Sennheiser IE 8

The IE 8s are at the very high end of Sennheiser's in-ear headphone collection, and have to face up to some fiere competition.  In an attempt to stand out, Sennheiser is trumpeting the presence of manual bass response tuning, but it's hardly a new feature.

What's in the box?

There are no big changes in the accessories in offer, with the IE 8s offering everything that comes with the IE 6s and IE 7s and then some--so many, in fact, that we were left wondering if there weren't actually too many.  The case is very well-designed, which is great when you have so many extras, but as with the other models, it's very fiddly to fit everything back into it.

Wearing the IE 8s is pretty comfortable with a secure fit.  They sometimes don't sit very deep inside the ear, which will be welcome news to those who aren't used to having headphones right inside the ear-canal like those in Sennheiser's Custom range.  That does, though, mean that the isolation is less impressive.

Sound Quality

If you've looked at some of other tests, then you'll know that the other products in this range, the IE 6s and the IE 7s were very disappointing, which meant that we had high hopes for the IE 8s.  In particular, we were rather hoping they would avoid the unfortunate tendancy to allow bass and treble to dominate at the expense of an almost entirely absent mid-range. 

So how did they do?  Well, exactly the same.  The IE 8s grossly inflated the bass to the point at which almost all other sound was inaudible.  Even after adjusting the custom bass response right down to its lowest setting, to no avail. 

Our other main criticism of the other two models in this collection was their tendancy to amplify unfortunate hissing and the clicking of plectrums.  The IE 8s do a little better on this front, without entirely eradicating the problem.

All in all, the whole IE range, from 6 to 8, failed to wow us.  They're not dreadful per se, just a little behind the times.  There's definitely better out there.