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In the Summer of 2011, I was working at Mozilla. My first exposure to an open plan office. I decided (for a poor student) to spend an insane amount of money on
by eshvk 13y ago
In the Summer of 2011, I was working at Mozilla. My first exposure to an open plan office. I decided (for a poor student) to spend an insane amount of money on a pair of headphones so that I could get more productive: The Shure SE 215 in ear phones for $99. Since then, I have used them everyday. Backpacked across 3 continents. Taken them to the gym. Used them like crap. Yet, they still lasted. I went through 4 different phones in the mean time. Finally, yesterday I broke down and bought new replacement cables; the cable had started fraying from within.
Now, I work for a company which has a lot of music buffs. So I may actually upgrade to something that is a whole new level in music quality. But a part of me will really really cherish these earphones.
(P.S: I don't work for Shure. The only damn product that I have ever written a review for Shure. :|)
- WiseWeasel 13y agoI found these Panasonic RP-HTF600 over-the-ear headphones to be pretty amazing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004MMEI8W http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004MMEI8W With 50mm drivers, they're the best sounding headphones I've ever used, and they're a steal at $32.
- falcolas 13y agoI can't rave about my Shure 535 IEMs enough. I'm even about to spend the $2-300 to get custom molded fittings for them Near-reference quality sound (a little too warm, though it hasn't been an issue so far), great isolation (about 25db), and they are hard to have randomly pulled out of your ears. Granted, this is well out of the $100 ballpark, but they're still fantastic. If you're looking for reference quality sound at under $100, look into the Etymotic in-ear headphones. Ridiculously good, though they are a bit weak on the low end of the spectrum (not enough that you won't feel bass on real punchy songs, but enough that they don't sound like any other headphone on the market).
- eshvk 13y agoSo I am really tempted to get the SE 535s (because they seem like the next level up from the 215s which also fit me really well). The only thing that is stopping me is that the idea/hope that the Westones would be better. Did you do any sort of comparison between the two?
- falcolas 13y agoNo, when I purchased my 535's from Headroom, they didn't have any Westone in stock (that I recall, it was several months ago). I tried out similarly priced Sennheiser in-ear headphones (ie80 and ie800) as well as another higher priced JH Audio IEM model (JH13, iirc), but the 535's sounded the best to my ears. I do see that the Westone's offer 4 drivers to the 535's two drivers, but unfortunately Headroom doesn't have the frequency response graphs for them yet. Otherwise, they seem very similar for features & specs (they both appear to use the same ear tips, which is good for finding the one that fits the best). Of course, I'm lucky enough to live in Headroom's home town, so that helps these kinds of purchases immensely.
- dankoss 13y agoThe 535s have three drivers, and Shure now has the SE846 if you're interested in quad drivers. But I'll caution that triple and quad drivers don't necessarily make for better sound.
- jmspring 13y agoI had some Shures, opted for Westone UM2s after awhile - I found the fit and over all sound quality better. I've since moved onto some Westone 4Rs (not in the $100/budget range). That said, the UM2s and Shures are around in case I misplace a pair or for going on rides/etc. where I am concerned about sweat.
- theshadowmonkey 13y agoThe ones that are cheap and I have loved a lot are the Sennheiser HD 201. They are over the ear, not very loud and have decent noise cancellation. http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Lightweight-Over-Ear-Binaural-Headphones/dp/B0007XJSQC?ie=UTF8&qid=1395933395&sr=8-1&keywords=sennheiser+hd201 http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Lightweight-Over-Ear-Binaur...