You might consider the balanced connection as an example of over-engineering, which is not at all a bad thing, except when it becomes inconvenient.

And the zirconium alloy from which they’re formed has triple the strength and flex-resistance of (suddenly antiquated) high-performance steel – it features in the drilling head of NASA’s Mars Rover, which bodes well for its chances of standing up to a stint in the departure lounge followed by a long-haul flight. Shure is just as venerable a name as Sennheiser where products like this are concerned, and while the AONIC 5 don’t have quite the same bee in their bonnet regarding detail retrieval as the IE600, they’re every bit as listenable, every bit as convincing and every bit as accomplished. Of course, you get a level of accuracy that is only attainable in Sennheiser’s IEMs, and on the IE 600, the imaging is given greater depth and dimension through its terrific layering. Now the trinity has been completed with the launch of the Sennheiser IE 600, midrange audiophile earphones incorporating some sophisticated materials technology and exceptional sound quality. If there is a down-side to the way the IE600 perform, then it’s pretty mild and hardly detracts from the overall quality of their performance.What is interesting is that, when this question was put to Sennheiser, it pretty much acknowledges this. Moving along, the Sennheiser IE 200 sounds pretty close to the Sennheiser IE 600, but sans the space-age materials.

We are proud that Sennheiser evaluated our space-grade amorphous alloy and decided to use it for the IE 600.The midrange and lower treble are very upfront in this fundamental spectrum, but the bass is very punchy, hits hard, and resolves almost immediately. In crude terms, for example, the cymbal sounds in background sounds more like 'tttt' in ie600 while in 846 they are more 'dtdtdt'. The IE 600 delivers a neutral reference tuning in combination with our industry-leading miniature transducer technology. The Sennheiser IE 600 is small, very well built, super comfortable and affordable IEM with a tuning that is easy to like.