Since Sennheiser licensed off its consumer division last year to Swiss hearing health company Sonova Holdings AG, the innovation and release of new products under license haven’t stopped. The new division is still committed to producing the kind of earphones and headphones that have been appreciated by music lovers for three-quarters of a century.
One area that Sennheiser is focusing on is its Audiophile Range of In-Ear Monitors. This selection of high-end wired earphones is designed for people who love music and enjoy listening to the very highest quality audio. Last year, Sennheiser released the entry-level IE 300 and flagship IE 900s wired earphones. 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.
Sennheiser believes that audiophiles care about the smallest of details when they are selecting a pair of earphones. Everything must be right; from the design, the manufacturing quality to the sound. As a serious music lover, I can attest to that. The IE 600 earphones are unusual in being the first pair I have seen with such robust driver housings. Produced using a 3D printing process, the housings are crafted from ZR01 amorphous zirconium, a super-hard metal that has a glass-like atomic structure and is three times as strong and resistant to bending as high-quality steel.
Another application for ZR01 amorphous zirconium is in the aerospace industry. For example, the drilling head of the NASA Mars Rover is made from zirconium. The drilling head needs to be extremely tough for its life on Mars. Amorphous zirconium is also used in high-end dental crowns because it’s so smooth and tough.
Thanks to multiple elaborate treatment processes, the amorphous zirconium housings of the IE 600 have a surface finish that is exceptionally resistant to corrosion and scratching. Sennheiser claims that the exceptional resilience of the material will ensure the IE 600 earphones can be enjoyed for many years and will still look new after a lot of use.
The entire IE audiophile family of products has been designed in Germany and is manufactured at the Sennheiser’s state-of-the-art transducer production facility in Ireland. It’s one of the most advanced production lines of its type anywhere in the world and has just one purpose: to go beyond the expectations of audiophiles by using the highest manufacturing standards possible.
Jermo Köhnke is the product manager responsible for the IE family at Sennheiser. He says, “At the audiophile development team, we intently listen to the feedback of our incredibly passionate customers. The IE 600 delivers a neutral reference tuning in combination with our industry-leading miniature transducer technology. The paradigm-shifting acoustic performance is appropriately clad in the highest-performance amorphous zirconium. The IE 600 will be a reference for the most demanding mobile audio enthusiasts.”
Köhnke is right. It’s all very well having a pair of earphones that look great and are made using the most advanced space-age materials, but that’s no use if they don’t sound great. Fortunately, the IE 600 earphones deliver exceptional audio performance. It’s only when you listen to a pair of earphones that are made using perfectly matched transducers with almost zero distortion, that you realize how good a pair of earphones can sound. The lack of distortion is stunning. I would say the IE 600 sound as good as the flagship IE 900s model from Sennheiser. There’s a warmth and clarity about the IE 600 that is beyond stunning.
The IE 600 feature an innovative acoustic back volume and precision-molded resonator chambers which shape the sound created by the 7mm transducers. The earphones are tuned to create an incredible presence in the midrange, alongside an intimacy that pulls the listener into the music thanks to an accurate soundstage that reveals details in the music that you may never have heard before.
The nozzle of the driver housings includes the dual resonator chambers that are key to high-fidelity sound. With incredibly tight engineering tolerances, these chambers reproduce even the finest of details in a recording and makes them audible by eliminating the masking resonances that would otherwise mask higher frequencies.
The IE 600 can reproduce distortion-free sound thanks to Sennheiser’s TrueResponse transducer. Unlike other high-end earphones that may use multiple balanced armature drivers, the IE 600 use a single 7mm driver with an incredibly wide frequency range and ultra-low distortion. The acoustic back volume has been tuned to deliver a tonally neutral, intimate and emotional sound that excels, especially when it comes to reproducing vocals. The tuning has also been optimized to produce a steep bass slope resulting in a low end that has plenty of power and a fast and accurate response. This means you can hear as well as feel the bass notes as the metal string slaps the fingerboard of a double bass.
The IE 600 are relatively small and they feel comfortable to wear. Sennheiser has used gold-plated MMCX connectors anchored into the driver housings to create greater stability. The supplied cables are an ear-hook design and can be bent to fit over the ear perfectly. There are two cables provided; one is an unbalanced with a 3.5mm stereo jack plug while the other terminates in a balanced 4.4mm Pentaconn connector used on digital audio players made by the likes of Sony and Astell&Kern.
The IE 600 are supplied with a selection of ear tips in three different sizes with a choice of silicone and memory foam. Both types of tips are very high quality. I tried the memory foam tips and the quality of the acoustic seal was first class, creating a great sound and a high level of passive noise cancelation. The upshot is a comfortable fit that can be worn for long periods without suffering fatigue.
Verdict: Sennheiser has scored with the new IE 600 audiophile wired earphones. They’re made of hard-wearing amorphous zirconium that can withstand the rigors of the daily commute. The TrueResponse transducer produces a detailed sound that’s mellowed by a beautifully warm bass frequency. I guarantee that you will hear details in your favorite music that you won’t have heard before when listening to the IE 600. These are exceptional earphones for the money and can compete with far more expensive models from other manufacturers. If you want a pair of earphones for use with a high-end digital audio player that can produce a sound that makes music shine, the Sennheiser IE 600 are the earphones for you. Highly Recommended.
Pricing & Availability: The Sennheiser IE 600 earphones will be available this Spring/Summer and will sell for $699.95 / £599 / €699.
More info: www.sennheiser-hearing.com
Tech Specs:
- Transducer: Dynamic extra-wide band
- Transducer diameter: 7mm
- Frequency response: 4 to 46,500Hz
- Impedance: 18Ω
- SPL: 118dB at 1kHz 1 Vrms
- THD: <0.06% (1kHz, 94dB)
- Attenuation: -26dB
- Cable: Oxygen-free copper
- Connectors: 3.5mm balanced, 4.4 Pentaconn balanced
- Weight: 6g per ear
