AstroTurf
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Philips SHE3580 IEM review--how can something sound so good for $10???
- Thread starter Joe Bloggs
- Start date
qwertasdfg24
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Well, my wife bought me a set of SHE3575BB for Father's day gift!
The stock tips are useless, don't do anything to seal, sounds horrible with stock tips.
I also have every tips from my MTPC kit, and none of them do anything to seal properly, except the triple flange tips, but those are not convenient for daily use.
I installed the UE tips from Super.fi 5, it works wonderfully.
I'll try the Shure Olives, my go-to tips once they're expanded properly with chopsticks
I worked in the yard for 4 hours this afternoon, listened to variety of music using the UE silicone tips, it sounds so close to my ideal "perfect all balanced" headset, Bass is strong, not overwhelming, and it's way more clear than M9, CX200, V-Moda Fuze, it's the best $10 that i've owned so far.
The stock tips are useless, don't do anything to seal, sounds horrible with stock tips.
I also have every tips from my MTPC kit, and none of them do anything to seal properly, except the triple flange tips, but those are not convenient for daily use.
I installed the UE tips from Super.fi 5, it works wonderfully.
I'll try the Shure Olives, my go-to tips once they're expanded properly with chopsticks
I worked in the yard for 4 hours this afternoon, listened to variety of music using the UE silicone tips, it sounds so close to my ideal "perfect all balanced" headset, Bass is strong, not overwhelming, and it's way more clear than M9, CX200, V-Moda Fuze, it's the best $10 that i've owned so far.
AstroTurf
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Congrats
qwertasdfg24
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After a couple of expanding the olives super elasticky core, i've finally installed them onto the Philips.
As great as Shure Olives are, in term of noise isolation, comfort, they really muffle the sound a bit more than i liked. They completely changed the characteristic of the Philips, lost too much clarity for me. I'm removing those olives from my MTPC as well, and i find myself enjoying the new clarity better than with the olives.
Now...off to buy some Sony Hybrids on eBay.
As great as Shure Olives are, in term of noise isolation, comfort, they really muffle the sound a bit more than i liked. They completely changed the characteristic of the Philips, lost too much clarity for me. I'm removing those olives from my MTPC as well, and i find myself enjoying the new clarity better than with the olives.
Now...off to buy some Sony Hybrids on eBay.
bowlofsoup
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I've never found a pair of iems that fit my right ear, so it couldn't hurt to give these a try.
sofastreamer
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i use sony hybrids on them and they do slightly calm down the bass and the trebles, which to me is a good thing. its not much but noticable.
aso84
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JVineaux
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These are wonderful. I think the fact they don't have the soundstage or rawness of more expensive iems work in their favour - it sounds like the bass is being thumped from the back of your skull.
estreeter
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Guys, you do know that the vast majority of cheap IEMs are made in batches of a hundred thousand+ by Chinese OEMs who happily advertise that they will tailor the sound of their drivers and badge the product to your specifications ? I am listening to a pair of SHE3570s as I type this, and I bought a pair of 'no-name' shockers for comparison - 7 AUD less RRP - straight out of the box the no-names slay the 3570 for simple 'wow factor'. Downside is that the housings are too big for me to sleep while wearing them - sure, they lack the Phillips' clarity, but how many casual IEM users care about that ? Both are seriously V-shaped, but how many kids out there are going to spend time EQ'ing a pair of cheap IEMs, much less pay more money for custom tips or (gasp) cable changes ? Reality check, folks : these are good value - no question - but comments like 'Wow - better than TOTL Etys - thats quite an accomplishment !' just make me cringe, I have serious concerns about the durability of IEMs in general - use these as everyday phones and report back in 6 months.
Congratulations, Head-Fi - yet again we have made something simple and fun seem like an exercise in audiophool madness. I'm having fun playing with EQ, but I'm not going to put my other headphones out on the kerb just yet.
Congratulations, Head-Fi - yet again we have made something simple and fun seem like an exercise in audiophool madness. I'm having fun playing with EQ, but I'm not going to put my other headphones out on the kerb just yet.
Joe Bloggs
Sponsor: HiByMember of the Trade: EFO Technologies Co, YanYin TechnologyHis Porta Corda walked the Green Mile
Quote:
If the second one is indeed what is being advertised (3570), they should look identical to the 3580 except for the colours. I haven't listened to the 3570 but impressions from those who have are similar to impressions for the 3580.
If the second one is indeed what is being advertised (3570), they should look identical to the 3580 except for the colours. I haven't listened to the 3570 but impressions from those who have are similar to impressions for the 3580.
stozzer123
Aka: whodiss, whodisss, whodatt
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Quote:
thank god for common sense at last.
Guys, you do know that the vast majority of cheap IEMs are made in batches of a hundred thousand+ by Chinese OEMs who happily advertise that they will tailor the sound of their drivers and badge the product to your specifications ? I am listening to a pair of SHE3570s as I type this, and I bought a pair of 'no-name' shockers for comparison - 7 AUD less RRP - straight out of the box the no-names slay the 3570 for simple 'wow factor'. Downside is that the housings are too big for me to sleep while wearing them - sure, they lack the Phillips' clarity, but how many casual IEM users care about that ? Both are seriously V-shaped, but how many kids out there are going to spend time EQ'ing a pair of cheap IEMs, much less pay more money for custom tips or (gasp) cable changes ? Reality check, folks : these are good value - no question - but comments like 'Wow - better than TOTL Etys - thats quite an accomplishment !' just make me cringe, I have serious concerns about the durability of IEMs in general - use these as everyday phones and report back in 6 months.
Congratulations, Head-Fi - yet again we have made something simple and fun seem like an exercise in audiophool madness. I'm having fun playing with EQ, but I'm not going to put my other headphones out on the kerb just yet.
thank god for common sense at last.
estreeter
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Quote:
That, and the confirmation from Phillips that they are exactly the same earphone.
JB, I believe you went into this thread with noble intentions, and I agree that the SHE3*** punches well above its price point, but you need to reflect on the FOTM effect on Head-Fi. I would also note that several custom IEM manufacturers report that they lose demo models at every trade show/meet they attend - in many cases, the housings are cut away from the cable. The implication is that their competitors are trying to reverse-engineer their earphones - dissing Etymotic in favour of these Phillips cheapies is effectively saying that R&D is wasted effort. God knows that the Chinese have had plenty of years to disassemble something like the ER4P and analyse those aspects of the sound which can be cheaply replicated. I'm a little stunned that I haven't seen Grado clones in Asia yet - would seem like a slam dunk if we are to believe the claims made here that the component parts are cheap to manufacture.
That, and the confirmation from Phillips that they are exactly the same earphone.
JB, I believe you went into this thread with noble intentions, and I agree that the SHE3*** punches well above its price point, but you need to reflect on the FOTM effect on Head-Fi. I would also note that several custom IEM manufacturers report that they lose demo models at every trade show/meet they attend - in many cases, the housings are cut away from the cable. The implication is that their competitors are trying to reverse-engineer their earphones - dissing Etymotic in favour of these Phillips cheapies is effectively saying that R&D is wasted effort. God knows that the Chinese have had plenty of years to disassemble something like the ER4P and analyse those aspects of the sound which can be cheaply replicated. I'm a little stunned that I haven't seen Grado clones in Asia yet - would seem like a slam dunk if we are to believe the claims made here that the component parts are cheap to manufacture.
Joe Bloggs
Sponsor: HiByMember of the Trade: EFO Technologies Co, YanYin TechnologyHis Porta Corda walked the Green Mile
I never claimed that the SHE3580 can punch above the ER-4P as-is. What I wanted to say was that when I EQed the SHE3580 to my ideal sound (mostly as per PiccoloNamek's tutorial, in the process compensating for my ear canal resonances in a way that phones bought off the shelf, at *any* price, can't do), *then* they sound better than the stock ER-4P. I can't help it that 9 out of 10 people are missing the latter part of the message and just buying the SHE3580 off the shelf and proclaiming them better than xxx without tuning the sound at all.
Actually to me there's nothing special about the SHE3580--these days I can take just about any $10 phones from any of the major brands and get them to sound as good as the SHE3580. But I guess there may be something special about the stock tuning of the 3580 that make people prefer them too.
In a sense I do think that much of the high end earphone research is being wasted when custom FR tuning can make such a night and day difference over even such expensive phones. It's like one aspect of technology (FR tuning) has been bottlenecked and instead high end companies are spending millions on squeezing the last bit of extra performance out of BA drivers, carbon nanotube drivers or what have you, which may have marginally less distortion which isn't even audible when the elephant in the room is the FR mismatch to individual ears' resonance for which there is no way for current technology to compensate except by painstaking experimentation on the user's part.
Actually to me there's nothing special about the SHE3580--these days I can take just about any $10 phones from any of the major brands and get them to sound as good as the SHE3580. But I guess there may be something special about the stock tuning of the 3580 that make people prefer them too.
In a sense I do think that much of the high end earphone research is being wasted when custom FR tuning can make such a night and day difference over even such expensive phones. It's like one aspect of technology (FR tuning) has been bottlenecked and instead high end companies are spending millions on squeezing the last bit of extra performance out of BA drivers, carbon nanotube drivers or what have you, which may have marginally less distortion which isn't even audible when the elephant in the room is the FR mismatch to individual ears' resonance for which there is no way for current technology to compensate except by painstaking experimentation on the user's part.
estreeter
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I take your point, but how many are going to put the time and effort into parametric equalisation for every combination of player/DAC/amp/headphone they own ?
Joe Bloggs
Sponsor: HiByMember of the Trade: EFO Technologies Co, YanYin TechnologyHis Porta Corda walked the Green Mile
Player / DAC / amp haven't altered the sound enough for me to warrant a separate EQ so far, and as for headphones, EQing all of them so far has only provided me with the dry amusement of "yep, they sound exactly like the SHE3580 with EQ now. AGAIN." So why would you want to do that, unless you're just experimenting? Why not just EQ one good set of phones and leave it at that?
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