GEAR REVIEW: SENNHEISER IE 100 PRO WIRELESS IN-EAR MONITORS—EVERYDAY IEMS FOR EVERYBODY

Meet the latest addition to Sennheiser’s IE family of pro audio in-ear monitors, the IE 100 PRO. Sporting much of the sound quality of the higher-end models in the series, but at a price making them available to a wider audience. The IE 100 PRO Wireless is also an interesting use case, with an included Bluetooth® Connector that’s intended to bring reference-quality sound into day-to-day “on the street” personal listening.

As traditional in-ear monitors, the IE 100 PRO is the successor to the more entry-level IE 40 PRO, with higher fidelity than that model while coming in at just a few ticks under the 400 & 500 models. So it’s easy to see the 100 being used on stage, at FOH, or in post-production mixing applications. But at a price like this, the 100 provides a good opportunity for individuals to benefit from audiophile or pro audio quality without blowing up their budget. At this price, it even offers entire bands or production teams a chance to upgrade everybody on the team to IEMs.

But let’s take a minute up-front to educate the uninitiated. Why would you want to upgrade to in-ear monitors, over traditional floor monitors, in the first place? The obvious first reason is that each band member gets an isolated personalized mix. Instead of floor monitors bleeding into other mixes, everyone from the guitarist to the drummer can work with the engineer to get a mix that’s truly optimized for them. Feedback is largely eliminated with IEMs; they also make for a much cleaner mix for the engineer as he or she doesn’t have to deal with multiple floor monitors polluting each other. They offer the opportunity for better ear protection because users can control their own volume levels. There’s less clutter on the stage, and the lead singer has the freedom to dance from one side to the other and enjoy a consistent mix the entire time. Plus, IEMs make load-in & out easier. (Which is lighter, multiple floor monitors or a handful of IEMs?) And in a world that is, at the very least, going to be more mindful of hygiene best-practices going forward, having individual IEMs for individual engineers, as opposed to one set of headphones plugged into the board for multiple users to share, is something that will be attractive to everybody.

How Do They Sound?

Pretty great. These are definitely tuned to be reference monitors. Jazz on vinyl sounds like jazz on vinyl. I didn’t come across any well-mixed music that sounded muddy, they can confidently be labeled “colorless” and “transparent,” and they often capture that “sparkle” we’re all looking for on individual instruments. There isn’t noticeable distortion at high SPLs (we turned them up pretty good) and the sound is well-defined, with a distinct, even mid-range and not too much bass. They employ a single 10mm dynamic driver system, as opposed to dual or triple or quad driver designs. Every model in the IE lineup uses the single Sennheiser dynamic driver system. It’s a choice that Sennheiser has made to best optimize the in-ear experience. They feel it creates a well-rounded, harmonic sound, without breaking up the frequencies the way that multi-driver IEMs do. It works. I use a pair of high-end triple-driver IEMs from another manufacturer as my “daily drivers” and the IE 100 PRO does sound “smoother” than those, while still picking up individual nuance that my daily drivers miss.

Mixing Business with Pleasure

If you’ve only ever used bass-heavy consumer-y headphones for listening to your personal music collection or a streaming service, listening on a pair meant for professional work is an eye-opening, or rather, an ear-opening experience. Listening to studio sessions allows you to hear many of the imperfections and perfections that you wouldn’t be able to on popular consumer models: Details like a back-up singer being off-key, a guitar mic not working and being picked up by a vocal mic, or again, that can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-it “sparkle” from the recording of a live instrument. It makes it feel like you’re in the studio, and not subject to the whims of how a headphone manufacturer thinks you want to hear the track. The IE 100 PRO is a wonderfully transparent way to enjoy private listening.

That single dynamic driver is also supposed to reduce acoustic stress factors when compared to multiple-driver designs. A long-time user would have to report back if that is in fact true over months of use, but I’ve been using them exclusively for mixing, video editing, and listening over a couple of days and I never felt like I needed to rip them out and take a break like I have with other IEMs or headphones. The fit is secure and provides significant isolation. They come with 3 silicone (S, M, L) and 1 foam adapter. (I find that foam gives me the tightest seal, not only in terms of my own isolation but in reducing bleed during personal listening in public. As a matter of fact, the IE 100 PRO provides much better isolation than the noise-canceling functionality on my big-brand over-ear Bluetooth headphones, for what it’s worth.)

What’s in the Box?

A Bluetooth adapter, for starters. It’s the style that connects the earpieces together with a cord, so you can let them hang around your neck, and not lose them like you can with “truly wireless” adapters. It employs the aptX™ and AAC Bluetooth codecs, so both Android and Apple devices are supported. Of course, they’re still better plugged-in, from both a sound quality and latency perspective, but I’ve gotta tell ya, for Bluetooth, they sound pretty fantastic on my iPhone, MacBook, and Windows machine. I thought I bought the best Bluetooth headphones money could buy a few years ago, and I can’t say that anymore after having spent a few days with these IEMs. Bluetooth technology has either come a long way in a few years, or Sennheiser and Qualcomm (the makers of aptX) have really ironed it out. And for convenience's sake, it’s pretty cool having pro audio quality headphones at the gym without a cord getting in the way. The Bluetooth adapter also works with the IE 400 & 500 PRO, too. And the standard 3.5mm cable is compatible with the 400 & 500 as well. So that gives you some idea on which side of the divide Sennheiser believes the 100 belongs. A twisted clear cable is available as an optional accessory (as is a clear mono cable), but the straight black cable that’s included does a wonderful job of not getting tangled. (The twisted cable on my other IEMs is almost always in a knot.) And the earpieces themselves have the same shape and mold as the higher-end models. The cleaning tool is a nice touch, the charging cable is USB-C, which is also appreciated, and the soft pouch with the snap-shut mouth keeps them together if you’re tossing them in a bag. They also come in black or clear, but we reviewed the red, which is a nice unique color for a pair of IEMs.

Driving it Home

With any gear, it’s always about finding the right model that fits your use case. The IE 100 PRO makes a lot of sense as your own personal, daily driver in-ear monitors: Using them connected over Bluetooth to your phone on the way to the gig, then plugging them into a beltpack once you get there, and using them again at home late at night, plugged into your laptop or connected to your living room sound system, as loud as you want, without waking up the family. And at this price it would also be a welcome surprise if a director or manager outfitted, say, the whole band or production team with their very own pair to use in the building or on tour and then to also enjoy outside on the street as well. Sennheiser seems to have found a sweet spot in their IE PRO series, with the 100 offering pro audio in-ear monitoring for pretty much any scenario and at a price for pretty much anyone who wants it.

For more info about in-ear monitors, and how to pick a pair that works for your specific needs, call a friendly Full Compass Product Expert, 7a-5:30p CST, M-F at 800-356-5844.

Originally published at https://www.fullcompass.com/gearcast/gear-review-sennheiser-ie-100-pro-wireless-in-ear-monitors-bt-connector