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When you buy an MP3 player, the first thing you should do is upgrade your headphones. A £20 pair of Sennheisers will transform your audio experience. But a £400 pair of Shures? Who in their right mind would pay more for their earphones than they’d spent on their 80GB iPod?
The answer is simple: someone who values sound quality more than cash. Shure’s audio products have long been the choice of professional performers, but only recently have we mortals been able to enjoy the stunning clarity of the E-series earphones.
By sitting deep in your ear canal, they cut out all background noise and deliver pure music direct to your brain without the need for noise-cancelling electronics. But the tight design has meant that previous Shures produced little in the way of bass. Which is why the new top-of-the-range Shures incorporate three drivers, leaving no inch of your music undiscovered.
The band inside your head
What is astonishing about the SE530s (formerly – and more catchily – known as the E500s) is their clarity and perfect balance. Even when the bass is rumbling you can still hear fingers moving up the fretboard. And while the best open-backed headphones put you in the middle of a room of musicians, these Shures make it feel like the band is actually playing inside your skull.
It’s a wonderful – if occasionally claustrophobic – experience. You're guaranteed to discover new sounds in your favourite tracks, and you simply won’t have the option of letting a song become background noise – even the weakest album filler is rendered involving.
Shure's new sculpted foam earpieces help the earphones stay in place even when you're on the move, and the design means you can loop the wires around the back of your ears, cutting down on wire flappage and ensuring your sonic enjoyment isn't ruined by the sound of rubbing cables.
Push-to-pay
Downsides? Well, the bulky in-line ‘push to hear’ unit is utterly pointless – isn't it easier (and more polite) to take the earphone out if someone’s talking to you? Fortunately, you can unplug the push-to-hear electronics, and the E530s will soon be available at a discounted price without them. And on the the plus side, the modular cable system means you’ll be able to plug in a microphone when the iPhone arrives.
Aside from the price, it's hard to find fault with the SE530s. In fact, we’ve never heard a better pair of earphones. Be warned, though – their astounding clarity means you'll hear the difference between highly compressed MP3 tracks and lossless files. You might find yourself yearning for the quality of portable CD player – but a better idea would to be to make sure you always rip CDs at 256kbps or above, and buy downloads from high-res stores like Bleep.com.
Comments
frederick1980
1 year ago
Want to hear your favourite music and expect the HIGHEST sound quality from your headphones?
Shure SE530PTH MUST BE definitely your choice.
Shure, they're pretty expensive (sorry for the pun :D), but if you are looking for the best headphones available on the market today, you DEFINITELY can't miss them.
My 2 cents.
Frederick from:
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SaS Sniper
5 years ago
I have to agree. These headphones are frankly amazing. I don't actually own a pair, I will admit to that; however I do own a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 2's. I have only briefly tried these headphones, whilst waiting for a plane in America, I went into a shop there, and they had a pair on display, which I tried out. I was bought a pair of the Bose's for my birthday a while ago, and the Shure SE530PTH's are just as good, if not better, at noise canceling. I know they don't actually have any noise canceling technology built in, but they do a very similar job, and once you've got some music on you CANNOT hear a thing. The Bose's are good, but frankly, they're too bulky. There just not comfortable when your trying to sleep on an airplane, or just in general, they are really big headphones, and are not cool to be seen wearing. How many people do you see wearing small earphones? Most people will have iPod style/in-ear headphones, and they all have one thing in common. The people wearing them are generally cool people. It's the whole point of wearing iPod headphones, they look cool, even though they're rubbish headphones, they do look good. How many cool people do you see wearing big on-ear headphones? The answer is very few, (me being one of the few exceptions). They're just too big and not very practical for the commute to work/school. In general though, bigger headphones are better, as they have some sort of noise canceling (such as the Bose's). The Shure earphones are the best of both worlds - they combine the technology of bigger noise canceling headphones (The noise isolation they have is equivalent to the Bose pair), great sound and they look very cool. I will admit the price is a huge drawback. However, whilst the pound is doing so well against the dollar, they're getting cheaper - they were (only!) $499, equivalent to about £255 here. That's cheaper that the Bose's best pair of noise canceling (usually around £275). If you at all care about how your music sounds, and about blocking out annoying people with mobiles blaring out music, get yourself a pair. All you need is a plane ticket to America, or alternatively a good friend going there to pick you up a pair, and you’re sorted. My rating 5/5. -SaS