This is a comparison of five recently purchased in-ear monitors (IEMs):
1. Beteran KZ ATE, purchased March 26, 2016; $12.75
2. Sennheiser CX200, purchased March 17, 2016; $34.99
3. MEE M6 Pro, purchased March 26, 2016; $49.69
4. Etymotic HF5, purchased April 14, 2016; $129.00
5. Sennheiser IE80, purchased May 24, 2016; $249.00
The HF5s and IE80s were exceptional in terms of overall musicality and refinement, with the IE80s edging out the HF5s. I’m awarding five stars to the HF5s and IE80s, four to the M6 Pros and KZ ATEs, and three to the CX200s because of their distortion of high frequencies.
I was careful to try to ensure a good seal with the IEMs by trying different tips and inserting them while pulling back on outer ears, twisting and pushing. IEMs sound bright and tinny (no bass) without a good seal. However, getting a good seal was not straightforward – it required lots of fiddling and experimenting with different tips. A test for the seal is to push the IEMs in gently while listening and seeing if the bass improves. This is not always a surefire indication though. I ended up using the soft round rubber tips for all except the HF5s. For those, I used the big foam cylinders that are rolled between the fingers before insertion.
I listened to tracks on Spotify (stream quality set at 320 kbps) on an iPhone 6 plus. The equalizer in the Spotify app was used to adjust tonal balance on the different IEMs. The iPhone Spotify equalizer has six bands centered on 60, 150, 400, 1k, 2.4k, and 15 kHz. Without equalization, bass on the KZ ATEs was exaggerated and boomy and made the entire frequency range sound muddy. For all listening tests with the KZ ATEs, I applied the Spotify app’s “Bass Reducer” equalization and then brought the bottom two frequency bands down to zero and the top two bands up a bit: the bass became better defined with texture and the mids and highs were clarified. “Treble Reducer” was used for the CX200s and HF5s. For the M6 Pros, I started with “Treble Reducer” and then brought the bottom two bands up to about the ¾ mark and the top two bands down to zero. Bass was still a bit light on the M6 Pros. Taking the bottom two bands all the way to the top on the M6 Pros produced a clicking sound. “Flat” was used for the Sennheiser IE80s. All comments below apply to listening with equalization applied.
IEM sound quality was evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:
Bass (B): Adequate bass producing a full, rich, textured sound. All IEMs produced bass that was strong enough with the equalization described above, but differed in their ability to reproduce crisp, accurate bass that retained the texture of the instruments.
Airiness (A): fine detail, e.g., clarity of subtle vocal ornamentation at the ends of vocal phrases, and fading echoes when all instruments suddenly rest.
Sweetness (S): lack of harshness or stridency of high vocal and string notes:
Accuracy (Ac): realism of individual vocal and instrumental timbres.
Resolution (R): lack of smearing of multiple instruments in complex music.
Overall musicality (O): smoothness, naturalness of the entire sound picture, causing one to get lost in the music rather than listening for details. To a large extent, this is a product of the other criteria, but this quality is so obviously superior for the HF5s and IE80s, I wanted to mention it separately.
I assigned scores to the IEMs on these criteria as follows, using a 10 point scale, with 10 being best:
Beteran KZ ATE B: 6, A: 6, S: 10, Ac: 7, R: 7, O: 7
Sennheiser CX200 B: 8, A: 8, S: 3, Ac: 6, R: 10, O: 5
MEE M6 Pro B: 7, A: 9, S: 8, Ac: 9, R: 10, O: 7
Etymotic HF5 B: 9, A: 9, S: 9, Ac: 9, R: 10, O: 9
Sennheiser IE80 B: 10, A: 10, S: 10, Ac: 10, R: 10, O: 10
Some people may prefer the sounds of IEMs that rate lower on my scale. For example, the KZ ATEs have an appealing, full, warm sound; and the M6 Pros have an exciting, forward sound that is like sitting on the stage with the performers. The IE80s are slightly laid-back compared to the HF5s; some might prefer the HF5s for that reason. One advantage of the HF5s is they do not slip out of your ears even during an extended workout – the foam cylinders provide a very stable fit, and the HF5s are extremely light.
There is a newer model of this item:
SENNHEISER Canal Type Earphone IE 80 S"【Japan Domestic Genuine Products】
$101.32
(155)
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$101.32
(155)
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
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This Item  Sennheiser IE80 Headphone |  |  |  | |
| Price | Currently unavailable. | $12.99 | -50% $7.49 List: $14.99 | $139.99 |
| Delivery | — | — | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it May 13 - 15 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||
| Sound quality | ||||
| Noise cancellation | ||||
| Comfort | ||||
| Sold By | — | SCOTTOKIE | Amazon.com | EZ digital |
| connectivity tech | Wired | Wired | Wired | Wired |
| headphones form factor | In Ear | In Ear | In Ear | In Ear |
| connector type | wireless | 3.5mm Jack | 3.5mm Jack | 3.5mm Jack |
| headphones jack | 3.5 mm Jack | — | 3.5 mm Jack | 3.5 mm Jack |
| cable feature | Without Cable, Retractable | Retractable | Retractable | Tangle Free |
| control type | control | — | Media Control | remote |
| material | Metal | — | Silicone, Neodymium | Plastic |
| model name | IE80 | — | MDREX15LP/B | iOS version |
Reviews with images
Great Comfort and Sound
The Sennheiser IE80 Headphones are great IEMs. The sound is exceptional while having a bass heavy sound signature the bass is tight and controlled while having fidelity in the mids and treble. The sound stage on these are pretty good compared to my AD-700x which are an open back full sized headphone. Even if you like lots or low amounts of bass the sound is tunable and the sounds changes drastically depending on how you tune it, but if you are looking for an extremely flat sound signature these are not for you. Comfort wise these headphones are superb I do not have any ear fatigue and they stay in my ear good. Noise isolation is amazing I use these earphones in very noisy locations such as the bus and on my school campus. With music playing I cannot even hear my surroundings. The durability is amazing I have dropped, yanked, and used these in the rain. The case included is high quality but unfortunately is too big for my taste.
Top reviews from other countries
Marco
INCREIBLES. Compralos, (leer toda la reseña)
Reviewed in Mexico on May 10, 2018
Marco
Reviewed in Mexico on May 10, 2018
Primero, yo tuve la suerte de comprarlos por una ganga, me salieron en 3800 nuevos, es decir, casi 2000 pesos menos de lo que se encuentran usualmente, pero... aún así, gastaría hasta 4500 en ellos, no valen los 5500, espera a que haya ofertas.
Sonido: El sonido es magnifico, he tenido 4 modelos distintos de senheiser, cx400ll, cx980i, cx685, y cx680, pero estos, son otro nivel completamente. En cuestion de bajo, es súper bueno, muy nitido, certero y muy rapido en canciones que lo requieren así, el control integrado que tiene funciona muy bien, dandole un pequeño aumento a los bajos, no es mucho, sólo es una pequeña porción entre el bajo medio alrededor de las frecuencias 100-300khz.
Los agudos son muy claros, en especial los cimbales y las percusiones, yo escucho musica en donde el doble pedal y la batería son el pan de cada día, y estos audifonos lograron el objetivo de darme esa claridad que tanto deseaba sin distorsion a altos niveles de volumen (como pasaba con los otros modelos).
En cuestión de medios, están ahí, son buenos, no se dejan opacar por el bajo, ni por las frecuencias altas, las voces y las guitarras suenan muy bien llevando una sincronia muy buena con el bajo, en caso de que seas alguien que escucha mucho pop o hip hop, rap, musica electronica, estos son para ti.
Yo soy rockero, metalero y de vez en cuando escucho pop nuevo o viejo, y estos son increíbles.
En cuestión de accesorios todos son muy buenos, útiles en su mayoría. Vas a batallar un poco para acostumbrarte a ellos, y procura darles por lo menos 24 horas de burn in, es decir, usalos o dejalos usando 24 horas para que los audifonos puedan entregar esa calidad de sonido para lo cual estan hechos.
Sennheiser es una muy buena marca, he escuchado y he visto muchas reseñas de los Shure 535, pero me quedo con estos, solo por el Soundstage, es como si tuvieras unas bocinas en los oidos mientras te pones estos, aunque debo admitir que los Shure tienen mejores medios, ya que es un sonido más plano y equilibrado, pero carecen de ese bajo que sobresalta en este.
Animate a comprarlos, son excelentes y en su momento fueron lo mejor de sennheiser, hasta que salieron los ie800.
Images in this review
Michael C. (AMZ Customer since 2009)
Absolutly recomended. Absolutamente recomendado.
Reviewed in Spain on October 31, 2017
Mike
I have not heard an IEM like these. They present every thing very well but ...
Reviewed in Canada on May 1, 2016Lex365
Outstanding sound quality..........but be prepared for some trial and error!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 5, 2014