[Spyro]

To the OP: I understand what you are saying about SE530.

Shure E4 is right in between an ER4P and an SE530.

"Shure's are dark." Like that's a bad thing?

"Ety's are bright." Isn't that a bad thing too?

TFP midrange is much too distant. There is no perfect IEM.

 

[ingwe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Friskyseal /img/forum/go_quote.gif don't worry, the shure bandwagon will be here any minute to tell us how wrong we are and how those highs really aren't that important anyway... =D

Y'all are soooo wrong! Those highs really aren't that important, anyway...

 

[mamboman]

Not if you are an Ety fan

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:
Originally Posted by DoomzDayz
i can't really imagine wanting more bass than e4's except in noisy environments, but i am so eager to try out the e500's for sub $300 nowdays. my question is how does it compare other than the frequency response? resolving, details, timbre, etc?

perhaps this can be my journey into the real head-fi from isolation-fi and i can stick with the e4cs. (i don't like the er-4's ergonomics.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtp /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sorry, I only listened to the E4Cs for about an hour, so I don't know them well enough to compare. Hopefully someone who has them both can answer you.

I started off with E2c's and Bose IE. I wanted better, more balanced, and moved right up to the E4c. I had the E4c for several months, and they were pretty detailed, neutral and flat, but I felt they needed more bass.

I added the SE310 to my stable about 2 months ago, based on a cnet review and I kinda liked them more for the slight increase in base, but they did have a little less detail than the E4c. Then I bought the SE500's last month, and promptly sold the E4c and SE310, and several others like the Super.fi 5 pro, E2c, Bose IEM, CX300, and tried to sell the ER6i but they came back to me (now I sleep in those with a CMoy bass boost amp).

The SE500's are my favorite IEM, along side of my Denon AH-C700 that are very nice as well (a little less bass, a little more treble, and sound great as long as you don't push them as hard as a balanced armature IEM).

I did order the Livewires customs about 2 weeks ago, as my new neutral monitor, and they should ship to me within the week, if all goes well.

 

[oak3x]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mink70 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oak--I've been wondering about the Triple Fi's, as most discussions of the top IEMs bring them up. Do they have an obvious flaw, too? Are they as analytical as the Etys, or are they more fun? Sounds like you don't own the Triple Fi 10's any more? Did you eventually prefer the ETYs?

The Triple.Fi were really good IEM's... I had two issues with them:

-Didn't provide the level of sound isolation I needed.
-On some tracks the vocals were a bit recessed

The sound isolation was more of a determining factor, as I use IEM's for airplane travel. I wound up purchasing the se310's...

 

[mamboman]

My E500s are my favorite cans now. I listen a lot less to all my other cans after I got it.

 

[indigo]

I finally got my E500's today and I now know what all you guys are talking about.

Very clear, good, strong bass, crisp highs and very strong mids, probably the best IEM's I've heard in my short experience. I cannot really describe this except to say that they sound complete. I don't seem to find any lack of highs at all but then again I am fairly new to all this, and my exoerience with IEM's have always been listening unamped through an ipod (porbably why I gave up the ER4Ps).

I must say that i do not find the E500's as forgiving as the E4G's or the SFP's. On a good recording they shine but on a fairly poor 128 kbps MP3, they sound fairly ordinary, and its the SFPs and the E4s that somehow make the recording sound better than it is. I also hear a discernable hiss from my ipod that is not there with the other IEM's.

It's almost like golf clubs or tennis rackets- the E500s are for players who know what they are doing, while the SFPs, E4s etc are more forgiving or have a larger sweet spot, they "correct" your mistakes.

 

[afobisme]

at first, i didn't like them much (got mine today, and im talking about the first hour of listening)... i noticed the rolled off highs everyone was talking about, bass also sounded muffled a bit... but now it's sounding better. to me, it sounds a tiny bit more laid back than the e4c.

 

[bdshort]

I just bit the bullet and ordered a pair of lightly used SE530s from eBay. Currently I'm using the E3G so I'm looking forward to seeing how they compare. I guess if I don't end up liking them, they'll just go back on eBay again, so I guess I feel that I'm not risking much.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by indigo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I finally got my E500's today and I now know what all you guys are talking about. Very clear, good, strong bass, crisp highs and very strong mids, probably the best IEM's I've heard in my short experience. I cannot really describe this except to say that they sound complete. I don't seem to find any lack of highs at all ...

As Paul would say on the TV show, Mad about You, "This is what I'm saying".

Poor Jinxy (another E500 lover) has to bear the cross for all us E500 lovers, because we're not always willing to jump into the lion's den like he is...

 

[shomie911]

If you want something with less bass (albeit tight and satisfying imo) but excellent mids and fair highs I'd say go with the e4c's. To my ears they are very neutral, not bass heavy in the least. The entire SE line supposedly was designed with more bass and slightly rounded highs.


My opinion might be slightly biased as I'm listening to them right now =]

 

[mink70]

Hey Dexter--

Just wanted to let you know that your advice saved the Shures for me. I gave them one more day before returning them. Tried reversing the olive tips, as you suggested, which accomplished exactly nothing. Still lots of muddy bass that ruined the mids. Didn't have the yellow foam tips—they come with the E500s, BUT NOT the SE530s—so I borrowed a pair of foam tips from the Etys and put them on the Shures. The difference was immediate and unbelievable. Not only did the bass calm way down move back between the lines, as you suggested, but the treble opened up as well. Best of all, the mids became relatively uncolored and you can now hear that the Shures really do resolve a pretty high amount of detail. In other words, the change took the Shures from frankly unacceptable to pretty darn good--but ONLY with the foam tips. I'm buying the Shure foam tips today. C'mon Shure, include them with the SE530s.

I still find the balance darker than I'd like—the treble is still significantly rolled—but the phones are more dynamic than unamped Etys, keep time just as well, but win hands down in the most important category for me: they draw attention to the music, not the sound, and are immensely listenable. The Etys are more impressive in audiophile terms, but after a while they begin to grate. They make great recordings sound great, and poor recordings dull and unengaging. Great MUSIC, however, is often recorded poorly, and that's where the Shures get it right. Intensely listenable and musical.

Thank you, Dexter and Head-fi

!

 

[Sugarfried]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mink70 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jinx, you keep saying that listeners who don't care for the sound of the Shures are simply too "blown away" by their bass to appreciate them, or that they don't like bass, or that they are comparing them to the bass-deficient Etys or something else. My problem with the Shures is not just the quantity of the bass but the quality--humped, bloated, inaccurate to anything like a good recording or live music. That's not a technical fault, but Shure's own decision. The frequency response chart Shure itself publishes shows a curve that's +5 db up to 200 cycles and that plummets to -30 db at about 10,000 cycles (=711]http://www.headphone.com/technical/p...phID[]=711). It's great that you like the Shures and have decided that they are the best, just lay off the "it's so good you guys can't handle it" angle, OK?

We do not publish a frequency response on any of our earphones.

The link you provided is to a measurement that Headroom took, and by no means reflects our response. The curve is only intended to be a reference and does not have any input or approval from Shure.

This is not to discredit the validity of the curves at Headroom, merely to state that we (Shure) did not take those measurements, as we do not publish our measurements.

Tyll and I have talked about this at great length and even gave a talk about it together at Headfest in San Jose. The curves that Headroom shows are only useful when compared to other "reference" headphones that the user is familiar with - they are not meant to be used as absolute. And believe me, our measurements vary a great deal from theirs.

Thanks.

 

[Dexter Morgan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mink70 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey Dexter-- Just wanted to let you know that your advice saved the Shures for me. I gave them one more day before returning them. Tried reversing the olive tips, as you suggested, which accomplished exactly nothing. Still lots of muddy bass that ruined the mids. Didn't have the yellow foam tips—they come with the E500s, BUT NOT the SE530s—so I borrowed a pair of foam tips from the Etys and put them on the Shures. The difference was immediate and unbelievable. Not only did the bass calm way down move back between the lines, as you suggested, but the treble opened up as well. Best of all, the mids became relatively uncolored and you can now hear that the Shures really do resolve a pretty high amount of detail. In other words, the change took the Shures from frankly unacceptable to pretty darn good--but ONLY with the foam tips. I'm buying the Shure foam tips today. C'mon Shure, include them with the SE530s. I still find the balance darker than I'd like—the treble is still significantly rolled—but the phones are more dynamic than unamped Etys, keep time just as well, but win hands down in the most important category for me: they draw attention to the music, not the sound, and are immensely listenable. The Etys are more impressive in audiophile terms, but after a while they begin to grate. They make great recordings sound great, and poor recordings dull and unengaging. Great MUSIC, however, is often recorded poorly, and that's where the Shures get it right. Intensely listenable and musical. Thank you, Dexter and Head-fi !

Hey mink, thanks so much for letting us know. I really am thrilled that it worked out personally for you, after all your effort. I'm also thrilled by the very fact that this worked for someone else besides me! Good to know I'm not crazy or that my ears are unique in this way. I have a dream, that one day, my poor little children experiencing 530 muddiness will rise up, and purchase yellow foam tips. And they shall suspend their judgment until that day.

Let us all spread the Good word.

P.S. Let us know if you perceive any difference between the Ety foams and Shure foams (once you get them).

 

[jmpage2]

Hi guys, just got my E500s that I acquired from bobsound1 on eBay today. So far I am really liking them. Coming from E4C I noticed a much more 'vibrant' sound to them, I definitely prefer them... I've been trying them with the black Shure tips and the short Comply ones.

One thing I am not digging is the cable comfort, the cable is very stiff and difficult to get settled on my ears (by comparison the thicker cord on my E4C is very supple). I did a search here and noticed many people complaining about the cables going stiff and then failing. I certainly hope that's not what I am dealing with. The phones were brand new in the box but the manufacture data was Sept of 2006!

It seems that Shure has been pretty good about honoring warranty on these, even if purchased on eBay, so I will just try to enjoy them for now.

Is there any way to "break in" the cables to make them more comfortable? I ended up straightening them out and putting a heavy book on top of them to work some of the kinks out from them being in the box for so long.