The coding blog of Alastair Smith, a software developer based in Cambridge, UK. Interested in DevOps, Azure, Kubernetes, .NET Core, and VueJS.
[4/5] At £65 (+ delivery), the Shure SE210 earphones are not the cheapest headphones ever, but neither are they the most expensive. In comparison with, for example, the Sony MDR-EX71SLB Fontopia earphones that I owned previously, the sound is clearer, the noise cancellation greater, and the build quality higher. All this is to be expected, however, when comparing with a set of headphones that were purchased for £35, and have since been reduced to just £17.
The Shure SE210 earphones are a class above the Fontopias, with an impressively-sized driver unit on each earphone that produces crystal clear sound with a good balance. Whilst the Fontopias are bassy — overly so, almost — the SE210s provide a more even frequency response over their range, which causes the listener to notice the higher frequencies more than with the Fontopias. Plugging my SE210s directly into my computer at work reveals a load of interference from the CPU that I hadn’t noticed with the Fontopias (this is particularly fun when scrolling with the mouse wheel!).
The increase in sound quality may make you realised that your encoded MP3s aren’t quite as CD-quality as you originally thought. You may well want to take the time re-rip your CDs using a higher bit-rate if you’ve used 128kbps MP3 encoding for example. Whilst it largely depends on the encoder you’ve used for your music, 192kbps MP3 seems to be a good trade-off between sound quality and file-size, but the 256kbps AAC that iTunes Plus tracks come in would be a better choice; the difference between this bit rate and a lossless encoder should be only barely perceptible. However, like me, you may already have set your encoding bit rate to be higher than usual; I have because I listen to a lot of classical music which degrades quickly at lower bit rates. It is also worth ensuring you’re using the right equaliser pre-set for the music type you’re listening to; this doesn’t seem to make a huge difference for me between certain types of music on my iPod (e.g., the “Rock” and “Classical” settings seem quite similar), but you may find otherwise. My own issues may be because of ripping quality, the fact my iPod is a couple of years old, or something else entirely. HifiVoice has some information on improving the sound quality from your iPod, and in fact a lot of the advice will carry over to other players too.
The most important thing to do after receiving the SE210s is to sit down with them and the large array of weird and wonderful fittings to find the set that suit you best. There are three types included: foam fittings in four different sizes; rubber fittings in three different sizes; and a pair of three-tiered rubber fittings that look oddly like a rounded Christmas tree. The foam fittings are rather like earplugs: you have to compress them, insert them, and then hold them in place whilst they expand to fit your ear. Choosing the wrong set will affect the noise cancellation and will likely affect the perceived sound quality too, as the buds need to fit right to the bottom of the ear canal for the best results. The weird Christmas-tree-type fittings are a good one to start with, as they help you find just how far in these ‘phones go. I found the foam attachments to be the best, although the largest do get a bit uncomfortable after a while; as such, I’m intending to find the time to try the next size down, or try the Christmas-tree-type fittings again. You can also buy custom-made fittings from recommended suppliers.
Sitting so deep in your ear as these earphones do, there is a potential wax issue. Luckily, Shure have foreseen this, and include a handy cleaning tool for the phones themselves. There’s no substitute for better aural hygiene, though ;-) All the fittings are washable in warm soapy water and should be left to drip dry; the foam ear-plug-style fittings will therefore need longer to dry. Also included is a handy case for storing the earphones when not in use. This is sturdy and well-made, although I find the zip a bit of an annoyance: it has a tendency to get stuck when unzipping.
Because of the need to find the right size attachment for your ear — and the wax issue — these are not good earphones for sharing your music or otherwise lending to people. Equally, though, you probably don’t want to be lending these earphones to people (except maybe to try out for themselves), as they’re something a little bit special. These are all-round excellent earphones for music lovers of all kinds on a constrained budget; they’re not wildly expensive like Shure’s SE420s, for example, but they do provide an excellent quality of sound at a relatively modest price. If you’re looking to upgrade the ‘phones you currently have, give these (or the moderately cheaper E2Cs or SE110s if you’re more strapped for cash) a serious thought.