So I was stupid listened to some peoples advice on this forum few years ago and bought these (Shure SE215) IN EAR CANAL EARPHONES or IEM or whatever, for music listening.
Lots of time has passed since I purchased those horrible earphones, I took up music professionally and get to work with some famous people, not directly, but I am getting there.
I figured I would clear some things up for people getting into this, and for some compulsive spenders who are in denial.
I made a horrible choice of getting Shure SE215 probably many of you do/did/will do as well, I am not talking about the particular model, I am talking about the particular design. These were designed for syncing of music on stage while singing. Their sound quality only need to match the minimum required. They hurt your ears after wearing them for more than 30 minutes, and if they cost $200 more than this $100 model, they will not be more comfortable stop lying to yourselves, they might sound slightly better.
I let my inexperienced friend listen to these, she hated them, she said her ear hurt, the sound was worse than on her old iPhone ear buds.
I AM TALKING ABOUT THIS SPECIFIC DESIGN
Their design is to eliminate noise, sync you up with instruments, and I don't understand how most of you (I assume have nothing to do with performing, but just enjoy music) are buying these headphones with the horrible sound they produce. You are paying for the invisible design, sound isolation, sound syncing, then you pay hundreds and hundreds to compensate for horrible sound quality to make it a little better. While being in constant pain after about 30 minutes of wear. I can prove this, put rubber sound isolating foam in your ears and stay like that for more than 30 minutes, I dare you not to pull them out with relieve.
My old iPhone buds sounded much better than Shure SE215, yes yes I know the bass has to be punchy and not muddy, don't understand how this is a problem if you can EQ it, and don't understand how this is a problem for "syncing design earphones" as they don't have bass at all, other than faint punchy base to give you the proper beat.
Same goes for STUDIO HEADPHONES, which sometimes cost outrageously because the industry makes stupid money. These headphones ARE NOT DESIGNED FOR MUSIC LISTENING. They are designed to hear certain things, and to eliminate other things while singing in the studio and recording your music, still some of you "experts" believe you are getting a premium sound quality lol.
Same goes for GAMING HEADPHONES, they are not designed for music.
Conclusion, if you want great sound quality, go with either cheaper Dj headphones - these tend to have very wide frequency range, but you will sacrifice comfort, which you can solve by buying more comfortable ear cushions. Or go with more expensive headphones for "home listening," they will have frequency line just as wide, and they will be much more comfortable to wear, but they will be much more expensive. If you just need earphones to listen to music on the go then your iPhone buds or some nice warranted BOSE will do the job perfectly well. If however you just look to waste your money away then disregard everything I just said and knock yourselves out.
Mods who read this and rage do not delete my thread, I made it to help new users, I offer my "expertise" and it is my right to do so, if you disagree fight back with a constructive argument.