I wish they retained the same cable design from the IE8s. Did they make any changes to the kevlar cable design?

These don't have much isolation at all, but they are meant to be open backed, adds to the sound stage while not having leakage. To me it's a good thing, less chance of getting hit by a car while crossing the street.

In terms of the sound, I love mine. The sound changes depending on the eartips you use (degree of seal/comfort achieved), took a while to settle on the right type of tip for me. My iem progression went from senn cx300 -> re-0 -> shure scl3 ->triplefi10 -> senn ie8 -> ie800. I find the treble on ie800 to be pretty enjoyable, brighter than ie8 but no where near triplefi10 levels. I couldn't listen to the tripfis for longer than 30-45 mins at a time, while I have no problems listening to the ie800s for hours.

I think it pairs extremely well with fiio e12a mont blanc, makes it slightly warmer. With the bass boost function on, the bass is still tight and clean but hits harder and deeper, slight trade off in the highs, but worth it imo. Great for EDM and hiphop. I'm playing these out of a lg g4 phone and x3 gen 2.

btw, if you are in the US and have verizon wireless or know anyone that does, you are bound to have a ton of their smart rewards points that's usually useless to the general public (paying points for a discount, pointless on most products). With these points, you can buy the ie 800 for 530 brand new on the verizon rewards site. Pretty good deal imo, that's where I got mine, they are also an authorized dealer. Same concept would apply for any sennheiser product they have listed (hd800 is listed at $1006), although some are not good deals. I'm waiting on them to add the HD800S.

 

Have you tried RE 400 ;-D Those for me are most HD 800 like of IEM as in coherency and clean decay. Not so much for imaging and soundstage but at $100 no right to complain...

IE800 from my demoes is too much bass, a bit obnoxious for classical in quiet environments. I would need to EQ it down. EX 1000 bass was far better for my tastes.

Overall decay on IE800 is not as clean as RE 400 so the sound is a little warmer. EX1000 is warmer too from memory.

I haven't spent much time with IE800 to try and get magic tips or insetion depth so I haven't been won over yet. Given bass tuning IE800 will probably not be purchased.

Generally dynamic IEM will allow more coherent sound if phase is flat and sometimes more even FR. They will also have dynamic punch that takes 12BA drivers to approach. IME JH Layla gets near a dynamic sound getting away from BA coloration and lack of impact, has some amazing imaging and soundstage but lacks microdetail and still has wonky mids. I think it's time to give up on balanced armatures...

 

Well, I do find that bass which is shifted to the sub-bass, like the ie800 and others, actually doesn't interfere with classical (and timpani benefit from it), but that's just my experience. But, yeah, midbass humps are really not so great, I find, with anything in the long run.

 

I rate the IE800 really highly, I don't a pair but do have regular access to some which are probably about 3 years old now (I bought an Audiofly AF180 which was cheaper and I like just as much). I agree about the microphonics on the IE800 but they deserve to be sat down with, for undivided attention. I've never thought of them as dry but then I always seem to focus on the bass quality which has a lovely velvetyness.

By the way, I found that the crucial components of the IE800 can be had as spares - and omitting the full range of eartips and the case, savings can be made on the RRP.