Plunge Audio Custom IEM's vs Shure SE846 Review

[@readytorace3892]

If you had to buy yourself between the Shure SE 846 and the open Audeze LCD 2, which one would you buy?

[@beetleke1976]

I have de Shure 535 limited editions with Fiio's balanced silver cables with 4.4mm jack and the device is the Fiio M11pro every improvement at this level you notice

[@LPDO19660820]

Hello! I see that in those molds there are components that do not come originally in the 846, could you explain what was the arrangement that you reached with your supplier?

[@endrizo]

what happens if you dont use any filter and leave the tube empty? thanks

[@BillKinsman]

I just got a pair of the Shure SE846 GEN 2 with the Sensaphonics custom sleeves and I am very happy with it. I was having a hard time with the stock sleeves and the custom sleeves are the only way to go.

[@alexstrakovsky1872]

I had the same problem recently solved with Spinfit tips. Now 846 back to be my commute daily driver displacing ibasso it04 and Sony n3ap.

[@Balzion]

Had this for a year and I have no problem with it's sound quality. 😜

[@dirceu83]

If you hear your own heartbeat and respirations that means the headphones have good isolating characteristics. I experience the same thing with my custom in ear monitors. Good to know they can adjust the sound in the custom molded ones. There is so much science into in ear monitors. Thanks for the video.

[@carlosturciosolivera1899]

7 years owning this beauties. Shure SE846 is a legendary uiem period.

[@bluedose15k27]

I learned a lot from this video. The shape of your ear canals can actually affect what you’ll hear..i’m looking forward to my own ciem in the near future! Thank you!

[@dqstudios]

Glad to be of help and happy listening :)

[@iskindersam4899]

Great vid. How you make more ciem vids

[@sam45354]

What his website for the custom ism's?

[@HenryTheBoilermaker3rdYear]

I have the same problem with expensive IEM’s. I tried a expensive ($1000) custom IEM at a headphone store (not custom made for me) and I found the sound quality to be below the quality of my Apple EarPod. I really wonder why. Using a Q-tip I have I don’t feel like I have the same type of ear canal as yours. I will be going back to the headphone store again to demo other earphone/headphones. Even my friend who took me out to the store thought the same thing he said my Apple earpod sound better. Maybe the custom IEM I tried had a weird ear canal design like yours I don’t remember.

[@dqstudios]

Really hard to understand ear canal shape without molds made by an expert. I would think many of us mere mortals have ears that don't play nice with universal earbuds. Thankfully, there are many over-the-ear options like these that get rave reviews and don't depend on ear shape: amzn.to/2L8j1fJ

[@codebreaker6759]

Hearing your heartbeat is a very common problem when your wearing IEM's because it completely block the noise just like when you put your fingers on your ear, I solve mine by using the smallest rubber eartips or by not completely shoving the IEM deep in to my ear canal bur a little reduce in noise cancellation

[@ChironZore]

Well what was your source? Garbage in, garbage out...

[@SeanVedell]

A great primer for those trying to decide on a pair of custom IEM's or not. I do wish you'd spent more time on the products from Plunge audio and why you went with their top end model. Letting us know what that costs would also have helped the fence sitters. I'm in Hamilton, ON and have a couple of sets of Ultimate Ears customs and I love them but their legendary service is proving to be not so legendary if you don't live in the US. I'm hoping that dealing with Plunge will give me just as good an IEM but with the convenience of a Canadian vendor and the reduced shipping costs that will introduce. Oh ya, I wish you'd put a link to Plunge in you list of links. Otherwise, a great video that explains custom IEM's in easy to understand terms.

[@HenryTheBoilermaker3rdYear]

Not sure why a lot of people dislike this video. Very informative video to me thanks.

[@dqstudios]

Thanks Henry!! Me too ... Think it might have been trolls, as there were many dislikes right at launch, and not many thereafter ... But I'm no YT expert :) Cheers and happy listening :)

[@Octagonz]

They dislike the video because this idiot is shitting all over on one of the best earphones ever made to promote his idiot friend custom crap lol

[@Scotland_Above]

I've owned the Shure SE846 for 2 years and they are perfect in every way. The sound is stunning and I can wear them for hours.

[@neriozulberti1492]

I love my Se846 simply amazing ,interesting test

[@neriozulberti1492]

Transparent are beautiful

[@FabioKasper]

Good video. I guess I'm lucky I can use universal fits then? SE846 sounds really good to me.

[@lightonthelandscape]

For the last 3 gigs I've been using Westone Audio UM Pro 30 triple driver universal fit earphones. They are really nicely made. The sound is lovely. The only issue I have is when I sing, even with my vocals turned off, my voice is so loud in my head, I can't hear the rest of the band. It's fine, but really not as much fun as using stage wedges. I enquired at Westone about custom moulds. If you live in Canada this required going to a local hearing, sending the molds via the store you purchased the earphones from and paying an additional $177 CAD (not including the cost of moulds from the hearing clinic which was about $125). Unfortunately the store I bought them from didn't know anything about this and basically said 'sorry'. So, I took the Plunge too. I've met Simon. He made some lovely hearing protection earphones for me (not IEMs) about 3 years ago. The fit perfectly and are great for practice/low volume gigs. However for louder gigs, I need IEMs. Simon even made additional molds for me to fit my old filtered hearing protection that I had done years ago. He's very customer focussed. He fixed my friend's buds for free when she accidentally stood on them and broke the battery compartment. Can't say enough good things about Simon and his Plunge Audio products. Highly recommended. I'm looking forward to my new IEMs arriving soon.

[@dqstudios]

Thanks for sharing your experience Peter! Agreed: Simon is the real deal. I know people think I'm a fan-boy, but honestly barely know the guy LOL! Just like to recommend products and services that have served me well and I believe in.

[@jonathanbarnes7641]

What are the best cables I should buy for my Shure SE846 for HipHop?

[@dqstudios]

probably the ones that came with it. They are solid.

[@neriozulberti1492]

Yeah they rocks😉

[@shroud1390]

Weird. I have the se846s and have had a different experience. Bass is amazing and i bought after market cables which were worse than the stock. The stock cables were more spread out and more 3d. Though I rarely use the Shures with portable gear, but in the main system they are stellar. I did get custom tips for the Shures but they blew. Went back to the normal foam tips.

[@ShanoMoments]

I got the very same weird ear canal, so this video was very helpful for me. Thanks man!

[@dqstudios]

Welcome! and hope you can find a set of earbuds that fit!

[@x3r0.byt3]

lol, hearing your heartbeat and breathing when you have the shure's in your ear means that it's properly sealed. Try closing your ears with your hands and you will have the same effect. try it yourself... Plus, you tested with apple devices which is ridiculous

[@3ph384]

😆 we have the same ear problem , I struggle to find an earphone for many years until I found you . And thank you for opening my naive virgin ears .

[@dqstudios]

glad to be of help! It’s good to know I’m not the only crazy one 🤪

[@Canadian_Eh_I]

awesome. yeah, all the audiophile stuff it turns out is somewhat true, but you only notice it with a very low noise floor like you get with noise isolating IEM's. combined with very high res source. great review!

[@dqstudios]

💯

[@Gholdwayne]

Your heartbeat thing must be Occlusion Effect - same thing you also hear your voice too boomy in your head.

[@vircingitorixknightingale]

1. The reason why you can hear your heart beat is due to incorrect flex sleeves. Install the correct one for your ear. They even provided you with a soft foam sleeves in 3 different sizes along with the normal sleeves. 2. The reason why you're hearing "too much base" is because the ear piece has 3 different acoustic filters: BLUE (balance), WHITE (high freq), & BLACK (low freq). The one installed is the one with the base. Replace it with one that suites your style. Don't do a review unless you're unfamiliar with the product. They even provided a manual in the box.

[@dqstudios]

tried all those .... why did you think I didn't?

[@andresramirez2663]

hola no saben donde hacer lo mismo aqui en mexico?

[@SKY11211213]

I think I have the same problem. I cant use silicone ear tips and have to use comply foam and these fit great but I hear my heart quietly. My ATH-E70 are great iEMs. My AT 2020 USB+ mic is rather neutral and all volumes are the same. My Dell XPS is the same but my phone has hurting highs after a certain volume but thats the USB 3.5mm dongle from google. Still better than the Huawei dongles

[@dqstudios]

At least you're not alone :) . Custom IEM's have changed the way I listen. I've learned to trust them and use them on every production now and live.

[@ReserveMyDriverTM]

use a audio quest dragonfly cobalt dac with your iem and that cable. Its better than your phone dac

[@mycosic1]

The canal & Bone conduction but that sound is 🔝💯amazing 🔊

[@JohnSAitken]

What was the Bit Rate of the files you were testing? Mobile Phones/ Cheep MP3 players are not for the person that likes top end sounds on the go.

[@dqstudios]

I'm not reviewing as an audio-phile, but as a media producer.

[@AmirRazmjou]

great video, it amazes me sometimes how people cannot tell the difference between cables and devices.

[@skuulofhardknox]

sounds like you are comparing what these headphones sound like coming through the integrated headphone amps on your iphone and macbook. I would imagine anyone using this level of headphone would know to use a proper headphone amp..

[@Shanti9]

Thank you for the video, you explaind a lot of for me and saved me some bucks!! I have very same thing...!

[@dqstudios]

Glad I could help and hope you find a set of cans you love!

[@PhaymerPhoto]

It’s pretty clear that your ears do not fit a universal iem so not sure whether the critical listening mentioned detracts from the sound performance of the shures. It seems as though any iem that is not custom will fail for you. The shures are brilliant, and it’s unfortunate that they don’t work for you. Don’t slag them off.

[@dqstudios]

Not slagging them off for everyone - just for me.

[@XxNe0xX7]

grate video men!! :D very informative, the sound is not the same for everyone :D can you review the kz zs10???

[@dqstudios]

Thanks Franscisco! You're the second person to request a review of those headphones. I'm really happy with my custom set so will likely not be purchasing just to review, but really: thanks for watching and contributing to the conversation :)

[@ChironZore]

Just get custom sleeves for the Shures...

[@SeanVedell]

Having had custom sleeves for the SE846's and other Shure buds and custom IEM's I can tell you that there's a difference. The sleeves I had made by Sensaphonics were great but not perfect at maintaining a proper seal over the long term. Maybe it was the silicone they use, I don't know but I loved them at first and within a year or so I couldn't get them to seal unless I was looking straight ahead. Yes, cleaning them helped but they still became less effective over time. Your mileage may vary.

[@huckfin1100]

#1 if any iem doesnt have a DD they will suck you need at least one DDriver ! The bass on any BA will loose bass it cant reproduce it as well make sence ?

[@ChironZore]

You are not reviewing the items, you are making general observations that EVERY audiophile already knows...

[@rhythmcaster2018]

I have the same heart beat and breathing conducting noise problems too with my SE425. Fortunately, on the stage all the noises hide that problems and memory foams isolate very well. However, they still sound boring and uninspired (mid-forwarded I guess) especially compared to Hi-Fi oriented IEM. Good video man. Seem we have the same ear canals.

[@dqstudios]

SAME EARS!! God bless and thanks for watching :)

[@yapjohn19]

Use the yellow earphones pods or the black one take 1 sec

[@jack8356]

sony does make really good head phones. my probably is that i hate the ear buds that has that rubber on them its so bad. unlike the air pods they dont have the rubber and the it just fits better. sure the rubber is supposed to keep sound out but it doesnt help at all really

[@yco9]

I really agree SE846 is overpriced, but I don't under-estimate therefore I would not use silicon earphone tips for my dear earphones. Be honest, we all know that our ear cannals always alter with ages, ever when we open and close our mouth, I would rather select in-ear foam tips than CM stuffs. With your SE 846, you also need to select the bypass filters, and look for a better cable, I preference is something with silver. Of course KDE 1500 is another success to my hear experience, but I use SE 846 daily. Remember SE 846 is not the HiRes earpieces, but it could deliver a very balanced and 'honest' sound, which is better than many monitor headphones I have. You need to know your ears, understand what you need before buying an earpieces, than you need to explore the hidden potential of your equipment. That is really your own custom-made.

[@x69WINNING69x]

silver over copper makes no difference with low impedance headphones. Look up the resistivity per unit length of the gauge wire used in copper and silver cables. Then look at the RMS voltage of the headphones playing at a loud volume. Almost no difference in the real-world performance. If the stock cables aren't good enough, get some normal copper cables of a higher perimeter, since skin effect is a much larger factor at small scales and high frequency AC.

[@michaelvickers89]

Which has better bass ?

[@dqstudios]

"Better" is truly subjective. There's no doubt SE846's have "more" bass. But muddy in the middle (at least in my ears), so less definition in the bass. My Plunge Custom Engineer IEM's have solid, well-defined bass, but definitely not heavy on the low end. I'm sure Simon at Plunge could tune the freq response to your liking tho. That's why I went with him.

[@michaelvickers89]

Dave Cheung Sweet! Thanks for the response 👍

[@00bikeboy]

Dude, you've got a freakish canal !

[@dqstudios]

🤣

[@AlexYun96]

The reason you hear your heartbeat and breathing (you'll probably hear yourself when you talk) is because the tips don't (not to mention they possibly can't) get to the second bend in your ear canal (well, you do have quite oddly-shaped ear canals). It's the same reason why singers sometimes cover one ear to hear themselves better. Btw I'm not a professional but I just know that ear impressions for CIEMs have to be beyond the second bend of one's ear canal.

[@AlexYun96]

Btw, I'm not as fond of the 846 sound signature either (I find them kind of harsh-sounding), but, to be fair, custom sleeves would probabably solve the "hearing-your-heartbeat" thing, since they also require ear impressions past the second bend of the ear canal. That being said, I have my trusty UE18+s for monitoring (they're warmer-sounding) and my UE Lives for listening to music (I know, I sound kind of snobbish). Thanks for introducing me to Plunge Audio. I'll be looking into them. :)

[@dqstudios]

THanks for your detailed reply and suggestions! I was soooo close to getting the custom sleeves, but for the price, I figured I could get full-service from Plunge and get the sound tweaked to taste. CHeers and happy listening!

[@ck9973]

Not biased AT ALL

[@musicislife7512]

Dont buy this headphone to use with iphone ,this for Hi-res audio iphone doesnt even get close to that !

[@joseluisruiz3789]

Yep, I bought the SE846CL and have to say that they have Incredible Midbass and Treble but severely lacked the "Subwoofer Performance" low frequencies shure claims to have on the SE846CL. My cheap Sony EX14AP sounded better with the Shure SHA900 I own. I had to return them to Guitar Center. I dont have the issue you have with the ear canal and I know that I did not commit "User Error" as some automatically type on KZbin comments, I am also a musician and tried using them For my 5 string bass, Guitar and Roland Fantom G7 and the SE846 sounded ok with them. Again lots of Midbass, actually too much midbass and no low end frequencies. I guess I got used to Dynamic Drivers. Now I have to search for some good Dynamic drivers that have a very Present low frequency bass response. Thanks for the video. I had to try the. For my self even though I've seen plenty of videos on them again, if you hate bass but love Midbass the. The Shure SE846 are for you but if you want Real Subwoofer low frequency bass head type sound. These will NOT do you any good. You will Want Dynamic drivers and not Balanced Armature drivers.

[@jackattack4851]

DONT KNOW WHY IT GOT ANY LIKES

[@davidryder5885]

Obviously, he would say you have a weird ear canal so that he sells his own "Custom" earphones.

[@JamesFromCanada]

I have CIEMs made by Simon. They're absolutely amazing and blows away everything I've tried in terms of sound quality, comfort, and isolation.

[@yunloy]

This fool would definitely fail a blind ABX test.

[@dqstudios]

you're probably right. and maybe wrong.

[@RavRav]

Stupid cable doesnt make sound change

[@SR009s]

dannz locker they really do

[@neriozulberti1492]

Are you shure 😄

[@tikiecue5677]

They do but not in the way he explained it. :D This is not a review for education, this is a plug for Plunge. Lol!

[@MrSuperdoop]

Thought you cracked one off 😀

[@dynamodav]

Just put your fingers in your ears and tell me what you hear? Heartbeat? Your own voice? That’s what it’ll sound like with IEMS, not that hard to understand your normal

[@RavRav]

So ads thats it man if you curious bout your breath sound try close harder and harder those will be still can be hearing because vibration on mouth i think this is so stupid ads..

[@tikiecue5677]

How can someone compare custom vs universal fit and bash the universal because it doesn't fit well? Then use sound quality as secondary reason without actually explaining it? Just plug and patronize plunge, but not at another's expense. No credibility, shameful.

[@Sent2Strike]

Alien ears.

[@TheKrisJChannel]

iPhones have the worst audio drivers of any phone or audio system if you have spent the money on iems go out and buy a audio dac or even one of the LG V30 to V40 or g7 as they have a high end DAC you are loosing about 40% of the sound quality by listening on a Iphone

[@renbanhart.s]

Nah not 40% thats too much ill say about 15%-20% but i do agree you do loose with an iphone, i own the v30 and it just sounds beautiful

[@erikleonardi6642]

I totally agree with this video. Shure se846 is just a shitty iem especially for the price. They don't compete with anything at the price bracket.

[@terryRBNF]

I came here for a review, but this is a review that pertains ONLY to the uploader so it's a waste of time and the title is misleading.

[@andersensean9575]

2 minutes on the sure and the rest is a commercial for plunge audio and the education of your deformed ear canals. Thanks.

[@executioner7400]

Summary, se846 is awful headphone?

[@dqstudios]

No: summary = depends on your ears ... And no 2 ears are the same.

[@peterscrace3530]

SE-846 are awesome if they fit your ears properly, fortunately for me they do.

[@joseluisruiz3789]

From my point of view with the SE846CL I just got last month sound good with midbass and High Frequencies. To me it has way too much midbass and when it comes to the low frequencies "Subwoofer Performance" it really wasn't there. On a frequency presence scale of 1 to 10 It felt like the Subwoofer low Frequencies were at a 3 and the mid bass was at 9 and High frequencies were at 10. I used my Shure SHA900 and I just couldn't get the midbass to sound less present. When I went past volume 12 out of 25, I could hear mechanical noise coming from the subwoofers like if it wanted to catch up to the midbass but something was preventing it from going further in presence. It's hard to explain what I was hearing. I am also a musician and play, bass, Guitar and Keyboard and I also sing with a band and they did sounded ok but the music was too midbassy. I do believe that these IEMs would work out wonderfully for those who are Audiophiles who dont like heavy bass and like to hear the presence of people sing and the strumming of Guitars etc. But I seem to like Dynamic Drivers more when it comes Heavy bass. I guess you can say I like a V shaped Frequency? Like bass at 8 out of 10 midbass at 5 out of 10 and Trebel at 10 out of 10. 😅 I did return them and ordered the SE215'S since they have a dynamic driver along with a pair of Sennheiser HD1 IEMs which is a rebadged Momentum IEM. Let's see how that goes using the same Shure SHA900 amp. That amp makes my Cheap $16.00 Sony EX14AP sound like $200.00 earphones. So I know the Shure SHA900 was NOT the problem. 😁

[@maldridge7630]

too long winded...could try the patience of Saint even!