Images
We may be deep in the midst of a financial apocalypse, but that’s not stopping audio companies producing very small headphones at very big prices.
On the face of it, it looks like craziness to even think of spending this sort of money on a pair of in-ears, but many of us taking advantage of lossless formats and doing the bulk of our listening on the move, there’s now a serious case for quality portable ‘phones like these Sennheiser IE 8s.
Street savvy
There are actually three models in the IE range, with the 8s sitting pretty, right at the top. The good thing is that although they’re a fairly unusual shape, there’s nothing about them that screams ‘expensive’, so you’re not going to attract any unwanted attention from seedy street-urchin types.
Along with the ‘IE 8 ‘phones themselves, the box contains a neat storage case, a cable clip, ear hooks, and no-less than ten ear buds.
It’s incredibly easy to find a firm and comfortable fit. The buds don’t go as far into the ear canal as something like the Klipsch Image X10s, with the ear-clips contributing to holding the ‘phones in place, but they still fill your ear and block outside noise very well.
What’s more, unlike most in-ears, the Sennheisers resist amplifying body noise and movement.
Ace of bass
Sennheiser is making a big thing of the fact that you can manually adjust the bass response of the IE 8s, but there’s not a huge amount of variation in the scale, and we found the lowest point provided the most satisfying delivery.
Even set here the IE 8s have an extremely impressive bass performance with great weight, solidity and scale.
Review continues after the break...
Fine balance
This doesn’t drown out the rest of the frequency range though, so tracks have all the necessary low-end depth and pace without any loss of impact to the vocals or treble.
True, there are some earphones out there that offer slightly greater attack (like the Klipsch Images), but few get close to the detail, dynamism and balance of Sennheiser’s IE 8s.
Sure, they’re expensive, but if you want quality music on the move you really have to give them a try.
Comments
HeadSix
3 years ago
Found these for £170 online (not fakes either - I checked head-fi forum to make sure) . They sound awesome - absolutely awesome - but the tips have a large diameter so they put pressure on the ear, even with the smalled sized buds (and I've tried all the sizes and different types of bud which are included). I find that to get the best sound I need to push them really firmly in to my ear (tugging my earlobe and outer ear to wriggle the earbuds in) and it's probably just me but the right bud works its way out very easily and the sound sometimes muffles when I turn my head or open my jaw (weird, I know) - the angle of the buds must change within my ear or something. You want your expensive IEMs to be faultless and, with the issues over fit, these are disappointing. Can't stress how good they sound - they're well balanced and the clarity is amazing - but getting the sound at its best is a pain in the ear - make sure that they fit before you splash out. (I have small ears so narrow ear canals. The fit might not be an issue otherwise).