Customer Reviews

Shure SE310-K Sound Isolating Earphones (Black)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I posted a similar review on head-fi regarding my purchase of Shure's SE310. Along with picking up a pair of SE310s, I also picked up a pair of SE210s for comparison because I have read people saying that there is no difference between the two. So what should I do but go and find out for myself and post my thoughts here.

This is my first post here on head-fi, but I've been a long time reader. By no means do I consider myself an audiophile. Sorry if this post uses incorrect phrases and doesn't make sense from a technical standpoint, but I'll try to explain from my perspective the differences I hear.

My current setup before buying the new SE's are the V-Moda Vibe Duos with an iPhone and Macbook. I do not own an amp and usually keep my EQ flat or with treble boost because the Vibes are bass heavy to me. When I use the word bass, I mean shake your ears, not the frequency. I mostly listen to Dispatch, State Radio, and Dave Mathews, but my music tastes are all over the place. Saying that, the Vibes have been an excellent set of phones...that is up until now.

Upon first listening to the SE210s, it felt like an "in your face" sound. The vocals and music seemed to be more inside my head or in front of my face. It sounded surprisingly nice, and had better clarity than my V-Moda Vibe Duos, which sounded more fuzzy or like I was listening to something underwater when I switched back to listening to them. The SE210s provided bass but in a different way. It seemed much more under control and I could distinguish lower notes easier. The Vibes seemed just to blend the lower bass music together and vocals were caught behind the music. The SE210s also provided more clarity at higher levels. There were times I could hear things I couldn't with the Vibes.

After listening to the SE210s for a while, I switched to the SE310s. I immediately noticed that the "in your face" sound had faded. Not that it was a bad thing, but that the music didn't seem to be in front of me anymore but more separated and the music came from the sides. High notes seemed to last longer also. When cymbals where hit, they would linger and fade out, rather than just stop. Another thing I noticed was the bass was not as ear shaking as the SE210s. This allowed me to be able to distinguish instruments more easily with the SE310s. It was as if my comparison thoughts of the Vibe -> SE210 was the same going from the SE210s -> SE310s: More clarity, more separation of music and vocals, and more controlled bass. Vocals and music especially seemed separated and instruments appeared out of nowhere! It was an awesome experience hearing things for the first time, even if I had listened to a song a hundred times before!

Using a flat EQ on the SE210s provided enough bass for me, but not for the SE310s. Although I could hear more clarity in the lower frequencies, I still lusted for some thump in my ears. I decided to switch the EQ to Rock and that did the trick with most of the music that I listen to. The clarity was still there, but now I had the bass I needed with the SE310s.

So, after reading numerous posts about the SE210s and the SE310s being "identical", I whole heartedly disagree. The SE310s, to me, provide more separation of instruments and vocals. They also provide better clarity whether high notes or lower notes are being played. That although the bass might not be as ear shaking as the SE210s, a little EQ has helped make these the best IEM's I have heard.

These are my thoughts...and I'm stickin' to 'em

I am an audiophile on a budget (law student), though when it comes to music I really have trouble just settling for what I can afford. Before buying the SE310's I had a pair of Ety ER6's. Although they sounded rather nice, and are probably the best headphones in terms of bang-for-your-buck, I must emphasize that they are very delicate, and over time their performance will deteriorate greatly unless you baby them.

After about two years my ER6's just died on me, and I found myself so depressed listening to those damn white ipod earbuds, that I decided to make an investment in another pair of in-ear headphones.

Looking at the selection, I immediately jumped on Shure's new SE line, as a friend of mine had previously let me try out some older E3c's that he had purchased, and I noted how sturdily they were constructed as well as how great they sounded.

I went back in forth while researching the new SE's, as I read so many critiques of just about every pair of Shures other than the SE530's. As a matter of fact, there was one point when I actually was about to purchase some SE530's out of sheer frustration with all the critiques of the other models.

Luckily, I held back and bought the SE310's, for what I thought to be a ridiculously low price (don't be afraid of those Amazon sellers that advertise products for super cheap prices, there are some deals to be had by them!).

In all honesty I was not that excited to receive the SE310's as I really wanted to go with the SE530's (to purchase the SE420's in my opinion is just stupid as their bigger brother will only cost you about $50 more on Amazon). Boy was I stupid...

I popped the SE310's in my ears, and immediately noticed just how much tighter the seal was when compared to my old ER6's. These headphones look great, but more importantly they are absolutely solid in their construction. The wires are thick and sturdy, unlike the ETY's with their fishing-line wires that tangle so badly that you just leave them in a knot eventually.

The first thing I listened to was Radiohead's KID A in FLAC Lossless. All I have to say is OMFG. I was blown away. The highs were crisp and clean, the lows were rich and solid, and for once, I turned the EQ off in foobar2000 as the earbuds seamed to accurately reproduce all frequencies with such incredible precision, so much so that I for the first time began to enjoy mids! Truly amazing sound. I was dancing on my coffee table in about 2 minutes flat.

I could go on ranting about the SE310's, but let me just leave you with the following...

Any reviewers who say that a pair of earbuds manufactured by Shure or Etymotic are crap, is just a fool. They obviously don't know how to place them in their ears properly, and obviously don't know anything about in-ear buds and how they work.

On the flip side, while you should pay attention to the reviews written by the audiophiles out there, it is best to keep in mind that many of these guys are fooling themselves to a certain extent.

There are guys out their who won't listen to anything in a compressed format, and other's who complain that 16-bit CD quality is crap.

Word of advice, THESE GUYS ARE RETARDED. %80 of listeners can't even tell the difference between 192kbps and higher bit rates, so please SPARE US THE PRETENTIOUS BS.

These headphones are simply amazing, and though I can't imagine what the SE530's would sound like, I am honesty glad I didn't fall for the reviews that claimed the SE530's are the only "decent" headphones made by shure. LMAO!

If you love music, and I mean LOVE music, and are not some sort of professional sound engineer, then do us all a favor, and get over yourself, and just buy what you can afford.

I challenge any of the prosumers out there who think that they need the absolute best in-ear buds in the world due to their "discerning ear."

The SE310's will blow you away. Plain and simple.

Hope That Helps.

I bought these phones to go with my Creative Zen media player. They are a huge improvement over the Creative's own phones, and quite against my expectations allow me to even listen to large orchestral works without making it torture. On the contrary! These phones offer great detail, natural sounding instruments, and a firm stereophonic perspective, even some sense of depth. Nor did I find the bass response lacking (within reasonable expectations: it is of course no match at all to what a good regular stereoset will give you). A lot of reviewers seem to be complaining about this, but maybe they just haven't quite figured out which out of the wide array of sleeves to use, and how: - a great deal depends on this when it comes to bass sounds. I found the foam sleeves pretty disappointing, the rubber ones very good, with the final effect also much depending on the chosen sleeve size: the plugs should fit tightly in the ear canal and be pushed in pretty far. If I have a complaint about the sound, it would be that highs can sometimes sound a bit fierce. Nothing an equalizer can't solve.

There are some minuses, nonetheless. Though (for me) the rubber sleeves give the best sound, they isolate outside sounds not nearly as good as the foam ones. Forget using these phones while walking or running: because your ears are tightly plugged, every footstep will produce a distracting thumping noise. The cable is rather heavy and cumbersome and transmits contact noise to your ears when you move. But for stationary listening, on trains and planes, in hotel rooms or wherever, I can hardly imagine you can do much better than this.

I bought these earphones about a week ago. Before these, I was using Etymotic ER6i and I used to think they were the best possible earphones. But shure has changed my opinion. The SE310 are way better then Etymotic ER6i. Music reproduction of these earphones is excellent, bass response is way better and they are more comfortable to wear than ER6i. The ER6i's are great, for $100 it is the best earphone money can buy but if you want to upgrade these is the way to go. Now i will go back to enjoying my music on the iPod with my new love SE310.

I use these earphones primarily while traveling by air. For some time I've used noise cancelling headphones with my MP3, but was not happy with the quality of the sound or the volume level required to enjoy the music. The Shure phones are a huge improvement. The foam earpieces block virtually all the aircraft and passenger noise, and the phones themselves provide excellent fidelity. Every aspect of the music, even bass, is stunning. Expensive, yes, but a worthwhile investment.

It's like ear plugs that play music. The sound quality is very good and the ear buds come with 3 styles of plugs. Triple flange plastic ear plugs. Foam compression in four sizes. Rubber bulb style ear plugs in three sizes. Overall, I would say they're great for air planes and stuff where there is a lot of back ground noise, but if you're in a subway or working out, you're probably better off with some other kind that you could still hear a little through, because they are very effective at blocking background noise.

Shure SE310 is literally a pair of foam earplugs with sound drivers out. When you put them on, even with no music, you can barely hear the surrounding. I used to wear earplugs on an airplane flight. Now I wear these instead. Since the surrounding sound is significantly nullified, I can listen to music with reduced volume and still hear the awesome clarity of sound. However, the downside is that rubbing the cord makes a loud noise because of the way these earphones intimately fit in your ear canal. This is not very good if you move around (say exercising) while listening to music. You can also hear your jaw chewing if you eat and listen to music at the same time.

Before I bought the Shure SE310, I owned a pair of $50 Audio Technica ATH-CK6. One thing I notice about SE310 is that the sound is "accurate." Unlike ATH-CK6, SE310 does not emphasize the treble nor the bass. As a result, classical music, jazz, or any live recordings sound like the way they should, but you may be disappointed if you listen to mostly electronic music. Having said that, SE310 is very responsive to EQ, so you could tune the bass and treble whatever way you want---this is just another benefit of sounding "accurate" rather than "impressive."

(If you do listen to electronic music, you would also notice that the saw-wave and square-wave samples now sound more genuine than ever.)

I bought these to replace an aging pair of E2Cs. I entertained ideas of purchasing a set that are easier to put in and take out or may be a bit more comfortable for long term wear, but in the end I came back to Shure. These are a definite upgrade from the E2C. The sound isolation is, IMO far better than noise canceling if for no other reason than it is a simple mechanism that does a superior job. Shure spends less of its resources on sound interference and more on producing the best sound possible.

I spend a lot of time on public transportation and walking through Chicago. These do an effective job of cutting out all but the loudest sounds.

Then there's the sound. Keep it on low volumes and you have a nice, accurate sound. There is more bass in these than the E2Cs, but it does not boom. String bass, electric bass guitar, baritone sax, all sound like the instrument. When you turn it up a little, its like exploring the recording itself. On live recordings especially, you hear things like the musicians breathing. I was listening to a symphony the other day and I could hear music shuffling on stands. Some people may find that distracting, I think it is more like sitting in the front row at a concert.

As with any anything, there are negatives. One is that the sound isolation is so good that if you need to talk to someone, you can't while the music is on. You can hear when the music is off, but it's like listening through a good set of earplugs. This coupled with the fact that they do not come in and out like earbuds mean you have to figure something out if you need to listen to something. The two part cord on these actually makes unplugging them a good option. In fact, if my phone rings I will unplug them from the extension and plug them directly into my phone. If you want an integrated microphone, you can purchase the music phone extension from Shure for another 35 bucks.

Additionally, I suggest not wearing them on a train where you are unfamiliar with the stops as you won't be able to hear them announced and you may miss yours. Also, if you have a job where people need to talk to you a lot, these are not a good option as unplugging them or trying to take them out of your ears every time someone wants to talk to you can get annoying.

Another issue is a function of the way they fit. Wax buildup and long hours of wear can work together to create some discomfort. They come with a pretty good selection of different tips and I find that the flanges work well, but I like the foam ones as well. However, while they fit well and are comfortable at first, sometimes I find that if I wear them all day my ears itch inside the ear canal. This would be akin to the itchy-ness on your head when wearing a skull cap. Also, it takes a while to build up a tolerance to pressure on the inside of your ear canals where you are not used to having anything. Again,this only happens to me when they have been in continuously for more than 4 hours.

All of the negatives are really a function of the way they work... all of which have acceptable workarounds for me. Really, the only negative that I can't correct at the moment is to find some time to re-rip all my CDs to an uncompressed format as there are some defects in my compressed files(mp3/ogg) that I need to fix. Other than that, if you love listening to music without the interruptions of outside noise or if you just need to insulate yourself from distractions, there's no question that these are great for that.

Left my E4c on a plane. You are welcome to whoever picked them up! I like the noise isolating for riding a bike as the wind noise makes any other listening options impossible. The SE310 is great when stationary. A perfect fit is mandatory. "Bright" would seem an appropriate term. My girlfriend was unable to get a fit and scoffed at the expense.

My largest complaint is the MASSIVE connector mid cable. Where the Y terminates into another jack leading to the beefy male connector. It weighs as much as my ipod. On a plane, no big whoop. On a bike, in the gym, on a jog: huge issue. Even when used in the over the ear fashion the weight tugs on the earpieces, upsetting the perfect fit and losing all mid and bass.

If you can find a pair of E4c's buy them! Light and great fit and sound. I would buy these only for physically inactive options. The sound is superior, but for me less functional.

My early new year's resolution is now to stop destroying packaging so I can return products that I am not happy with. My solution was to buy Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro Earphones. Recommended, however have required two RMA's.

Sound quality is truly impressive and that's all that matters. My only gripe is that cord is too short for any meaningful use. There is extension cord supplied but then it becomes too long and starts to tangle.