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. :-)

These sound like earphones double their price range. I've had them for about 9 months now and they are still working great. I take them to the gym, run stairs with them, play drums with them, track music in them, and walk around campus with them - they are perfect in every situation. When drumming and doing certain lifts in the gym, I put them around back and use the rubber thing that keeps them together to tighten them up, and they don't go anywhere or fall out. The isolation is amazing, and just perfect for drums - the drums are just deadened a little (I also use these as earplugs when playing in a live situation). These also work great on an airplane, but if you like to hear people you may need to take one out or have the music very low. These may be a little bass heavy, but in today's world that's what most people like anyways. The mids are a little low, but definitely defined and punchy. The highs are crisp and some of the best I've heard in earphones (yes, I've tried S4's). I listen to anything from Steely Dan, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, RHCP, RATM, Audioslave to Between the Buried and Me, Animals As Leaders, Periphery, to Chance the Rapper, Daft Punk, etc. You get the point. They sound amazing. My only slight complaint is sometimes when I rip them out of my tighter pockets (yes rip, they are not fragile) one rubber ear cup will fall off, and they are easy to lose. I don't think this is a design flaw, but if you do this and think you will not notice (hence losing the piece) buy some spare ones online. Also, there is not much wind noise against the cord, and if you tighten it up there is none. EDIT: 3/31/2016 These are still working great. I use them every day and can attest that they are durable.

The Sennheiser IE 4 are way, WAY overpriced. They have the look, feel and sound of wired buds you might find in a convenience store. But here's the capper; there was a ticking sound in the left earbud that wouldn't go away and I tried them in two different devices. I returned them the same day.

After the "breaking in" period, and careless dancing about, that often results in them getting ripped from my ears, and both earbuds and device crashing to the floor, the earbuds are still performing wonderfully. I was already sold on Sennheiser products, but these earbuds turned out to be exceptional quality for the price. Comparable to the ones I paid twice the price for 5 years ago. Big issue: the contact port does not fit with my bf's phone case, nor does it fit with my ipod case. The whole reason why I bought these was to get him to stop using my earbuds. They do work with my phone case, however, and I have ended up using them, while the bf has taken over my original, better pair. In a way, problem solved, but I am not happy having to give up my better quality earbuds just because the contact port did not fit his phone. (My bad for throwing away the return bag before testing)

I listen to music a lot, especially when exercising or flying as a passenger. As a professional pilot I am familiar with Sennheiser's excellent noise cancelling headsets (though I still use my reliable Telex normally) and considered numerous options before biting the bullet and upgrading from my inexpensive Sony earpieces. I am absolutely thrilled with the Sennheiser IE 4 earphones. They are exactly what I wanted: unpretentious quality. They come (with additional earpiece tips) in a plastic bag stapled to a cardboard top. That's fine with me; I want to pay for earphones, not excess packaging. While far from cheap, these are very reasonably priced for what you get. The bass response is excellent, and the fit is superior. While I frequently had issues with the Sony's falling out during exercise (yes, I had the correct size tips installed,) I have never had that problem with the IE 4's, and the sound quality is so much better. I can hear far more detail in the background than I have ever been able to with other earbuds or earphones; this will be particularly discernible on especially nuanced music. I noticed it immediately when I first heard "Machine Head" by Deep Purple. These earphones are not fancy, but are well designed, ruggedly built, exhibit no cord noise when in motion, and provide superior sound reproduction, all for around $60. I highly recommend the Sennheiser IE 4's to anyone wishing to step up their audio enjoyment.

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.

All other headphones are overpriced, over-hyped, and over-packaged. These get the same packaging treatment as a bag of screws: plastic bag, piece of cardboard and a staple. What that means is that you're not paying an extra $20-$30 for more garbage. Nor are you paying an extra $100+ for a company that relies on brand hype to make their money. All you get is high quality, music industry level sound. These are well balanced with clear highs, deep lows and defined mids. They're designed to let the cord dangle below the ear or to wrap around the back of the ear giving a more secure fit. Also, included on the cord is a little piece to cinch the cord close to your head so it doesn't wave around and get tangled. And one of the best features, showing this is designed for music professionals... NO CORD NOISE when it bumps against you. So many $100+ in-ear headphones suffer from the horrible oversight of cord noise traveling to the ear when you bump it making them less than idea for wearing while moving, which some people like to do while wearing headphones. These are what I call high-value headphones. You get so much more than what you pay for - or - you get exactly what you pay for and the out of control headphone industry has made products like this a rarity.

I have read almost all the reviews for these earbuds and the product does not, repeat DOES NOT earn the reputation owned by Sennheiser. They look good on paper, but fail miserably in use. First off, I have tried them on not only my home pc surround sound system, but the audio card straight out of the pc, two mp3 players and a Sony Walkman to see if the sound was better on one or another. Nope. On all of them, all levels of music were muted and silenced. I got better results from an old crappy pair of ear buds made by Creative. I found an old pair of original gameboy ear buds that sound better. Not worth the money. I'm shocked that Sennheiser would send such a crappy product out under their label, as they have made some of the better headphones and earbuds I have ever owned.