Just days after announcing the sale of its consumer audio business, Sennheiser has taken the wraps off its latest – and supposedly greatest – in-ear headphones. At £1099 ($1300, AU$2099), the new IE 900 flagship wired earbuds sit above the IE 800 S in the firm's in-ear line-up, firmly in the 'Audiophile' section of its website.
The IE 900 boast Sennheiser's all-new X3R transducer, said to be a "refined version" of the 7mm Extra Wide Band transducers in the five-star Sennheiser IE 800. An improved "triple chamber absorber system" supposedly lets you hear "even the subtlest nuances of sound", too.
Each earbud is manufactured from a single block of milled aluminium by a specialist team in Wedemark, Germany, with the company's engineers even pairing up the left and right side earphones by hand to ensure optimal quality and performance.
Back in 2013, when we tested the IE 800, we said they ranked "among the very best in-ear headphones we’ve ever heard" thanks to their distortion-free midrange and "superb tonal variation". That said, in more recent years we found the IE 800 S lacking in the punch and dynamics their even higher price tag warranted. Fingers crossed that the IE 900 earbuds are closer to the accomplishment of the IE 800 of old, then.
In the box, you get a standard cable with a 3.5mm gold-plated connector, plus 4.4mm and 2.5mm balanced cables. There are also individually adjustable ear hooks and a choice of silicone and memory foam ear adaptors in three sizes.
The Sennheiser IE 900 will be available from June for £1099 ($1300, AU$2099), and we'll let you know whether they justify that eye-watering price just as soon as they reach our ears.
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