 I'm sorry, what? I must have had something in my ear. Did you just say $800? Yes, I did and oh look I did have something in my ear. Sennheiser sent me a pair of IE800s. They're their top tier in-ear designed and exclusively manufactured in Germany and at 800 US dollars MSRP. They're the most expensive earphones that I have ever used. But could they possibly be worth the price tag? I guess we'll find out won't we? Massdrop is currently featuring the MSI GTX 1080 Armor 8G. Check it out and other drops at the link in the video description. I already know what you're thinking. At that price, they better come with a palm-sized string quartet that plays covers of your favorite show tunes on command. Am I right? Well, you can think that but you'd be completely wrong because they totally don't. In fact, here's an observation that I've made about accessories in general. The higher end you go, it feels like the fewer things get included. I mean, have you ever shopped for a red camera? I mean, of course you haven't unless... is that Marcus out there? Anyway, if you had, you'd know that the cost of the camera body is a hilariously small part of what you'll spend on the overall setup that you actually need to use the damn thing. So following along those lines, while much less expensive earphones like the New Force lineup from Optima that I reviewed recently, you can check that out here, include things like a waterproof carrying case, a backup cloth case, two nice cables with stylish braiding, or a microphone in line if you prefer, and a complete set of silicone ear tips with a couple comfy comply foam ones thrown in. The i800s include a cheesy, albeit leather carrying case, some silicone ear tips, and a cleaning tool. Be still my heart. In Sennheiser's defense, the included ear tips address a problem that I've yet to find a solution for with the iE80s, my daily drivers, the way that wax gums up the mesh eventually. They have separate from the usual protective mesh covering the transducer or driver a second mesh filter built right into the silicone ear tip. Cool. Unfortunately, this proprietary approach has resulted in very limited options when it comes to third-party ear tips from comply or or others. Dammit, Sennheiser. Though, as someone who is extremely careful with my ear tips and who prefers the sound and fit of silicone tips, I don't personally find this as big of an issue as some users who have gone as far as to perform surgery on other ear tips that they had lying around to try to use them with their iE800s. No, no. The one that I'm more upset about is the lack of a removable cable, a killer feature of the iE80s for people like me who wear their iE-M's 10 plus hours a day, often while sleeping. This feature has allowed me to first replace my stock cable that failed with a new one, then by the iE8i inline microphone as an upgrade that lets me use my iE80s as a hands-free. I mean, sure. The stock cable is Kevlar reinforced or whatever and is less likely to fail and you can replace part of the cable with a pricey first-party microphone one, but it plugs into a sub-mini or two and a half millimeter jack that's positioned lower than the ideal microphone placement and the last eight inches or so is soldered to the earphone, making repairs to that part of the cable very time-consuming, costly, or both. Let's move on though to what the cable is attached to. On the inside of the in-ears, Sennheiser boasts a number of technological breakthroughs from the seven millimeter extra wideband dynamic transducer to the dampened two chamber absorbers to the oval shaped ear adapters to the scratch resistant ceramic housing, but the iE800s just don't look very comfortable, do they? I'm used to the native over-the-ear cable design of their little cousin. The two weird ports on the back seem like they'd stick out and push the whole thing too far into your ear if you were to lie down on your side while wearing them and whatever they might say about scratch resistance, the housings also look like they'll be kind of cold and hard against the inside of your ear. All of that, however, fortunately is wrong. I've been pretty critical of this product so far, and if you're going to charge this much for something it kind of comes with the territory, but I can't complain about the comfort. Even my wife, who generally hates in-ears, said about them they just fit. Worn cable down with the smallest ear tips, I do find them a bit heavy due to that connector at the cable split, but I had no difficulty keeping them in place even with one side dangling, and I discovered that though it shortens the already short cable a bit, bringing the cable over the ear allows significantly deeper insertion for a more secure fit, more noise isolation, improved microphonics, that sound that the cable can make that you hear in the in-ears, and for me anyway, an ever so slightly more pleasing sound signature with a bit more thump. Which I guess leads us finally then to the listening experience. There, I mean come on, who didn't see this coming, far and away the best I've ever heard. Highs are crystal clear and wonderfully detailed to the point where flaws in low bitrate files and the mastering of the top 40 trash that I normally listen to become much more apparent than with anything else I've ever listened to. Mids are not over powerful, but I mean that in a good way. There's no veil for the vocals to fight through, but I don't feel like the rest of the music is being compromised either, leading us to bass where yeah, they're not the most neutral, true to the original recording earphones on the market. I mean if you really wanted that you'd have a pair of etymotic ER4 series already anyway. There is definitely some bass emphasis, but I mean that in the best possible way with a shocking amount of kick in the lower range with fantastic control. These are really fun to listen to. And I don't normally talk about imaging much, but the i800s gave me a new appreciation for this characteristic in a couple of ways, especially when worn cable down. For musical recording, pinpointing where on the stage the pianist was located was pretty cool, but, and I discovered this totally by accident, the open sound of these earphones also made VR better. Most in-ears feel like you're listening to something that's going on inside your head, kind of inside your skull, but the i800s sound more like you're listening to something in the room around you. So they're noticeably more immersive feeling in this particular application. Leading us finally to answer that original question, are they worth it? Don't be stupid. I mean if you can't afford to blow nearly a grand after taxes on a pure luxury item, one that has inherent lifespan limiting flaws that I'd love to see addressed in an i801 or something, then no, they're not worth it. But I sure wouldn't kick them out of bed for eating crackers either. You know who else I wouldn't kick out of bed for eating crackers? Crunchyroll. They offer the most current episodes of new shows straight from Japan like Re Zero or Orange. Wow, great job Colton, you actually filled out the sheet this time. Good work. And they've got a large collection of the most popular anime series like Naruto Shippuden and Ace Attorney. All the content on the site is professionally subtitled and all you got to do is head over to crunchyroll.com slash Linus, linked in the video description, to sign up for a free 30 day trial of Crunchyroll Premium that gives you a whole month of free anime with no ads whatsoever. And if you enjoy the many benefits of premium like 1080p streaming, getting new episodes of shows straight from Japan within an hour of their premiere, and being able to stream anywhere, anytime to a variety of, to a variety? To a variety of devices. To a variety of vices like your phone, tablet, or game console you can continue your premium membership to Crunchyroll for only 7 bucks a month. So head over there, it's crunchyroll.com slash Linus and check them out. So thanks for watching guys, if this video sucked you know what to do, but if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured at Amazon in the video description. Also linked in the description is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum which you can join and ask questions or answer questions or just generally talk tech. Now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next, so click that little button in the top right corner to check out our latest video over on channel Superfun. I think it's like RC car racing or something, it's pretty fun. There's a big jump.