[m4rkw]

I agree 100%. I've made quite the fuss with the Shure support guys and hopefully they'll forward the huge quality issues to the engineers and financial department since the price was horrific for what it did.

Where did you complain to? Maybe if we all complain to the same department in the same country it might help to put pressure on them to sort it out. I have a horrible feeling though that the software is baked on ROM and that isn't going to get fixed unless there's an enormous backlash. I know two people with this cable, one of whom has the 535s and he's pretty happy with it, so not sure how many people are going to bother complaining.

Another couple of relatively benign quality issues I noticed were the weird little white label that was stuck to the cable very tightly. No reason for it to be there and it's very difficult to get it off without marking the cable. Also the little plastic cable routing thing is totally useless as far as I can tell, it's presumably only there because whatever chinese manufacturer they used were told to stick one on so it looked more like a shure product. I'd love to see someone who can actually use that thing with enough cable left to run to their ears!

 

[HeadphoneBrnout]

Where did you complain to? Maybe if we all complain to the same department in the same country it might help to put pressure on them to sort it out. I have a horrible feeling though that the software is baked on ROM and that isn't going to get fixed unless there's an enormous backlash. I know two people with this cable, one of whom has the 535s and he's pretty happy with it, so not sure how many people are going to bother complaining.

Another couple of relatively benign quality issues I noticed were the weird little white label that was stuck to the cable very tightly. No reason for it to be there and it's very difficult to get it off without marking the cable. Also the little plastic cable routing thing is totally useless as far as I can tell, it's presumably only there because whatever chinese manufacturer they used were told to stick one on so it looked more like a shure product. I'd love to see someone who can actually use that thing with enough cable left to run to their ears!

Yeah, again, I totally agree. That cable routing gimmick is laughable at best. Anyway, I commented on the YT video presentation of the BT1, returned the item back to the store and also sent emails to their support and sales (if I remember correctly) departments in Europe. I don't care if they don't change it. It's their problem if they don't have a solid international communications channel for complaints, and if that's true, I want them to fail since the premium audio market is not to be tainted by some established, greedy manufacturer that thinks their past products have brainwashed our objective thinking.

 

[m4rkw]

For me it's still better than using a wired cable (I have the iPhone 8) so I guess I'll live with it and hope they fix the software issues.

I monitored the bluetooth connection from my mac and can see that it's using the SBC codec with a bitrate of around 315kb/sec. I tried forcing AAC but it doesn't support it, shame as that's what most of my music is in. So I got to thinking - if it's encoding to 315kb/sec SBC then it seems like there would be an advantage to using lossless audio because then the bluetooth encoder is starting with a higher quality source than if it was transcoding say 256kbps AAC or 320kbps MP3. So even though I won't hear the full depth of the lossless recording over bluetooth, the resulting SBC encoding should theoretically be better.

Is my logic right here?

 

[HeadphoneBrnout]

For me it's still better than using a wired cable (I have the iPhone 8) so I guess I'll live with it and hope they fix the software issues.

I monitored the bluetooth connection from my mac and can see that it's using the SBC codec with a bitrate of around 315kb/sec. I tried forcing AAC but it doesn't support it, shame as that's what most of my music is in. So I got to thinking - if it's encoding to 315kb/sec SBC then it seems like there would be an advantage to using lossless audio because then the bluetooth encoder is starting with a higher quality source than if it was transcoding say 256kbps AAC or 320kbps MP3. So even though I won't hear the full depth of the lossless recording over bluetooth, the resulting SBC encoding should theoretically be better.

Is my logic right here?

I really don't know what to say. There are many variables that can influence the final experience of listening, at least that's what I'm guessing. But yeah, if you read my previous posts, I was also complaining that these don't have any high def codec support like aptX (HD). Then we wouldn't have to waste time calculating audio fidelity, we'd just play our favorite flacs and just enjoy.

 

[m4rkw]

You might, iOS doesn't support AptX anyway

 

[HeadphoneBrnout]

You might, iOS doesn't support AptX anyway

That's kind of unfortunate. That's why I'm sticking to Android. The advantages of open source coding are just too good to drop. Anyway, isn't there any support for high-end codecs on iOS?

 

[m4rkw]

I don't know what "high-end codecs" means. I suspect Apple don't support Apt-X because they have their W1 bluetooth chip which is exclusively in their Beats headphones. If they supported Apt-X more people might buy sennheiser and other brands that support Apt-X rather than Beats headphones.

 

[HeadphoneBrnout]

I don't know what "high-end codecs" means. I suspect Apple don't support Apt-X because they have their W1 bluetooth chip which is exclusively in their Beats headphones. If they supported Apt-X more people might buy sennheiser and other brands that support Apt-X rather than Beats headphones.

Beats... lmao

 

[m4rkw]

I didn't say there was anything good about Beats headphones. But that's the kind of thing I can see Apple doing, making their own proprietary chip/codec and then shunning the competitions ones.

 

[HeadphoneBrnout]

I didn't say there was anything good about Beats headphones. But that's the kind of thing I can see Apple doing, making their own proprietary chip/codec and then shunning the competitions ones.

Oh, yeah. You can see that from a mile away.

 

[m4rkw]

Just discovered a trick, when turning the BT1 on just as it's about to say "POWER ON!" if you hit volume down it shuts up

Haven't found a way to silence the other painfully loud alerts though still waiting on a response from Shure about the issue. I was going to return it and get either the Westone cable or a Fiio BTR1 but neither have the kind of battery life i need. The BT1 lasts more than 12 hours which is awesome. Think I'm gonna wait for the Ear Studio and get that.

 

[m4rkw]

from Shure:

Hi Mark,

Thanks for getting back in touch. I've heard back.

There is no method to adjust the volume of the alerts on the BT1 and has not been designed to have its firmware updated.

Thank you for your honest and objective opinions on the product - I'll pass them back to the product team.

Thanks,
Tom

Tom Colman
Senior Applications Engineer
Shure Europe

 

[m4rkw]

Hi Tom

So am I to understand that you don't intend to resolve this issue?

It seems rather baffling to me that a company like Shure with such obvious talent for audio engineering demonstrated in your other products can have introduced a product like this that could damage someone's hearing if they used it as intended.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Unfortunately there is nothing we can resolve in this instance. The unit has been designed as a standalone unit and not to be firmware updateable. The BT1 voice was set at a level designed for the majority of earphones it would be paired with.

I hear your comments about the volume. I've not tested the combination myself, but a colleague in the US commented they were 'quite loud'.

I've passed your comments back to the product team to bear in mind for future products.

Can I thank you for choosing Shure, but I'm sorry we're unable to get your perfect bluetooth experience this time.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[HeadphoneBrnout]

Lol

 

[m4rkw]

***UPDATE***

Hi Mark,

Having spoken to a couple of colleagues here, we'd like to get your BT1 back for testing. We would replace this for you, testing a new BT1 with SE535s before they are sent to you.

Is this something you'd be interested in?

TC

Hi

Not really sure I understand what you're saying.. do you mean you'll fix the issue and send me a fixed one?

Mark

Hi Mark,

Whilst it's functioning ok, there's a suspicion that your unit is louder than it should be.

We would get your BT1 to Shure UK for testing. This would be compared against a brand new unit, listening for a difference in levels.

Providing that the newly-tested unit operates at a lower level than yours, we would ship it to you, replacing your original pair.

Thanks,
Tom

Hmm. Is there a difference between the standalone BT1 cable and the one that ships with SE215s? I bought the latter as I didn't have the 535s at the time. Everything I could find online suggested they were exactly the same but maybe that's wrong.

To be honest, it would be much quicker and easier for me to just order another BT1 (eg the standalone cable) from amazon and compare it myself, if you really think it's going to be different. I've seen a lot of people with the same issue though so I'm a bit skeptical.

Presumably you have BT1 cables and SE535s lying around, are you saying that the sounds aren't really loud on the test cables you have?

Mark

A friend of mine at work has the standalone BT1 cable, also with SE535s. He said the same thing - the power on voice prompt and the off-beeps are painfully loud. I just tested his cable with my 535s and it's exactly the same.

Given my testing of two separate cables and the many people I've seen leaving similar reviews on amazon and discussing this problem on forums, I'm fairly sure my unit is working as it was designed to. Rather than a manufacturing defect, it's a design flaw. They've obviously been tested with higher impedance / lower sensitivity models like the 215s without consideration to the higher sensitivity IEMs. Frankly I thought the prompts were a bit loud with the 215s but they at least didn't hurt my ears.

Why this has happened is more of a mystery. Shure are meant to be better than this. My 535LTDs are amazing, this BT1 doesn't even feel like it was made by Shure - more like it was outsourced to some low-level manufacturer who weren't given a very clear spec or any oversight of quality control.

Maybe it's a problem with an entire batch, that would be good if you could send me a pair that isn't painful to use. Given the widespread reports of this I'm skeptical though.

In my humble opinion sitting and doing nothing about this is going to cause damage to your brand. I think you need to do at least one of the following:

1) Product recall and fix the software issues.

2) Stop advertising the BT1 as being compatible with high-sensitivity IEMs.

3) Release a separate model for the high-sensitivity IEMs.

The audio files for the voice prompts and the beeps are either in firmware that can be reprogrammed on a bench or baked into a ROM. They were loud to me even with the 215s so I think cutting the volume of these samples in half should be a good solution without causing any negative impact for users of the 215s.

If they're on a ROM and re-fabbing it isn't economically viable then I think you at least owe it to your customers to stop advertising compatibility with the higher sensitivity IEMs.

Mark

No reply yet. I don't think they're going to do anything about it. Sad times for Shure.