Shure SE530PTH

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Excellent
Comfort	Excellent
Looks & Design	Excellent
Durability	Excellent
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Unsurpassed sound quality
Disadvantages:	the price , so dear , so excessive

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I bought these in June 2007 and was blown away by the quality. However make sure you use lossless audio codecs or CD's to get the best possible use out of these, as most lossy formats like MP3 which are encoded at less than 256Kbit rate wont sound good, in fact they'll sound rather bad.

Firstly you have to be deadly serious about your audio or listen / love your music with passion bordering on the obsessive, before even considering buying these cans, otherwise you'll just run screaming when you hear the price. Luckily I mange dot get mine for £230 from Amazon and a week later I was in audio Nirvana.

So what do you get for a pair of headphones costing more than your ipod ?

Surprising a great deal.

The audio quality is simply incredible no other in ear head phones even come close to these. I tested these phones using everything from Metallica to Coldplay, to Amy Winehouse , to Classical to Jazz. Since I only ever encode lossless the differenc astounded me. Bass is full , rich and deep, the definition of the mid and high tones made me think I was listening to new songs - its literally a night and day difference. At this price they should be. Apparently this is due to the triple driver design - whatever that means. Live recordings and concert recordings finally allow you to be there for real - just close your eyes.

Be warned though - if you play these at full volume you will blow your eardrums - guaranteed - the instructions include ample warnings, I personally cant go beyond 50% volume before I start experiencing acute pain. The other thing is these headphones go in upside down !!! it sounds weird but its true, however once on they are very very comfortable.

Whats in the brushed aluminium box:

You get a largish metal box stamped with the brand label - Shure inside you will find two extension leads Premium Fit Kit/Accessories Package: Three pairs of disposable black foam sleeves (S, M, L); three pairs of soft flex sleeves (S, M, L); one pair of triple flange sleeves; 3' (91cm) cable; premium carrying case; airline adapter; volume control; ¼" (6.5mm) adapter; wax guard. Optional accessories available for purchase with the SE420: 9" (23cm) cable; Push-To-Hear (PTH) accessory. The SE530 and SE530PTH also include a 9" cable, and the SE530PTH comes bundled with the PTH accessory.

Of all the silicone foam bits the best were the silicone flange designed ones, only because I didn't have to squeeze them and mould them like an ear plug before inserting them into my ear.

The cables are very thick and sturdy - these wont self destruct as a lot of other brands do - however because of the weight you have to be care full when jogging.

If you do jog be warned as these isolate sound you wont hear traffic coming toward you, look before you cross !! otherwise you will get run over- the oddest sensation for me was seeing a huge 18 wheeler rumble past, and not hearing it , instead I felt it through my feet !!!