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the fractal design toine R4 case gets featured on the wow build logs of the

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week section more than any other case click now to learn more about it to

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start with I want to be very clear about how I'm approaching all of this I've got

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lots of nice headphones and I had some clips 4S for a while so those weren't

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bad um my daily driver IM IMS for the last few months have been steel series

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flux iner Pros due to their excellent Comfort but I've never owned pricey

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audio file grade earphones before so this is as much a first impressions of

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expensive imem as it is a review of the ie80s from Sennheiser so we'll start

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with initial Impressions the packaging feels very premium and comes with an

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unbelievable number of year tips to choose from which is good because the

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dynamic drivers with their fancy neodymium magnets are very large and I

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actually needed the smallest possible silicone tips in order to get these

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babies into my ears comfortably the carry in case it's included is super

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nice and totally Irrelevant for the vast

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majority of people who buy iems I think there's good news though the ie80s have

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other than the scratches that you'll see in our macro footage of them survived

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very well in my pocket with my phone and they're extremely easy to untangle the

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removable Kevlar reinforced cables are quite stiff out of the box which was a

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concern because the ie80s actually wrap

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around the top of your ear before being inserted and while the cable was brand

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new I found that the wire would often slip off of my ears like this Sennheiser

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does include a little cable routing sheath in case you want to use it but I

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actually found it more comfortable to wear them without it and in a week or

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two I didn't have that problem anymore anyway as far as looks and comfort are

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concerned the earphones look kind of heavy and bulky but they're actually so

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comfortable and low profile that I'm able to sleep in them without them

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falling out during the night this combined with their solid noise

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isolation has made them a definite keeper for me they have a very subdued

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style to them with an all black and silver color scheme that I quite like

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but while it might feel silly and Superfluous an eye-catching design might

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help them get attention from mainstream customers the way that Brands like beets

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and Skull Candy do um sadly through an informal poll of a couple of my less

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techy friends I found that they had never even heard of Sennheiser which

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depressed me a great deal moving on to the reason it might depress me that

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someone's never heard of Sennheiser is the listening tests in my listening

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tests I used a variety of different sources including an O2 and odac from

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Mayflower electronics and a Zonar Essence one from ASUS and other than

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this being the first time that I've been able to hear the noise floor of my

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Essence one as a hiss during the quiet part of certain tracks I really felt

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like a strength of this product is the fact that they sound great with pretty

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much anything from Cheapo MP3s on my iPhone 4 all the way up to Flax on my

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object Ive 2 in odac before we go any further here though is my usual

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disclaimer and apology about the kind of music I listen to I'm a top 40 listener

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just like lots of people I love Bieber and Miley and pink and well not Bieber

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so much but you know JT is definitely better but the point is if you want

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reviews of these from folks who listen to classical music those are abundant

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this is my review and that's the kind of music I listen to so there you go

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truthfully having requested the i8s on the recommendation of edel editor I

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didn't really know what I was getting myself into I saw the adjustable base

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Port feature on them and I went oh how quaint if folks want more Basse they can

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turn that adorable little dial with the included tool well there's nothing

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adorable or quaint about it whatsoever with or without the knob the base

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experience with these is truly skull rocking it really feels like the bones

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at the back of my head are vibrating when I really let them loose and it's an

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experience unlike any that I've had before for Highs are both loud and clear

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and mids are also clear if a fair bit quieter and more subdued this made

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mid-range vocalists feel a bit far away especially during busier parts of a

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track with a lot of background music after some discussion with edel I found

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that his love for the i8s which are very similar to the ie80s comes from finding

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it easier to take a clear detailed IM with very strong Basse performance and

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tame it somewhat with software Equalization than it is to take a

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reference sounding IM and try to boost the Bas on naturally through EQ it's a

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great point but I found myself quite

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liking their base heavy sound signature after a while and 3 weeks later I am no

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longer using EQ on them at all they sound great loud and this is unusual for

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me but with these I often find myself not reaching for the volume dial um

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nearly as much as I did even though they do sound great loud the isolation is

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good without me feeling like I could probably get hit by a train without

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hearing it coming and in spite of the strong Bas performance I can hear every

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Last Detail in the music without cranking them so I have the option to

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listen to them quietly or turn them right up and feel the skull vibration

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one way the I8 surprised me a little was their openness once while I was sitting

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in my house listening to them I actually had one of my baby songs come come on it

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has a car horn in it and I actually looked outside thinking it was in my

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driveway before I realized it was part of the track uh this is unusual and many

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iems really make you feel like the sound is coming from between your ears but not

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so with these my wife had a very similar experience with them she's no audio file

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and I think the word she was looking for was Sound Stage but her way of

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describing it was was this instead of hearing the sound from here and here

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it's like it's here here here here here and here and I thought that was kind of

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cool coming from someone who doesn't know all the terminology but is

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definitely still having the same experience so we're down to the part of

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the video where I say whether I'd recommend them or not well they're over

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$300 on Amazon Amazon so if you're going to buy them you'd better be sure you

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won't lose them and once you get past that hurdle I would say if you want

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something that delivers a strong basey sound signature like many mainstream

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products but actually does it well with tight thumping low frequency performance

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and Clarity in the mids and highs then get on board these are for you the

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Discerning Bas head I think the ie80s can be best described for you as fun to

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listen to and you're going to absolutely love them if you're looking for reference IMS for

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Studio monitoring and you want a flat frequency response curve then I think

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You' better move along there are products out there that are designed for

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you this is not one of them my personal

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closing thought on the ie80s is this they're expensive but at the end of the

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day I've got a literal pile if you guys are following me on Instagram you'll

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know about this already I've got a literal pile of audio file grade

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headphones next to my PC and most days

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when I'm sitting down and it's time to listen to some music I still take these

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out of my pocket and plug them in instead I haven't done these yet but I

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probably should mention a couple of popular upgrades there's a version of the detachable cable with a mic that you

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can buy so that's kind of cool and in spite of the wide variety of included

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ear tips uh the ones that I actually liked

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best are thirdparty comply soft foam ear tips they improve the isolation even

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further if that's what you're after and they're also very very

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comfortable and I think that's pretty much sh oh wait no I've got something

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else that's fun for y'all we're going to be giving away an ASUS transformer book

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t00 in a special live stream on the 12th of December 2013 with a special theme I

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want you guys to click The annotation or on the link in the video description and

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post your best holiday gift ideas for

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geeks and techies for us to discuss on the stream it's sponsored by ASUS so

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definite bonus points if you can come up with cool ASUS gift ideas and there now

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we're done as always guys like this video if you liked it dislike it if you

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disliked it and in the comments I'd also like to do a bit of an informal poll

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what was the most you ever spent on a pair of earphones or headphones and at

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what point did you feel like it stopped being worth it to spend more where you

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got to the point where okay I spent twice as much but this only really

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sounds 10% better than than the other one to me I'm really curious and I'd

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love to hear what you guys say as always don't forget to also subscribe to L Tech

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tips for more unboxings reviews and other computer videos

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okay there that was

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shorter