Hello!
Altough I am fairly new to the whole Audio-Community-and altough most of you may not trust my review- I still made the desicion to post my experiences with my Shure SE-215 In-Ears here, hoping that some of you at least appreciate my effort. Furthermore I don't speak english as my first language, so if some of the sentences sound bad, or if there are mistakes concerning my grammar or anything, please don't hate me.
I am using my Headphones ONLY on my Smartphone (Huawei P20 Lite) and my Computer. Why am I posting on an audiophile platform then, you may ask yourself now. I bought those headphones for exactly that- Listening to music in better quality than with the standard airpod ripoffs.
Since those headphones weren't expensive, and I only heard good things about them, I decided to give them a try.
NOTE: I would have bought nicer headphones, more expensive ones, but since Im going to school my budget is very limited.
They cost around 100€ a year ago, in the box were a pouch to store the InEars (which i sadly lost), Silicone-Eartips in different sizes as well as Foamtips in 3 different sizes and a Cleaning-Tool.
Build-Quality (Extras)
The pouch was pretty good, soft but well built, it had an extra compartment for the eartips or really any extras you have. The only real problems I had with it was firstly that it wasn't very protective against pressure or anything (for example if you accidentally sat on it it wouldn't have protected much), so if you travel a lot with your headphones and maybe want to have them as long as possible, get yourself a nice travel case made out of hard plastic for 10 bucks off of AliExpress. But, if you just want your InEars to be protected from dust or water, or not just leave them in your pocket, then this pouch is good enough.
The silicone eartips are pretty good quality, the inside of my ears are huge, so I was a bit worried that they wouldn't fit my ears, but the biggest eartips fit me perfectly, so i recon that theres at least one pair of eartips that would fit most of the people out there. The foamtips on the other hand didn't really convince me. The isolation was quite horrible with most of them, the biggest ones fit me, and still the isolation wasn't as you'd expect it. I used them for a quarter of a year and suddenly the foam didn't "work" anymore, I could squish them as much as I want but the foam would go back to full size in an instant, so I stopped using the foamtips and just used the silicones, better fit, better sound, but not as comfortable sadly.
I know that that's maybe useless criticism for most but I still want to show you every aspect of the InEars.
Not losing too many words on the cleaning tool, it works, it's made out of plastic, nice to have and easy to use.
Build-Quality (In Ears)
Now onto the part that matters most, the In Ears themselves. I will start with the build quality, then the sound and my impressions with it.
The build quality is amazing, at least the build quality of the InEars themselves. They are made out of hardplastic, mine are black, but you can get them in clear and white as well I believe. The case is a 2 part construction, on the inside its hollow with the driver in them, so they are VERY light, I bet you would even notice them without a cable. On the inside, the words "SE 215" are printed on the case (obviously the name of the InEars) on the outside the name "Shure" is printed on, both in a silverish color, on the top, so nearly where the connector for the detatcheable cable is, and depending on the side, theres either a "L" or "R" printed on a molded letter, which is my only complaint about the case, the R, as well as the L, both wore off after 2 months, which is a little bit dissapointing, maybe they should use better color or something there.
Now onto the cable.
Oh lord, the cable. The most dissapointing thing about the whole thing. I've had the InEars for 3 years now, I bought a new original cable once, then bought cheaper ones off of different websites, all of them being better than the original cables. The first one, the cable that came with the InEars broke after one year, which can happen but obviously is quite dissapointing. Well I thought, Ill just buy the same cable again. This cable broke after 5 MONTHS (!). As you may expect already, I wasn't happy with that and I bought another cable off of a different brand which held up 6 months, only that it cost not even close as much compared to the original cable and it even improved the soundquality considerably. Companys name was "Ultrasone", I think. Either I had bad luck or the quality of shures cables are a joke, but be prepared to buy new ones once in a while.
Sound
The headphones sound amazing for the price.
Please keep in mind that I am fairly new in the Audiocommunity, so my experiences may be not as well described as many other reviewers. The audio-files on my Smartphone are the highest quality possible, downloading them off of the app-store.
The lows sound good enough, the bass is detailed and punch, altough it might be too loud or crunchy sometimes, I have tried other headphones from friends and not a single one ever had the same bass as the Shure ones, so if you are searching for something with a considerable amount of bass in the mix, those may be to consider.
The mids are pretty warm in my opinion, soft and they don't stick out as much as other headphones mids do, but I think they sound good, well balanced and in my opinion perfectly fine for the price.
One thing that was quite dissapointing was the lack of wideness in the sound. It sounded VERY narrow, even for 100 bucks i would have expected more.
The other thing that dissapointed me a little bit were the higher frequencies. They sound (in my opinion) thin, and, after longer sessions of listening to music, I noticed that they also get quite exhausting to listening to, maybe thats just my ear but the highs really aren't as welcoming and pretty sounding as the rest of the frequencies, also they don't stick out but even stay in the background, making the listening experience warm and deep.
The isolation on the InEars is amazing, I never thought I could block out so many things without active noice cancelling, all you have to do is find the right size of eartips for your ears and trust me, it's hard to hear anything around you to a certain point.
Conclusion
Now- would I say that you should buy them.
Yes, defenitely. For 100€ they sound good and the quality is mostly great. If you like to listen to music that isn't focused on the higher frequencies they are a perfect choice for every beginner out there, or really people that just enjoy listening to music but don't want to spend a couple of hundrets on better InEars.
Please keep in mind that you may need to change the cable sometimes, so if you want to spend 100€ once and never think about it again, those may not be for you.
I hope that the review was good enough, it is my first review ever and I know that it isn't really good, but please tell me how to improve so my next one is better.
Best wishes and enjoy your music,
Flo.
Altough I am fairly new to the whole Audio-Community-and altough most of you may not trust my review- I still made the desicion to post my experiences with my Shure SE-215 In-Ears here, hoping that some of you at least appreciate my effort. Furthermore I don't speak english as my first language, so if some of the sentences sound bad, or if there are mistakes concerning my grammar or anything, please don't hate me.
I am using my Headphones ONLY on my Smartphone (Huawei P20 Lite) and my Computer. Why am I posting on an audiophile platform then, you may ask yourself now. I bought those headphones for exactly that- Listening to music in better quality than with the standard airpod ripoffs.
Since those headphones weren't expensive, and I only heard good things about them, I decided to give them a try.
NOTE: I would have bought nicer headphones, more expensive ones, but since Im going to school my budget is very limited.
They cost around 100€ a year ago, in the box were a pouch to store the InEars (which i sadly lost), Silicone-Eartips in different sizes as well as Foamtips in 3 different sizes and a Cleaning-Tool.
Build-Quality (Extras)
The pouch was pretty good, soft but well built, it had an extra compartment for the eartips or really any extras you have. The only real problems I had with it was firstly that it wasn't very protective against pressure or anything (for example if you accidentally sat on it it wouldn't have protected much), so if you travel a lot with your headphones and maybe want to have them as long as possible, get yourself a nice travel case made out of hard plastic for 10 bucks off of AliExpress. But, if you just want your InEars to be protected from dust or water, or not just leave them in your pocket, then this pouch is good enough.
The silicone eartips are pretty good quality, the inside of my ears are huge, so I was a bit worried that they wouldn't fit my ears, but the biggest eartips fit me perfectly, so i recon that theres at least one pair of eartips that would fit most of the people out there. The foamtips on the other hand didn't really convince me. The isolation was quite horrible with most of them, the biggest ones fit me, and still the isolation wasn't as you'd expect it. I used them for a quarter of a year and suddenly the foam didn't "work" anymore, I could squish them as much as I want but the foam would go back to full size in an instant, so I stopped using the foamtips and just used the silicones, better fit, better sound, but not as comfortable sadly.
I know that that's maybe useless criticism for most but I still want to show you every aspect of the InEars.
Not losing too many words on the cleaning tool, it works, it's made out of plastic, nice to have and easy to use.
Build-Quality (In Ears)
Now onto the part that matters most, the In Ears themselves. I will start with the build quality, then the sound and my impressions with it.
The build quality is amazing, at least the build quality of the InEars themselves. They are made out of hardplastic, mine are black, but you can get them in clear and white as well I believe. The case is a 2 part construction, on the inside its hollow with the driver in them, so they are VERY light, I bet you would even notice them without a cable. On the inside, the words "SE 215" are printed on the case (obviously the name of the InEars) on the outside the name "Shure" is printed on, both in a silverish color, on the top, so nearly where the connector for the detatcheable cable is, and depending on the side, theres either a "L" or "R" printed on a molded letter, which is my only complaint about the case, the R, as well as the L, both wore off after 2 months, which is a little bit dissapointing, maybe they should use better color or something there.
Now onto the cable.
Oh lord, the cable. The most dissapointing thing about the whole thing. I've had the InEars for 3 years now, I bought a new original cable once, then bought cheaper ones off of different websites, all of them being better than the original cables. The first one, the cable that came with the InEars broke after one year, which can happen but obviously is quite dissapointing. Well I thought, Ill just buy the same cable again. This cable broke after 5 MONTHS (!). As you may expect already, I wasn't happy with that and I bought another cable off of a different brand which held up 6 months, only that it cost not even close as much compared to the original cable and it even improved the soundquality considerably. Companys name was "Ultrasone", I think. Either I had bad luck or the quality of shures cables are a joke, but be prepared to buy new ones once in a while.
Sound
The headphones sound amazing for the price.
Please keep in mind that I am fairly new in the Audiocommunity, so my experiences may be not as well described as many other reviewers. The audio-files on my Smartphone are the highest quality possible, downloading them off of the app-store.
The lows sound good enough, the bass is detailed and punch, altough it might be too loud or crunchy sometimes, I have tried other headphones from friends and not a single one ever had the same bass as the Shure ones, so if you are searching for something with a considerable amount of bass in the mix, those may be to consider.
The mids are pretty warm in my opinion, soft and they don't stick out as much as other headphones mids do, but I think they sound good, well balanced and in my opinion perfectly fine for the price.
One thing that was quite dissapointing was the lack of wideness in the sound. It sounded VERY narrow, even for 100 bucks i would have expected more.
The other thing that dissapointed me a little bit were the higher frequencies. They sound (in my opinion) thin, and, after longer sessions of listening to music, I noticed that they also get quite exhausting to listening to, maybe thats just my ear but the highs really aren't as welcoming and pretty sounding as the rest of the frequencies, also they don't stick out but even stay in the background, making the listening experience warm and deep.
The isolation on the InEars is amazing, I never thought I could block out so many things without active noice cancelling, all you have to do is find the right size of eartips for your ears and trust me, it's hard to hear anything around you to a certain point.
Conclusion
Now- would I say that you should buy them.
Yes, defenitely. For 100€ they sound good and the quality is mostly great. If you like to listen to music that isn't focused on the higher frequencies they are a perfect choice for every beginner out there, or really people that just enjoy listening to music but don't want to spend a couple of hundrets on better InEars.
Please keep in mind that you may need to change the cable sometimes, so if you want to spend 100€ once and never think about it again, those may not be for you.
I hope that the review was good enough, it is my first review ever and I know that it isn't really good, but please tell me how to improve so my next one is better.
Best wishes and enjoy your music,
Flo.
