I'm feeling a little case of the upgraditus.

Right now, I have Shure E500's and love them as well as a Westone 3 that I use occasionally, but don't really like as much. The 500's are just super smooth, musical, and non-fatiguing auditorily, but they aren't extremely physically comfortable for extended periods of time; whereas the W3's are very comfortable to wear and very fun to listen to with great separation, but way too bright for my tastes as certain tracks made it painful. I have sensitive ears...heh. Considering the 500's are coming on 5 years old and a broken cable is inevitable, I'm a bit leary on jumping to either the 535 or 4's because of what I currently have.

From reading the appreciation threads, I see that the 4's are closer to the 500's than the 3's with much better mids, better separation, and soundstage, but are still more on the analytical side; whereas the 535's retains the buttery smoothness of the 500's with better highs, separation, and replaceable cable, but can have comfort issues for those with small ears, which I have.

I'm somewhat leaning towards the 4's mostly based on comfort and detail, but I feel like I will be missing out on the musicality of the Shure house sound.

Help me head-fi!