The most thoughtful headset in 2018 “Sennheiser IE40Pro”

It’s been a week since I got IE40pro. The “Pro” in its name means that this headset is positioned as a professional monitor. From the appearance quality to the designer's careful thinking, to Sennheiser's tuning skills, this little thing that costs more than 700 yuan really surprised me. Why am I surprised? Let me talk about it in detail one by one.

Appearance design:

Let me first introduce the accessories inside. They are not too many and are simple enough. In addition to three pairs of large, medium and small silicone sleeves, a pair of slow rebound sponges are also included. The cover is more comfortable to wear than the silicone cover; the shit stirrer in the upper right corner is considered a standard feature of in-ear headphones. The wire is soft and elastic, not hard in winter, and not easy to get knotted and tangled.

The appearance of IE40 Pro is very similar to that of Shure SE series headphones. I personally like this style very much. I have been attracted by the singers on the screen since I was a child. When they sang on the stage, These are the kind of headphones that are plugged into your ears. The headphone shell is made of white transparent material with a frosted surface, and you can directly see the unit inside. The eye-catching Sennheiser LOGO also provides guarantee for product quality.

The model number of the earphone is printed on the right earphone unit, and only the right earphone line has a red mark, which makes it easy for users to distinguish the left and right earphones when wearing them. On the inside of the earphones, where the model is printed, you can see a recessed area at A, which corresponds to the protrusion at B on the human ear. This can effectively reduce the feeling of pressure when wearing the earphones. It is ergonomic and reflects the intentions of Sennheiser designers.

The interchangeable wire design allows players to replace or upgrade the wire later, increasing playability. The pin used by IE40Pro is different from the common MMCX pin. This pin is longer and feels great when unplugging and turning. The stepped structure at the root can make it stronger. The Pro in IE40Pro is not for nothing, professionalism and reliability can be seen from these details.

There is a vertical groove on the headphone tube. This design really made me burst into tears! It solves a major pain point for users wearing in-ear headphones. Before this, I usually wore flat-head plugs when listening to music. Or large over-ear headphones, I am extremely reluctant to wear in-ear earplugs, because the cavity of the in-ear earplugs is mostly fully enclosed. When inserted into the ears, it feels extremely uncomfortable to have the eardrums being pressed by the air, especially when the headphone cable is not in place. Be careful when something suddenly catches you, and the earphones are pulled out instantly. It feels like your eardrums are about to burst. I believe many students who have worn in-ear headphones have the same experience as me.

However, this groove completely solves this problem! When the earphones are plugged in, the excess air in the ear cavity will be discharged along the groove, so I can plug them in and pull them out with confidence. For this design, the more than 700 yuan spent is worth it!

The around-the-ear design can effectively avoid the stethoscope effect. The part of the earphone cable close to the pin has memory metal inside, and the earphones can be inserted into it. You can bend and adjust it at will behind your ears until you find it most comfortable. And because the headset itself is so light, after wearing it for a while, you will even ignore its existence. So IE40Pro is one of the most comfortable around-ear in-ear headphones I have ever worn.

Looking carefully at the internal structure of IE40 Pro through the translucent shell, I found that it is divided into two cavities, with a hole in the middle isolated by white tuning paper. This has never been seen on other similar headphones. There is also a tuning hole opened on the surface of cavity 2. It seems that Sennheiser's engineers have put a lot of effort into tuning in order to match this 10mm dynamic unit.

Tuning cotton is added to the headphone tube and rubber sleeve, which can effectively eliminate sibilance. Overall, the sibilance control of IE40 Pro is still very satisfactory. But if you want to use other rubber covers or slow-rebound sponge covers, such as Brother covers and C covers, the sound may be slightly different from the original covers.

Sound:

After listening to it for a week, IE40 Pro’s sound is no longer what I want to say in terms of analysis and quality, because even compared with some professional monitors, , its analytical power is no less impressive. After the "basic condition" of quality is met, audiophiles pay more attention to the taste of the headphones and its ability to express various types of music.

The first thing I chose was a classical symphony: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor. From the inception to the completion of the work, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony devoted decades of effort and is his music. The pinnacle of his career.

At first, the strings were low and depressing, then other instruments came in, and the atmosphere gradually increased. At this time, the drums suddenly sounded, and the sounds of various instruments poured into the ears at the same time. I originally thought that the IE40 Pro would be a little confusing here, after all, the price position of this headset is there, but the result surprised me slightly. The sound of each instrument is well separated, and the drum sound does not cover up other sounds. The string or high-frequency performance of IE40 Pro is the highlight of this headset. Close your eyes and the overtones can make you feel the live performance space. The low-frequency performance of drums and cello is slightly inferior. The volume is not too much and not too little, and the power is sufficient. However, it feels that only part of the low frequency dives deeply, and the remaining small part is slightly scattered. When I first listened to this out of the box It is especially obvious that after a week of burning-in, it has improved greatly. But after all, it is a dynamic earphone, and burning-in is a normal process. Generally speaking, IE40 Pro performs very well in restoring the texture of various musical instruments. Being able to do this shows that IE40 Pro is a qualified professional monitoring headset.

The second choice was "Ulaanbaatar Night" by Tan Weiwei. I really like this song. Every time I listen to it, I can't help but silently say in my heart, I'm drunk, I'm drunk, this song Don't listen to it all the time, lest you get tired of it one day and never find another piece of music as good as this.

The sound of the Morin Khuur seems to instantly transport people to the prairie of Inner Mongolia. The density of the human voice is very high. It is located diagonally above the head and is independent of all musical instruments. It is tactful and smooth. Just like Chinese Tai Chi, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes light, sometimes heavy. At this time, the melody is not important anymore, you just want to listen to this female voice expressing her strong emotions to you. From this point of view, the IE40 Pro is different from the plain water sound of other monitoring headphones. The emotional expressiveness of its female voice is very good, which gave me a big surprise.

The third choice was "How" by Penny Dai. I believe that many audiophiles are like me. The fever started with the bass. I still remember the shock when I heard the sound of Sennheiser MX500 for the first time. Then people like me who listen more to pop music started to I like human voices, especially female voices, and I really like the feeling of a singer standing in front of you singing for you alone, but not every headset can give you that feeling. IE40 Pro can, with the song "How", you can You can hear every detail clearly, including the friction sound when the air flows through the lips and teeth, the sticking sound when the lips open and close, and the sound of exhalation. It is clear but not harsh. Coupled with Dai Penni's pure and magnetic voice, it feels like she is right next to you. Whispering in front of me.

Summary

After testing the above three songs, IE40 Pro has remarkable performance in both musical instruments and vocals. The three frequencies are very balanced, and it can not only control classical arrangements, but also perform well. It can also hold pop songs, making it a relatively omnivorous professional monitoring headset. Generally speaking, high resolution is the characteristic of IE40 Pro. From it, we can see the efforts of Sennheiser’s designers and engineers. This small headset has almost no shortcomings and is very complete. It is priced at 1,000 yuan. It's hard to find a headset that can compete with it in this price range, so choose it.