My Shure SE 215 Initial impression, *spoiler* layman not audiophile
Hi friends, couldn't decide between sep post & or in hp rants, finally decided to post here, it is quite long, hope you guys wouldn't mind it.
I got my Shure SE 215 yesterday I even had a post in Show off thread! I was listening to it most of the time, here's my summary of it.
First, why Shure SE 215? You would not find SE215 in top headphone thread or recommended hp in most of the site! But if you go into individual reviews they don't fare badly either. To me Shure is a dream hp reason SE 535, I long wanted it, but couldn't risk it because in India the support of hps are so poor, once your hp shows bad signs, that's the omen its over! No service center, replacement, etc. Even if you manage to get a proper dealer, the price will be next to ridiculous, effectively corroding the price-value advantage. Next reason, SE 215 follows the exact design & technical choice of the higher variant, so you could experience what the fuss all about, while 535 is having 3 dynamic drivers, this has 1 (rest assured I don't know what is dynamic driver
only thing it seems to baffle few pros since dynamic drivers are found in cheap makes, and Shure choosing it!?)
Build quality: Its too early, still, I could see the outstanding quality of the hp, that should be the outcome of Shure's experience. Since they had some problems in earlier models 210/530, and now they corrected it. Cable gives you confidence, and they are replaceable, though not cheap, they cost as much as the hp!
Comfort: If you followed my posts you know how much I loved my Klipsch S4, few time I'll drag it to compare with SE235! Comparing with S4 for comfort is something even Shure will not attempt, reason, S4 is one of the best IEM one could buy just for comfort alone. The design of SE235 is something you'll find in expensive custom earphones, and it is totally weird to put the phones inside, still I'm not comfortable with it. Once in ears comfort is not great, not poor either, you have no choice but get used to it, if I need to score it, it is 4.5/10. So it will be hard to keep it for so long, you need to give rest to your ears! not only the inner canal gets irritated, this design ensures the walls of the ears are bruised and pains you. But I have seen reviews where people are happy about the comfort and says you wear it and forget it! something I would come to know later and I pray it be! Also there is a advantage to this design, it will be bed friendly since there are no protruding parts!
Sound Isolation: Good. But if you compare it with CX300 & S4/i there is not too of much difference. The foam tips are different kind though, I haven't seen these squeeze and release kind of foamy tips, and they provide good isolation. Rest assured you'll will not hear a thing once you start music.
Sound Quality: If you are a multi-tasker stay away from these! its been long time, I stopped what I was doing and did only listening that too at day time. Many intricacies of notes are so audible, you tend to sit and take a look! suddenly the performance is LIVE, the instrument players take center stage one by one, mostly in song interludes, and as if I'm chief guest, they show their musical & instrument prowess! that was awesome! I was listening to film music, then thrown various music at it, metal, rock, contemporary instrumental, hardly at 6 hours of usage time, it starts to sparkle, very first time though like any hp it was so average! The Bass, the phone is advertised as 'with enhanced bass', to me the bass is more than adequate but might not impress bass enthusiasts, after break-in period it might be different though. Treble, is good but I think this is the area where more expensive headphones score, particularly Shure's own higher siblings, the treble notes does not have the sweetness of S4, but that's the strength of S4, sweat sounding nature, thankfully SE 215 is more accurate in tonal quality at the same time not bland like my CX300 (cx3 does not stand at this price point, so purist shld forgive my comparisons, as I'm only comparing with my collection), put straight the trebles did not spark. Sound stage, even though I'm not audiophile, I have to say if one should buy SE 215 for a reason, this would be the reason, S4 simply don't have this, the perception of sound and different instruments in space, because in S4 it is all about direct-to-ear sound with all its glorious sweetness, but SE 215 got this orgasmic sound stage. Having said that, don't expect sound stage to blow you up, it is just an incremental update, again I expect this is where the SE 535 should blew you.
Recommendation: Certainly! I'm impressed with this just like I have come to expect, but be warned, at high volumes they have this in-your-ear-cheap-hp-treble with poorly encoded mp3s, and you will not get any sound stage
as well. The fact, this headphone is in the lineage(!) of one of the greatest IEM money can be buy SE 535 should please you tremendously as a bonus!
My Score: 8/10
Thanks for reading, please leave a note!
Leagues ahead oa JVC marshamallows EP630 and others in that price range.
