Sennheiser IE 4 Earphones

The first thing one notices is that the packaging is incredibly basic. There is nothing on the product to signify its model or even that it is from Sennheiser. This is not an issue for me.After 20 plus hours, they do sound better but I am not convinced they are yet broken in. They are more natural sounding than when they came out of the plain plastic bag. They are more natural and uncolored than any other pair of earbuds I have ever used. However, they do not disappear like my HD555/595mod headphones. Bass is boosted in the bottom two octaves. Overall, they sound a little dark, but have a rather nasty peak in the top octave. This has improved some as it has broken in. The midrange through most of the treble is very good. Piano and vocals sound real; far more real than most other headphones. The bump on the bottom two octaves comes with earbuds. The peak at the top is rather annoying but is beyond what many can hear and whenever there is a significant amount of content in that region. This is usually the top harmonics of cymbal crashes. Orchestral music sounds real. String basses can sound slightly bloated because of the bass boost. The top octave peak usually does not present an issue. It can be quite present on rock music, especially on cymbals.Imaging is good. It is not as good as the ol 555/595 but very good for earbuds. The image is not as wide but is quite well focused. Overall, they are a nice, small, well built set of earbuds, that sound good well beyond their price range. Isolation is very good and it makes them a great choice for commuting on the bus or plane travel.I had to come back and revise the review. After extensive use, they are continuing to break in and getting better. The treble is less hard and imaging is getting pretty good. You all need to realize that I am comparing them to headphones which are quite natural sounding and among the best imaging. They do match up well with an ios device. An amp will help as the output from an ios device is a bit bright, thin, and brittle compared to something good.Overall, they are great. Isolation is very good, so I can listen at lower levels. The bass bump does help at lower levels, as well. I am enjoying the natural sounding midrange. Vocals sound more real than they should on a pair of phones at this price. :-)

I looked and listened to many headphones - mostly on the consumer side of the market. I found the Sennheiser IE4's through professional equipment links. These are described as headphones for monitor systems, aimed at pro musicians. These would be headphones that the guitarist might plug into the wireless box he/she wears on their belt - so that they can hear themselves play.The headphones have a standard small plug/jack. They mate perfectly well with iPods or the like. The ear plug is a bit odd because it looks like it has a little speaker behind the rubber plugs, instead of the usual tiny hole. The buds come with three sizes of rubber covers, and the middle size fits my ears.My first impression of the sound was very favorable - high tones are crisp and clear, and bass is present, yet not overwhelming or unbalanced. Over time, the driver/speaker has broken in, and delivers a even range of sound and levels. I would not call these a radically "high end" set of headphones, yet I have not even considered playing any others. I planned at first to use the Sennheisers for traveling, and to use my very expensive Shure's at home, or for critical listening. Forget about that, I recently handed the Shure's off to my adult son and haven't missed them a bit.I wear these headphones for all my listening now. I like the balanced range of sound, the high volume when I want it, the durability of the cords and plugs, and the ease of replacing rubber covers. Because these are intended for stage musicians, you can buy a 10 pack of replacement covers for pretty cheap. It's hard for me to describe exactly why these work so well, except to say that they succeed as a package at delivering the listenable sound that I like. For my way of looking at equipment, and my way of listening, these are a really good value at $60 buck.

I'm a pro audio guy thats tried probably 30 IEM's/Chifi headphones over the last few months. Seems like most people that have experience with these got them for free or with a wireless in-ear kit or have some random story about acquiring some. They look basic and cheap and I have a hard time feeling like the price is justified given the zip-loc packaging, lack of case, and the minuscule cable size. However, they sound pretty awesome, deep and powerful bass without becoming messy (its a bit much for me though), nice mids and a very nice and natural high end - these sounded AWESOME for movies.Unfortunately they ran at a low enough impedance to generate too much hiss for my needs/equipment use. They also didn't provide great isolation and when used over ear (the only way to increase isolation) the cable frequently fell off the ear despite the bud seating well. They are a really minimalist design that seems to be popular with wireless in-ear kits - like the Audio Technica EP3 - but I do fear their durability.Along those lines, however, I have spoke to at least one bassist who was a regular user of these and they reported no issues with durability. I think these would be pretty good on bass guitar but you might look into foam tips for improved isolation, I'm not sure how that would affect the sound though.