Shure SE210 Earphones Review

by Kevin O'Brien

Listening to music from your notebook can present a few problems for mobile users, depending on the situation. You can't just crank up the volume in class to listen to your favorite song, and even if you could the speakers on your notebook probably don't even sound that good. What about listening to music in your apartment or dorm, where noisy neighbors invade your personal listening space? Earphones can work great in these different scenarios, with the best style being inner ear sound isolating for blocking out almost all outside noise. In this review I will cover the Shure SE210 sound isolating headphones as I attempt to cope, living around really noisy neighbors.

Technical Specifications:

• Speaker Type: Hi-Definition MicroSpeaker
• Sensitivity (1mW): 114 dB SPL/mW
• Impedance (1kHz): 26 Ohm
• DC Resistance 19 Ohm
• Frequency Range: 25Hz - 18.5kHz
• Cable Length/with Extension: 18 in. / 45cm (54 in. / 136cm)
• Weight 13g
• Color: Available in Black and White
• Price: $179.99 (MSRP), $150 (Street)

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Why I picked Sound Isolating Earphones

I live in an apartment setting with an incredibly annoying selection of neighbors. Figure one gamer, another who loves playing his guitar at night, and one that just cranks his music high during the day. To not only gain some peace and quiet, but also enjoy my games and music I turned to various styles of headphones. The first choice I went to was a common over the ear style Sennheiser headphone, which sounded great, but didn't fully block out all the outside noise. The problematic noise was lower frequency bass, and the only sure bet to stop it was ramming my fingertips into my ears.

After researching the subject a bit, I found that inner ear sound isolating headphones worked best in this situation. They tend to fully seal off your ear canal from the outside elements, giving you a noise free listening environment to enjoy games, music, movies, or even silence. The Shure SE210 earphones were available locally in stores (which helped to feed my interest in them), so I reached out to Shure and got a loaner set for my review.

Build Quality and Design

Build quality of the Shure earphones is top notch, although it is strange feeling how light they were compared to the price tag. I usually have the bigger/heavier = better mentality, even though 1lb earphones probably wouldn't be too comfortable. The construction of the body is plastic, and even with rough treatment they held up great.

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Opening up the retail package for these headphones, one of the first things you notice is the vast assortment of tips to customize the fit inside your ear. The earphones are designed to work in a variety of different ear shapes and sizes, so they give you plenty of options to pick from when trying to get that perfect fit. You get one pair of triple flange sleeves, three sizes of soft rubber sleeves, and three sizes of compressible foam sleeves. After trying out the various pieces, I settled on the small sized foam sleeves, as they fit best, and gave the best isolation from neighborly noises.

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When most people think of earphones, earbud style probably comes to mind, where they just hang down after slipping inside your ear. The Shure SE210 earphones are designed to work a bit differently, where they are inserted into your ear canal, instead of resting on your ear lobe. I found this to feel pretty strange at first, almost like a sinus cold with pressure in my inner ear. Once I got used to it though, it was a completely new experience listening to music or movies without background noise.

Sound Isolating Performance

The best test I could think of for the Shure headphones was hearing how well they worked up against my incredibly annoying neighbors. First up was the singing, guitar playing, loud walker; who was guaranteed to annoy under all circumstances. The earphones blocked out almost everything but his singing, which still came through above music at a moderate level. His harsh voice was softened up quite a bit, and to the earphone's credit, not even my hands or pillows could block that out. For a comparison of loudness, it would be the difference between someone singing right in front of you, or someone you just shoved into a closet that was still singing.

Next up was the gamer below me, and the loud music listener next door. Both of these situations had low frequency (bass) coming through the walls or floor, which disrupted any TV or games I would try to enjoy. In this situation the earphones worked perfectly giving me silence even when the audio wasn't playing.

The final situation was on an airline out to Vegas for CES, where you generally have to put up with the droning engine noise for hours. This level of noise is hard to speak to your neighbors through, let alone hear yourself think. Here the earphones blocked out much more noise than I could have dreamed, even compared to my freebie iPod earbuds. In the past I used to have the volume levels set to almost max on my notebook to understand movies, I now could have it at 25-30%. The only downside to this situation that I could think of is I missed one soda cart as I didn't even hear the stewardess ask me if I wanted a beverage.

Sound Quality

Sound quality was far above what users might expect if they are comparing it to a pair of freebie iPod headphones. Everything across the board including bass, midrange, and treble sounds incredible. While I won't say they hit the lower bass notes as much as my Sennheiser HD280s, they do bring out low frequency notes very well. The one area that did seem lacking in my opinion were the high-end notes, like a chime or bell ringing inside a game, didn't seem to hit their peaks that the HD280s brought out with ease.

Conclusion

The Shure SE210 Sound Isolating Earphones lived up to their name perfectly in my almost too harsh real world conditions. For blocking out annoying noises, they bought more silence than I expected, letting me have some truly needed peace and quiet. While the price (MSRP: $180, Street: $150) is steep compared to other models on the market, it's hard to pass up the audio quality and customizable fit. I highly recommend these earphones to anyone that has to put up with audibly invading neighbors.

Pros

• Many pieces to pick from the get the best fit for your ear
• Great sound quality
• Blocks out tons of background noise

Cons

• Pricey

 

A review on earbud, that's something different. Great review as always Kevin. Cool that the noise isolation seems to work well.

 

I heard that the HD 280 does have pretty good noise isolation, is the difference between the shure and hd280 astronomical?

 

I have the $99 set (can't remember model number) and LOVE them. The only downside I've ever had is that apparently I have small ear canals and they only fit with the softest, smallest earpiece. They were uncomfortable at first, but I got used to them and have no problems now, although they make my ears tickle or itch occasionally. Highly recommended and I assume the $149 and $199 sets are even better for sound quality.

 

Interesting review Kevin. I know what you mean about noisy and annoying neighbors Good for you that you finally found a weapon to combat these irritating beings Have you tried noise canceling headphones as well?

Just did a quick search and found that the Shure line up does very well compared to many noise canceling headphones/earphones.

 

Sound quality is pretty different, and the isolation is MUCH better on the shure headphones. Pretty easy to understand why when you realize one is getting an airtight fitting inside your ear and the other is just resting on the side of your head.

Same with me. The soft squishy ones were the only ones that fit well.

 

I have the older shure e4gs... the gaming series that Shure no longer produces. However, from what I hear mine are similar to the E310s... and for this $300 pair of mine, I dont think I will ever go back anymore to anything less. Produces stellar highs and incredible lows. One thing I do like that they improved upon and introduced with these new lines is the little flange on the earbuds so that the sleeves have a better grip and dont slide off while you are removing the earbuds (which has happened to me a couple times, had to use tweezers to get them out!). Shure Support is also really great and very responsive... I kind of like the oval casing... older ones are circular.

Oh, and of course the noise isolation is great.

 

Kind of surprised to see a headphone review in this forum. Have you considered the ER4s from Etymotic? They are around the same price range as the SE210 but IMO they have better sound quality.

 

I have a pair of Sennheiser PX 200's. They are of the on-the-ear type, and despite not having any active noise-canceling technologies, they do a superb job of blocking out outside noise. Plus, they sound pretty decent (Decent bass and treble, a bit too much midrange). I only wish they were more durable (one of the earpieces broke off the band on the first pair, and the connector is starting to come apart on my current second pair)

Sennheiser also makes the PX 250 which has active noise-canceling technology, and the PX 100, which is an open-ended pair, so they don't seal out outside noise as well as the PX 200 or the PX 250.

Personally, I can't stand earbuds, and I've always questioned the ability of buds to cancel out noise. But I guess I was wrong on that. I'm still not going to be wearing any buds anytime soon

The MSRP of the PX-200 pair is $69.95, in case you're wondering.

 

i use Skullcandy SC-FMJ Full Metal Jacket Earbuds and got em for around 70$
so far so good the audio quality is superb as far as im concerned and hell durable too

 

Cool, I happen to be planning on buying some Shure SE110 earphones this weekend.

It's been ear phone hell for me the past two years, right now I am temporarily using a pair of Skull Candy $15 ear phones but they suck, I broke my $50 Sony earphones which were much better. This weekend I will upgrade to Shure SE110's.

 

I recently bought the Westone UM2's, couldnt be happier. Earphonesolutions has them ranked 2nd overall, not bad. http://www.earphonesolutions.com/beeaforip.html

the se210's are 7th, nice review btw.

 

ok, i have these, had me for 6 months... absolute pieces of heaven!

WORD OF CAUTION: use your carrying case, if you dont you'll need to send em in for replacement like I did cus the rubber protection of the wiring will come out from under where it meets the earphone! just take care of how you twist em too much, but they still take MASSIVE beating and still shine through... amazing sound =)

 

Yeah, my E4C's have the cables fraying everywhere. Kind of pathetic, if you ask me. I have to wrap electrical tape around the frayed areas to be able to use them.

I wish that I had the receipt to send it in for a replacement. I hate how Shure requires you to have a receipt even if you have a set of their earbuds physically in your hands. Just stamp the things with a serial number or something if you want to keep track of it like that.

 

I think the Shure someone was talking about earlier with $99 price tag is the Shure E2. I have one of those and love them. All theses in-the-ear headphones are like earplugs with (great) transducers built in.

I also have the px200, which before, I thought was god when it comes to reproducing music. In comparison, the shure E2 sounds much cleaner, with very balanced bass.

As for reliability, this thing is very well built with thick cord, solid joins. I haven't noticed any rubber peeling or separating as I have with the px200.

However, you have to be VERY careful with this type of headphones. They block out everything, and that means if you're walking, driving, biking in the streets, you won't here horns or sirens or anything.

Even in homes, you might miss phone calls, and, just like me, get freaked out a lot when someone came in the room without you noticing and suddenly you see something moving through the corner of your eyes, or receive a tap on the shoulder.

Greatly recommended though. And now that Shure has gone on to a new line, you can get old ones for much cheaper(I don't think sound quality is improved by a whole lot, but maybe ergonomics and styling). My excellent E2 can be found as low as $65 shipped.

 

Sounds good!

I tried the waters of in-ear noise-isolating earbuds with my new Creative EP-630s ($25) for my birthday back in December. They were a bit uncomfortable at first, but now they're fine and sound so great! I can't believe I lived with iPod earbuds for two years...

 

The Shure E2 are discontinued thats why I want to get a pair of $99 Shure SE110's.

 

Nice review! I have the old E3c's and taking the plunge for some more expensive headphones was one of the best tech investments I've made.

How long have you had them Kevin? I've read many places that a decent break-in period will allow your headphones to perform best. For example, I left mine on for a few days attached to a radio. Unfortunately, I think the break-in improves the lows more than the highs that you found lacking. There's always EQ to compensate.....

 

Nice Review but... $149!

I wouldn't ever pay more than $20 for earbuds. I have some $5 creative labs earbuds I got new off eBay and they sound really good. A lot better than the stock earbuds that creative gives away with mp3 players. Those get like zero bass.

 

Trust me, once you spend lots on the these, you'll never want to go back.

Great warranty too. 2 years, and they'll fix it up (even if it's totaled I have read) for a flat rate if it's out of warranty. $50 for the E2 series, $70 for the E3, E4 series, and $110 for all the higher end phones. Now that might sound like a lot, but if you totally kill a $500 pair of headphones (E500), I'd be glad that I would only have to pay $110 to get it back, instead of $500 for another pair.

I have the Shure E4 ($300MSRP, got it for $200). Great sound, and blocks out a lot of noise. But be careful! It's very dangerous to use them in situations that require your attention (such as walking in the street). They really do work that well.

 

I have been using them almost nightly since I got them towards the end of Christmas break. Since these are going back now that things are wrapping up, I am looking at getting the SE530's since they sounded freaking glorious at CES. They dont have the same bass/treble issues, but the price is a weee bit steeper.

 

that's one hella crazy upgrade. I'm jealous.

 

Its even nuttier when you think I am going from ipod earbuds to SE530s

 

I'm soo jealous!

Does anyone know if if works for iPhone? I just upgraded my 2 year old phone and I can't seem to use any existing phones I have at home. I really want to get some nice headphones for my iPhone.

 

They should work, although you might need a little adapter for the recessed hole. They worked great with my ipod touch.

 

I love my Shures. I bought a set of E2g's last year for something like $55. Sounds great, but the black rubber earpieces pick up dust and lint from jeans pockets, and the silicon pieces are kinda uncomfortable, and the foam ones just look weird (orange foam earpieces on black earbuds - yea, bad combo). Plus, the cord is really thick and heavy....

I'm planning to get a set of V-Moda Vibes (or the Vibe DUOs if my iPhone purchase goes through as planned) next, since they are essentially the best looking earbuds on the market, and they sound pretty good too.

 

I took a look at those when I was choosing new earbuds myself. They certainly are very nicely designed. If you choose them, tell us what you think about them .

 

A couple of my friends already have Vibes. Sound quality is obviously not as good as the Shures, but its good enough that I'd go for them anyways based on the sheer awesomeness of the design.

 

I have a pair of Ultimate ears super.fi 3 Comparable to the SE 210 according to fabarati Personally I didn't like the SE110...i think that the soudn is not as clear...

But sound isolating is just brilliant especially on those 12 hrs flights with babies crying ...heh

 

I think it is kind of funny that people spend several hundred on headphones but are listening to compressed mp3 files...

I have Koss UR40 headphones. I really like the sound quality. Ton's of rich bass. No ear buds I have ever tried come close. Cost me $40. Extremely comfortable. I don't like the idea of having things jammed into your ears. DJ style headphones FTW! KOSS headphones are also backed by a lifetime warranty. You would think if your spending 100's on other brands, that thats the least they could offer as well...

 

I spent $200 on my headphones and listen to FLAC.

Mainly though, I game with em. Good stuff. I mean it's not surround sound or anything, but it sure beats laptop speakers.

 

I have this exact pair and use them on my iPhone all of the time, no adapter needed. These are great with the phone, and you can always add the Shure adapter in order to use it for calls and controls.

 

I have a pair of the super.fi 3's as well. Superb sound reproduction and nice isolation. I second that you have to be careful when wearing IEM's, they can be very dangerous on busy public streets!! I like the fact that the wires on all super.fi monitors are user replaceable. They simply unplug from the buds and a replacement wire is like only $15.

 

I am happy to see HiFi equipments review here. How long have you used your SE210 before reviewing? As with all headphones/earphones, sounds of your earphones improve significantly after you use them for, say, 100 hours. I felt that my ATH-CK7 didn't make any sounds for its first 10 hours. Well, that is an overstatement, but it really improved significantly since then.

Yeah, Shure has very good noise isolation - something that my ATH-CK7 lacks. Sometimes I don't like it. Sometimes I like it that way because I am scared of not being able to hear anything going on outside my head. And yes, their codes are known to be very fragile, kind of annoying.

IMO, HD280 has too much bass for indoor listening. However, it might suit better for outdoor use that way. ATH-CK7's low is perfectly fine when I am listening to music in my room, but can get muffled in these airplane noises.

Ipod's sound quality is rather poor, IMO..I much, much prefer iAudio for audio quality, or Kenwood, or maybe even Sony.

 

Can anyone confirm this? I have just bought SE110 and really disappointed with the sound quality...or should I say sound quality is good but I am not so amazed. I have been using the Creative EP630, came with my Dell M1330, for a good 4 weeks now. I felt that both have very close sound quality. After comparing both, these are what I obeserved :

Shure SE110
- better treble
- better built quality but then too bulky and heavy including the wire
- expensive (I paid C$120 + taxes)

Creative EP630
- better bass
- decent built quality; I am sure this might not last as long as Shure SE110 but then it is very light and small
- cheap (~C$20 - C$35)

At this price of C$120 for the Shure, I dont think it is worth the money. I would rather get another pair of EP630 when my first free pair of EP630 from Dell died on me. Well, anyway, this is just my thought.

 

Yeah, most people say you should "break in" your headphones. No one quite agrees on how (what kind of music), but I've read about it for quite a while.

I find Shure cords perfectly durable. Better than generic headphones anyways. They have some pretty beefy joints (while still being portable).

I can't emphasize enough about how well the isolate sound. My parents were essentially yelling at me next to me and I couldn't hear them. I'm afraid to use them sometimes.

 

Just leave your ear buds playing what you usually listen to whilst you're out or something...after the 1st week it should sound different

But I have to say i wasn't too impressed with the SE110 when i tried them...

 

The Hd280's do have quite a lot of bass, but I really enjoy them for movie watching. In fact one thing I have noticed is it tends to "punch" your ears and neck, and almost feels like you are listening to a real subwoofer.

 

Well, think about that, I don't like "real" subwoofers, neither. I like good bass, but not necessary loud bass.

I wasn't too impressed with SE110, neither. there are better earphones in that price range, IMO.

 

I got a pair of Super.Fi 3's for $40 NIB, and they don't block out sound as much as my Shures do. Excellent set of 'phones though, but lacking a bit in the bass department IMO. I gave them to my dad as a Christmas present but am listening to them as I type.

For $40, I'm not complaining.

 

If you need full-size studio headphones for watching movies on the airplane or listening to music in a noisy dorm, I highly recommend the Sennheiser HD 280 http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-280-Pro-Professional/dp/B000065BPB
which are solid beasts. I bought mine back in 2002 and put them under rigorous usage. No frayed cords, solid gold-plated plugs, and a sub woofer-like bass that minuscule in-ear drivers cannot compete IMO. They are $200 msrp but I got mine for $80 brand new!

 

Oh god my Se530's just came in today.

Pure bliss for my ears right now. Going to break them in 24/7 for the next week or so to get everything working as it should.

 

You lucky -> { insert word } <-...

 

How much were your SE530s? lol

 

More than I have paid for headphones before