Shure SE530 Sound Isolating Earphones

***** Initial review - September, 2007 *****

My first exposure to these headphones was through a friend at the office who purchased a set of Shure E500s about a year ago (the E500s are pretty much identical to the SE530s). When he told me (and the rest of us) how much he paid for them ($500+ for the E500PTHs) we collectively thought he was nuts and proceeded to ridicule the decision.

That was before we heard them.

I first heard the E500s when that same friend from the office was going to send his set back to Shure under warranty due to the wires cracking with part of the copper conductors exposed near the ear area. He figured he was getting a new set from Shure, so he may as well let us hear them. Well, I thought I was good with my Sennheiser CX300s. I was wrong. Really, really wrong. I put...Read more

If you've already done your research and only want to know why I am qualifying my recommendation, skip down to near the bottom of my review. Otherwise, read on...

As most everyone says, these earphones are an absolute dream. The sound quality is amazing, better than the average home stereo and better than any headphones or earphones I've ever heard. Each side has two woofers and a tweeter.

It takes a little while to get used to properly inserting the phones and getting them situated just so, for optimal sound quality and noise isolation. But you get the hang of it before long, and then it's pretty easy.

The sound isolation works pretty well (if you have the phones situated properly in your ears). You get a good seal, which greatly reduces the amount of outside sound that can get in. I've found it works very, very well on airplanes and at the gym (the two noisiest environments I'm typically in).

In contrast, "noise-cancelling"...Read more

I had all but given up on finding the perfect earbuds. I had tried everything from Sony earbuds (decent sound, stupid cabling) to Shure E2Cs (disappointing sounds, hate the earwax guards). I listened to a friend's Bose QuietComfort earphones and was leaning towards getting those... but I was hesitant. Were they too bulky? Will I look like an absolute goober when I wear them?

Then I stumbled upon the Shure SE530's. iLounge gave them an "A" rating, which is rare. After much research, it came down to the 530's and the Etymotic ER-4P Portable In-Ear Earphones. I actually bought the Etymotic's first... then started reading reviews of microphonics. Some people came up with some crazy ways to solve this issue... after a couple hours of reading about how bad of a problem it was, I started wondering why am was buying earbuds that were going to need to modification...

I deliberated... and deliberated... and dished out the cash for the 5300's. Then I began to...Read more