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01 June 2011
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Today's world is a world where you get what you pay for, in most cases. In other cases, you get less than you pay for, sometimes a lot less. Occasionally you come across a gem that spits in those situations faces and gives you what you'd expect from something twice the price. If you bought a set of Shure SE215's, you own one of those gems.
It's hard to know where to start. When I heard Shure was making another set of earbuds, I didn't think they were going to amazing, especially for the price, a relatively low $179. I was expecting something middle of the road, something with average bass performance and less than average treble. Could I have been more wrong? No, I don't think I could've been.
I'll start with style. These look almost identical to the SE535's, so they aren't all glitzy and shiny, and they don't have the bling factor. But once they're in, you don't really care, because they're so fricking comfortable. Excuse the language there, but it's about the only way to describe it. If you didn't have music playing, you wouldn't know they were in, and the over-ear cable management system keeps the cords out of your way. You'll get no rubbing, and you won't get them falling out on you, because the foam sleeves they come with stay in your without a hitch.
Not only do they stay in your ear well, the sleeves provide immaculate Noise Isolation, blocking almost all ambient noise. You can shove these in and totally detach yourself from things happening around you, from conversations to traffic noise to crappy elevator music. The other upside to this is that you can keep the volume lower, thus protecting your ears from the debilitating assault that is loud music. It's a win-win.
Good luck keeping the volume down though, because with sound quality like this you'll want them as loud as you can handle to take it all in. I can honestly say these have the best bass of any set of earbuds under $700 that I've ever listened to, and remember, these only clock in at $179. Not only do you get brain-thumping bass, you get super crisp highs without any distortion, so you can listen to your music the way the singers intended. I can't rave enough about sound here, really.
Like we're used to from Shure buds, they fit into your ear perfectly, almost like they were designed to. Well, they probably were.
We need to face facts people; chances are your earbuds are lying to you, and your headphones are probably in on it too. They're hiding things from you, keeping little details in your music away from you, making you think you're hearing everything when you're actually not. Listening to your music through the 215's is like listening to a whole new song, and the new song is a heck of a lot better than the old one.
So what else do you get when you buy these amazing buds? A little carry case for them, a fit kit with two types of sleeves, with each type having three sizes. The carry case is only small, meaning you can fit it into your pocket without a problem, and there's a small pocket inside where you can put the fit kit sleeves.
There are a few things lacking that I would like to see; a volume control on the cable would be nice, and what would be even better than that would be a full set of iPod controls. Many companies are adding the Apple Remote as an almost standard feature now, on earbuds costing a lot less, so it would be a worthwhile addition to something like this. They somewhat make up for that by adding a cable slider to keep your cords from tangling, and you can disconnect the 'buds from the cable altogether, so in case your cat decides to chew through the cable while you're listening, you can buy a replacement. The detachable cable also means that you can swivel the buds on the end of the cord, so you don't have to worry about it getting in the way at all.
In conclusion, I can truly say these are my new favourite buds. They're what I've been listening to for the last few weeks, and they're something I'll be saving for. If you're after immaculate sound quality, superb noise isolation, and you don't want to spend the earth, these are the earbuds you should get. You won't be dissapointed, and you won't want to listen to anything else.
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