[chrischen]

I'm trying to remove the sleeves on them but they aren't budging. I read the other post that said to twist and pull slightly. So I twist but it doesn't even budge. It's like it's glued on and I twisted pretty hard, compressing and deforming the foam.

I also stuck my fingernail down to the rubber part of the sleeve and tried to pry it out from there but it won't budge either. I also got these on ebay so no warranty.

 

[dr13zehn]

Hi and welcome to Head-Fi.

They can be hard to remove. I generally do it like this:
I pinch the tips just a bit and have the nails of my left middle finger and thumb pinch down behind the tip (so my finger cant slide off). Then I do the same from the other ("driver housing") side and pull them apart. Always works for me, but be careful and don't rip your fingernails if they are a bit thin.

I hope that made at least some sense the way I described it. It always works for me, and I don't ever twist that way. It actually puts the least amount of stress on the unit if done right.

 

[fuzen]

I had the same problem when I got mine and it felt like I was going to break the thing when the amount of strength I put in to twist the foam off, but eventually I got the foam off and it got back into its proper form : ). I did find, however, that my right side ear piece was deformed. When I tried to sample different sleeves I found it very difficult to remove the right foam sleeve off the nozzle. I eventually got the sucker off but found that the very tip of the nozzle was not completely smooth and circular as was the left ear piece, it had a slight bump on the side almost jaggedy and I could tell it wasn't supposed to be that way since the other ear was smooth as butter. This prevented me from taking the sleeve that came with the product off and eventually destroyed that sleeve. All in all I sent the pair back and am waiting for new pair that hopefully isn't deformed!

 

[chrischen]

I'm trying it but it's still tight as hell. I think it moved a bit though. I hope it's not as hard to change them after this. Just wanted to make sure it's supposed to be this tight so that I wasn't pulling too hard.

UPDATE: yea it's coming off. Really slowly and it's really hurting my fingers. All much harder because i barely have nails to begin with.

 

[dr13zehn]

It always seems to be the hardest when you do it the first time. The ones you put on from now on should come off much easier.

 

[Crikey]

Hm, I also seem to be having the same problem with shure olives and um1s

And I'm really afraid the tip of the housing will break.

 

[lon420]

Yep, felt like I was gonna break my SE530's nozzles the first few times I was experimenting with all the different sleeves they package along with 'em. I usually use a pinching+screwing motion when I'm removing and putting them on. Makes things easier IMO.

 

[Crikey]

Well I've solved the problem

without breaking my um1s. But I found a slight rocking motion at first worked the best as I couldn't even twist it at the start.

 

[sscs]

Taking the very first pair of tips of the SE530 is always the hardest. Mine was so tight that I destroyed the olives, leaving the plastic thingy on the nozzle

 

[Xena]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sscs /img/forum/go_quote.gif Taking the very first pair of tips of the SE530 is always the hardest. Mine was so tight that I destroyed the olives, leaving the plastic thingy on the nozzle

At least you're bright enough to know there is a plastic thingy. I was trying to remove *just* the foam, not realizing that there was a plastic sleeve that the foam was attached to.

Once I realized that, I just squeezed the whole foam part, twisted a bit til it broke free, and slid it off.

I'm so mechanically challenged ....

 

[chrischen]

Yea me too at first i didn't know there was the plastic thing and I almost ripped the foam off. But it took a really long time. I used my nails and basically pried the plastic part slowly off.

 

[dmorga11]

Ok. So I had this same exact problem with my SE530 so I went to google and searched "shure headphones won't budge" and this came up.. I read your responses and then I gave it a try. I got left sleeve off but then when i tried getting the right one off, it seriously wouldn't budge. I tried and tried and finally they twisted off but the nozzle came off with them. SO BE CAREFUL! they are NOT built like tanks and they WILL break and you will be very upset.

 

[digitalfrog]

Put them in the freezer for 30 minutes ....

 

[Young Spade]

Wow man that really sucks. Couldn't you loosen them up with soapy water or something? Well if I ever get some I will remember that they break :/

 

[dkg]

I had a very hard time getting the medium black foam sleeves off of a replacement set of 530's. The right one was the most difficult and I actually heard a crack as it started to come off. The nozzle is now slightly loose, rocking slightly from side to side. I guess these will be going back to Shure. They replaced a pair of E500's that had serious wire cracks.

The idea of being without these great earbuds while waiting for the replacments, led me to buy a new pair of the SE530's so sending these back to Shure wont leave me without.