Weaknesses
Every silver lining has its cloud and it's the high end that rains on
the SE110s. There's a slight muddiness noticeable in the mids and
highs. While this is justified by a low price, it may upset fans of
acoustic music that their £70 doesn't give them the clarity they
require in the higher end of the audible spectrum.
The dream-like quality of Glósóli from Icelandic art rockers Sigur Rós is a product of the crystalline sound of strings, glockenspiel, bright cymbals and bowed guitars. To do this beautiful and truly harmonious track justice, clarity in the high end is paramount.
Notably, the tambourine hidden throughout the duration of KT Tunstall's Little Flavours is barely audible through the SE110s. This high-frequency sound requires earphones capable of significantly greater definition in the high end.
For the above reasons, we feel the SE110s are more suited to rockier and more bass-driven recordings.
Shure could put spin on our final point as in many ways it isn't a weakness. The method of coupling the earphone to your ear requires some fiddling. The 'phones loop up the back of the ear, over the top and is inserted into the ear canal in a way that may seem upside down to Shure newbies. This is the way professional earpieces are worn and it does feel very natural after a while. Some may be initially put off by the level of effort needed here.
Conclusion
Considering their power, bass and
professional build quality, Shure has produced a very decent pair of
earphones for £70. The SE110s will utterly destroy the bundled
earphones that come with most MP3 players these days. However, if you
pride yourself on being able to hear the subtle intricacies embedded in
well produced music, you may find the SE110s don't quite offer
everything you want.
For those that demand crystal-clear definition for the same price, prepare to sacrifice a good deal of bass; the similarly priced Etymotic ER-6i earphones offer tremendously detailed audio but at the cost of the deep rumblings needed to fully appreciate dance and pop.
Available from AdvancedMP3Players.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday
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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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