My IE7 comes mostly on my iPod Nano (2nd Gen.) with Apple Lossless files in use. As a reference I use a Yamaha Piano Craft E100 with Musical Fidelity V-DAC and Oehlbach XXL 1 RCA and Toslink cables.
Sound
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The first impression after about half an hour: this earphone remains! Even without importing sounds of IE7 incredibly clear and natural. Compared with my CX-300 is clearly in a different league.
After 2 months now, I think the first business phase is over and the sound has stabilized. What remains is a very balanced, natural sound. The particular strength of IE7 is its detailed resolution. Individual instruments in an orchestra can be distinguished more clearly, the stop of an acoustic guitar is super clear, as if you had the ear directly to the string. Even voices benefit from this earbuds. Playback is unlikely detailed and natural.
In rock music one must first of all affirm that they have technically good recordings. Then bring the IE7 similarly good results.
Audible is the improvement on the CX-300 in the bass. Although the IE7 team as well has a distinct bass, almost too strong to be called balanced, the bass is drawn much finer. Where a Punch bass guitar directly times drowned out the voices of the CX-300, the bass dominates when IE7 is not so much the sound and also allows the singers are still alive.
Clearly you can hear the guitar solo for example, when the hotel California. When CX-300 is not really in joy, because the electric guitars have problems to compete with the electric bass. In IE7, however, the rocking going on class that you can not get tired of listening to.
On the other side of the spectrum, the highs are Allerding not tuned as we know it from some other earbuds of the superclass: Shure example and Ultimate Ears have extremely exaggerated heights that go to me personally after a short time significantly to the pointer. The IE7 do not have this to an extreme increase in clarity. In the heights they sound very nice, of course, in contrast to the bass could be here sometimes even forking out a bit.
That depends a lot on the recording from: 4 Last Songs of Richard Strauss (soprano Gundula Janowitz), so also goes the limit. With more levels you would not get more than a toothache. At Hotel California said, however, it could be something more for singing quietly.
Design and comfort
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In the design of IE7 Sennheiser has also applied a lot of attention and know-how in detail. Although the earpieces are not exactly small, but they sit perfectly and harmoniously in the ear. They are used so that the cable leading away upwards and are then bent best behind the ears down. One has to draw the ears when inserting something upwards and sideways. The ear pieces are then perfectly in the ear and sit absolutely reliably and firmly, without any stick out or press. Excellent!
The cable management is certainly special, but after a short while you get used to it and it no longer interferes. If the cable should slip over the ear, you can save it under the chin with a lock slider.
The noise isolation of IE7 is neat, slightly better than the CX-300. So you get something with his surroundings, if rather dull. The ie8 should isolate better if you want to.
The cable is much thicker than the CX 300 and much smoother, so that it hardly causes crepitus to clothing. Also a welcome improvement.
So what is the resume?
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It is I think clear that the IE7 are so good that the quality of the recording determines what you get to hear. Also, one can say that the iPod as a sound source pushes to its limits. With my PianoCraft whose sound quality is enhanced erhbeblich by the DAC and the quality cabling, outdated IE7 again get out of a CD. It always sounds better than from the iPod.
The sound of IE7 as a whole is so fantastic natural that you want to listen for hours. The IE7 plays neither exaggerated heights nor by an incredible bass to the fore. Rather, it recedes completely behind the music and is a very neutral playback instrument.
Whether one calls now perfect or boring and characterlos is a matter of taste. In my view, an earphone should reflect what is on the CD (or is supplied by the amplifier), without distorting or fashionable emphasis. Leaving aside the small Basslastigkeit, IE7 does just that.
A small addendum
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I have now bought a headphone amplifier (Musical Fidelity X-Can V8) and have thus naturally tried the IE7. Without that particular characteristics, which I have already described, would have changed significantly, the sound of IE7 to the amplifier is once again become much clearer. Finer resolution of instruments in an orchestra, all of a sudden you hear a spatial distribution of singers and instruments (where the recording magic experienced) and the voices are incredibly clear. Really fantastic.
IPod listener good is naturally nothing. But you can really be sure when you buy that the IE7 everything rausholt from your iPod, what rauszuholen - easy! And then there's much more to discover ...
