Shure SE535-V Earphone

THE GOOD
 
Shure products are durable and well constructed. The cables are supple but very resilient. The IEM housing is durable as well as the MMXC connectors. Overall the construction is good.
 
Shure tips never come off and only with a struggle. You are  given a good variety of tips. 
 
They are good balanced IEMs where they excel mostly in good mids and decent lows and highs. 
 
I have sent in Shure IEMs three times and have them processed ASAP with care. No complaints here.
 
THE BAD
 
The bass feels a little enveloped or compressed. I am not sure what's happening but there's a noticeable drop off.

THE UGLY
 
I am not aware of anything really bad. Maybe paying full price?
 
OVERALL
 
These are my fallback IEMs and they deliver consistently good playback on most types of music.

Quite good. I wouldn't use the term liquid gold in ear that Tyll did (I don't get that excited about audio...) but he has a point they really are very good. Like all other options there will always be some who says otherwise. You'll find a lot of people say the Westone (W40 for example) are better. I don't know I didn't try them yet.
 
I picked these because I find that while I enjoy the presentation of my Beyer t50ps they do tire me after a while and I suspect a few light headaches were caused by them as well. Looking at the measurement plots I can see the frequency response of the W40s has a familiar treble hump (just like most beyers). And I wanted something that's a bit more smoother. At the same time the bass on my Beyer while there was never great but I don't want anything bloomy. Again looking at the plots the 535s looks like they are pretty flat and the square response suggest that as well.
 
So I got them. And the first thing I did was run a bunch of different genre of tracks through them (Rock, pop, classical and Jazz). So here's what I found:
 
1) Bass is what I wanted, they are they and not the boosted bass you get in some phones. They are forward on tracks mixed that way and laid back on tracks where they should be
2) I can really hear classical with separation of the instruments! Nice
3) Vocals are great, mids are smooth and rich
4) Trebles are there when it should and not excessive nor tiring
5) Don't notice yet any graining to the sound as multiple BA IEMs can have that issue
6) The source is matters a lot. My nexus 4 now really does sound bad.

These earphones are slightly overpriced compared to some competitive earphones. I think.
 
I love the over-ear construction and the isolation is superb. 
 
The sound quality is impressive and you really need to upgrade your music collection to at least 192kbps. I def hear difference between 128kbps songs and 256kbps. So I've imported al my music with AAC @ 256kbps.
 
As for the bass. It can be quit thin sometimes. Don't get me wrong, the bass is def there when you pick a bass-heavy song. Toto - Africa is an good example. 
 
But it are the mids that stand out the most. Vocals sound very very clear and the soundstage is huge. I discovered details I thought I already should have heard with my Sure SE215! 
 
Some people complain about the "bulky cable". I don't understand since the cable is just great! It's thick indeed but very soft, flexible and truly feels it will last a lifetime. I couldn't say that about the Westone W4.. I mean, look at how thin the cable connecting to the earphones looks? Doesn't look solid at all to me.
 
Still I don't like the L plug Shure is using all the time but it will have it's reason. 
 
My ears are average in size. And for me the SE535 are a perfect fit. Yes they are a bit bulky but again, at least they have great build quality and do not look like mainstream earphones
 
I am no audiophile as you probably can tell, but I know how music should sound and what good sound quality means. And these earphones are just impressive, clean, detailed and does have very fair and balanced sound (with some minor lack in the lows at some times).
 
I could have saved like €140 buying the Senheiser IE8, which I believe, are (almost) as good as the Shure535. So if you want to save some money, you might want to consider these as well. I didn't have a specific reason for buying the SE535 over the IE8. Though I think the SE535 looks better and has beter isolation/fit (the cable and connetor on the IE8 looks kinda cheap to me).
 
Westone W4 are hard to get in my country and the build quality doesn't look as good as the SE535, too.
 
Anyway... great earphones! Really happy with them and a big improvement compared to the SE215 (which are really good too, at least for less than 100 bucks!)