[Pianist]

 
Quote:

Pianist, do you plan to get the new SE535? Someone with the SM3 should take the plunge...I am interested to see how the new and improved SE535 will compete. According to Spyro, seems like Shure fixed the problem with the treble.
 
Will it be King of the Hill? 

 
I don't think SE530 has any problems with treble at all if you get the right fit fit. It may lack ultimate extension, but in most music, treble frequencies over 14 kHz are inaudible anyway, so no big deal.
 
I do consider getting SE535 + custom tips some time in the future though. I am still playing around with the SM3 at the moment and just love their sound, but they do not quite blow me away quite like the SE530 did.

 

[ericp10]

Not saying the SE530 is not a good top tier IEM, but I think Pianist's assessment of the Shure vs. the SM3 is in the minority. But on the other hand, I'm not one who give too much weight to what the majority says either...lol. You have to hear it for yourself. For me, personally, I thought the SE530 was a very good earphone. It actually was my very first IEM, not a bad place to start uhn? It deserves top tier status. Is it as good or better than the SM3? Well if I had a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 be the absolute best in sound quality and 1 being the worst, this is how  I would rank my top tier IEMs:
 
SM3 = 9.5 (nothing is perfect to me)
 
SE530 = 7
 
FX700 = 8.5
 
DDM = 7.5
 
TF10 = 5.5
 
MD = 7
 
Copper = 6.5
 
e-Q7 = 8
 
IE8 = 6.5
 
IE7 = 6

 

[rawrster]

@Pianist: just out of curiosity did you ever get custom tips for them?
 
@eric: I've been here long enough to know his views of the SE530 when he gets that perfect fit. Trying out the SM3 is something I have to do..now who wants to give their SM3 to me?

 

[Pianist]

 
Quote:

@Pianist: just out of curiosity did you ever get custom tips for them?
 
@eric: I've been here long enough to know his views of the SE530 when he gets that perfect fit. Trying out the SM3 is something I have to do..now who wants to give their SM3 to me?

 
Nope. I thought I did get a great fit with universal tips a few times though. I know it sounds ridiculous. The SM3 for example can sound very nice even with a bad fit. I have no idea why SE530 was so hard to position correctly in my ears. Maybe it was just psychological, but what is certain is that most of the time, I didn't like listening to SE530 at all, but then there were times when I put the Shures in my ears and they suddenly sounded incredible. Can't think of any other possible explanation for this, but fit. At least in my ears, it seemed as though SE530 was almost impossible to fit properly.

 

[ZARIM]

Quote:

Not saying the SE530 is not a good top tier IEM, but I think Pianist's assessment of the Shure vs. the SM3 is in the minority. But on the other hand, I'm not one who give too much weight to what the majority says either...lol. You have to hear it for yourself. For me, personally, I thought the SE530 was a very good earphone. It actually was my very first IEM, not a bad place to start uhn? It deserves top tier status. Is it as good or better than the SM3? Well if I had a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 be the absolute best in sound quality and 1 being the worst, this is how  I would rank my top tier IEMs:
 
SM3 = 9.5 (nothing is perfect to me)
 
SE530 = 7
 
FX700 = 8.5
 
DDM = 7.5
 
TF10 = 5.5
 
MD = 7
 
Copper = 6.5
 
e-Q7 = 8
 
IE8 = 6.5
 
IE7 = 6

@ ericp10........ UE TF10Pro = 5.5 not fair lol........

 

[ericp10]

Quote:

@Pianist: just out of curiosity did you ever get custom tips for them?
 
@eric: I've been here long enough to know his views of the SE530 when he gets that perfect fit. Trying out the SM3 is something I have to do..now who wants to give their SM3 to me?

Rawrster if I can ever peel the SM3 out of my ears I might send them to you for a listen. But to be honest it's gonna be awhile before that happens I think. They are my everyday and almost every moment IEM right now...lol. So we will see. I know some here have two pairs.. They should let you borrow one buddy..lol.
 

 

[ericp10]

Quote:

@ ericp10........ UE TF10Pro = 5.5 not fair lol........

Except for the bass buddy, the UE TF10 just didn't do it for me.... sorry... lol

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

Except for the bass buddy, the UE TF10 just didn't do it for me.... sorry... lol

 
I think Triple.fi has excellent low and mid bass, but the upper bass overshadows the lower mids in a really strange way, as though the crossover for the two drivers is not working properly there.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

I must say that with an imperfect seal, SE530 can sound absolutely terrible. Even if you think you got a good fit with the Shures, you probably didn't. If you did, your opinion would've been very different, trust me.

What makes you think the 530 sound signature is what Eric or others like myself would like w/ the 'perfect' fit.  I've used them on airplanes and can tell if I am getting the right seal or not.  I only liked my Shures if I let their signature burn in on my brain for 15 min.  I really think its a matter of what we are looking to get out of our sound signatures.  Just by looking at the JH/13/16/3A, ES5, EM3Pro threads I don't think anyone can say one is the 'best' sounding out of those.

 

[Pianist]

 
Quote:

What makes you think the 530 sound signature is what Eric or others like myself would like w/ the 'perfect' fit.  I've used them on airplanes and can tell if I am getting the right seal or not.  I only liked my Shures if I let their signature burn in on my brain for 15 min.  I really think its a matter of what we are looking to get out of our sound signatures.  Just by looking at the JH/13/16/3A, ES5, EM3Pro threads I don't think anyone can say one is the 'best' sounding out of those.

 
In my opinion, a sound signature is either natural or not - there's no in between. By natural, I mean realistic - how music is actually supposed to sound like in real life. I mean natural instruments and vocals should have the right timbre. I think SE530 excels at reproducing natural sound. You may or may not like it of course, but that probably just means that you prefer a sound that is colored in an unnatural way, which is perfectly fine of course - nothing wrong with it. As long as you enjoy your music, that's all that matters.

 

[ericp10]

Quote:

What makes you think the 530 sound signature is what Eric or others like myself would like w/ the 'perfect' fit.  I've used them on airplanes and can tell if I am getting the right seal or not.  I only liked my Shures if I let their signature burn in on my brain for 15 min.  I really think its a matter of what we are looking to get out of our sound signatures.  Just by looking at the JH/13/16/3A, ES5, EM3Pro threads I don't think anyone can say one is the 'best' sounding out of those.

It's funny, and I think many who kind of know my sound sig on head-fi will be surprised by this, but I felt the 530 bass was too much - and I'm a basshead. When I say too much bass, I mean it was unnatural to me for some reason and didn't seem to blend in with the rest of the sound signature. I don't know if I would call it muddy, but it was unnatural. Mids, however were interesting. Sometimes I couldn't tell how good the mids were, but at other times it blew me away (the ringing tone of the firehouse bell in the Beatles' "Penny Lane" had more to do with the mids in my opinion than the highs. The texture and tone  of the bell was dead on and made it sound like I was in that firehouse). Treble on the 530? It was so insignificant to me that I can even remember if I thought it was good or not...lol. Was just there in my mind. Whereas the treble in the SM3 let's you know it's there and gives me a whole new appreciation for that sound range.
 

 

[Pianist]

 
Quote:

It's funny, and I think many who kind of know my sound sig on head-fi will be surprised by this, but I felt the 530 bass was too much - and I'm a basshead. When I say too much bass, I mean it was unnatural to me for some reason and didn't seem to blend in with the rest of the sound signature. I don't know if I would call it muddy, but it was unnatural. Mids, however were interesting. Sometimes I couldn't tell how good the mids were, but at other times it blew me away (the ringing tone of the firehouse bell in the Beatles' "Penny Lane" had more to do with the mids in my opinion than the highs. The texture and tone  of the bell was dead on and made it sound like I was in that firehouse). Treble on the 530? It was so insignificant to me that I can even remember if I thought it was good or not...lol. Was just there in my mind. Whereas the treble in the SM3 let's you know it's there and gives me a whole new appreciation for that sound range.
 

You most definitely got a bad fit with SE530 then.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

 
 
In my opinion, a sound signature is either natural or not - there's no in between. By natural, I mean realistic - how music is actually supposed to sound like in real life. I mean natural instruments and vocals should have the right timbre. I think SE530 excels at reproducing natural sound. You may or may not like it of course, but that probably just means that you prefer a sound that is colored in an unnatural way, which is perfectly fine of course - nothing wrong with it. As long as you enjoy your music, that's all that matters.

While timbre is important I can forgive a slight color if it does other things very well.  I think the 530 does do 'natural' (acoustically) quite well except in the upper registers.  They always lacked that sparkle in the top end that I do hear in real life.  Although the 530 can be mostly tonally accurate I find it lacking in other areas in much the same way many other BA phones do.  I haven't heard the SM3 which apparently offers a lot of what a good dynamic do, but most BA phones lack a certain body or Z-axis to me.  I think you must listen to a lot of acoustically based music where I can see the 530's doing well to a point.  But a lot of popular music is not reliant on natural timbre and requires a certain type of 'produced' signature to sound right.  If you want a phone that makes you feel like you are listening to a string quartet live and unplugged I can see that argument.  If you want to feel like you are at a Godsmack concert or simply want to hear the proper crash and decay of cymbals I don't agree that 530's are 'natural' in that regard.

 

[Rip N' Burn]

I also have the SE530 and have to agree that the highs are not natural. I get a proper fit as I use the UM56 custom sleeves. They are recessed and rolled off. The mids are the bread and butter of the SE530. I wonder if the highs in the SE535 have improved.

 

[rawrster]

 
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If you want to feel like you are at a Godsmack concert or simply want to hear the proper crash and decay of cymbals I don't agree that 530's are 'natural' in that regard.

 
Well there aren't really that many BA based phones that do both of those very well. I haven't heard all the good BA phones but I have heard probably half of the good universals and there really isn't many of them that do cymbals well without EQ.