Shure's new SE110 sound-isolating earphones take the 'entry level' crown from the SE210s and promise to let you 'hear music as it's meant to be heard'. This is a bold statement for a pair of £70 earphones.
Can an entry level set of 'phones truly reproduce music the way the artist intended?
Strengths
The term 'entry level' shouldn't be confused with 'budget'. The SE110s boast the excellent construction granted to the manufacturer's more costly alternatives. The body of each 'phone is built from a strong, lightweight plastic while the audio cable running into each earphone is secured by a section built from a smooth rubbery material. This strong yet flexible material ensures the cable doesn't break away from the earpiece during its lifetime of being wrapped around an ear.
The modular cable design allows you to disconnect the 18-inch earphone cable from the 36-inch extension cable. This is useful for iPod Shuffle users who clip the player to their jacket lapels and don't want a load of cable flapping aimlessly. The cable itself is extremely durable and connectors on each end of the modular cable are gold plated to ensure optimum carriage of audio signals.
A range of silicon, foam and triple flange tips of various sizes are part of the SE110s 'fit kit', itself contained inside the earphones' oval-shaped hard case. Each tip offers differing levels of comfort and performance -- experimentation is advised in order to discover which is best for each user. The foam tips offer the best sound-isolation and an enhanced bass experience. Safe to say if you like dance, pick the foam tips.
Performance-wise, the SE110s deliver impressive results for their price bracket. A pair of £70 earphones won't ever produce the hi-fi-esque fidelity of models several times their cost, but the SE110s offer a powerful experience with notably deep bass and punchy mids. The stomping bass lines and regimented, hard-hitting drum tracks of Rammstein's Rein Raus pounded through the 'phones with the force of a German Panzerkampfwagen.
KT Tunstall's delightful new track Little Flavours bursts with warmth and tight definition. The SE110s balanced MicroSpeaker does a great job at concurrently managing drums, three guitar layers, bass and vocals.
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Bostedclog 14 November 2009
Good: Very good balanced sound .Not too much Bass not too much Treble .I have compared these to my B&O A8 ,Denon AH C360 and my ,Sennheiser px100.Very good build quality ,Great buds
Bad: Not %100 sure about the over ear style .Its not that I dont like it its just im 44 and dont like change.LOL..
Comment: It seems like Shure have played it safe to be honest.The Bass is not as booming and as dominant as my Sennheisser.s which lack any highs.The Treble (highs) are not as piercing as the B&O which lacks Bass.The Denons are good but have a really annoying hisss on any esses sung.The Shure SE110 has none of these faults it has Bass (quite tight and punchy),it has decent highs and and very good middle.In fact its boring.Only kidding.One thing I will say is that I use Rockbox on my Cowan X5 and with this I can do and awful lot with the sound..
Overall the sound is safe for me ,its clear and precise and does the job thank you.For £50 these would be a vast improvement on your factory supplied headphones .Cheers Mr Clog
I forgot to say I have a Cowon X5l player with Rockbox installed.Right after fiddling around with my EQ for a while last night Ive cracked it.Here are the eq settings Ive found which work superbly for me .Great sound all round.Love em..Enjoy .
The EQ settings for these earphones are as follows:
80Hz +10
250Hz -3
1kHz -5
4kHz +6
13kHz +12
The mid-bass is a little muddy, so you're going to need to make adjustments.
The midrange is where it needs the most adjusting.
4-6kHz is the presence range, so this will need to be raised quite a bit if you want some airiness to the sound and to bring out more detail.
Andrew Johnson 21 March 2008
Good: Very good sound isolation
Bad: Bass should be a tad better
Comment: Firstly the sound isolation is very impressive. I couldn't believe how much ambient noise is cut out through these earphones. It gives the impression that you're all alone on a deserted island. Very good for the commuter.
Sound wise it is very crisp and clear. It's a bit of cliche but you really do hear instruments, rhythms much more clearly than before. The midrange and high are very good.
Once the earplugs are 'inserted' correctly I found them to very comfortable.
The downside is the bass. The bass compared to my previous Koss Plugs is somewhat diluted not much but definitely perceptible. If you like bass driven music like R&B, dance, hip hop (which I do) and you're using the iPOD you may want to set the equaliser to have a bass boost. Other than the bass being a tad lighter I highly recommend the earphones as the overall sound is very expressive.
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