[james444]

Quote:

Let me first say that I do not have the se535. I have had the se530 for a couple of years and think its a pretty good earphone. What gets me is that Shure charges so much for the se535 when 90% of its development costs were paid off years ago with the se530. Shure had an opportunity to pass these savings on to its customers, but instead decided to screw them. 

 
That's true, but they have to compensate for a gazillion of warranty exchange SE530s.

 

[Kurdt-bada]

Finally got the acs custom tips with my shure 535 and I must say I'm a lucky guy apart from the perfect fit and isolation the sound is better now, much better in my opinion... the bass is stronger, 50% more than with the grey silicon tips(the only ones which I got a good fit) they come close to the um3x bass and I'm not exaggerating, no more lacking of bass(too much sometimes with my d4+hi flight opamps and stock buffers)...the whole sound is clearer with a bit more amount of detail, the soundstage seems bigger now and the mids and treble feel as good as always I don't think the treble is recessed  only with my 120 gb seems a little bit...really nice improvement!!.
 

 

[s0ny]

I have a pair of Shure SE535 for quite a while. Until now, I've used it for my mobile phone. The sound quality:

+ good mids
- rolled-off highs
- weak soundstage
- practically no bass

My phone outputs 32 ohm and uses lossless files. Those facts made me think the phone couldn't be the cause of the disappointing performance. While these IEM's are still many times better than regular earbuds, they were not that impressive for $500. I felt that Shure SE535 was overrated and over-hyped. I was already thinking of selling it.

That is, until I tried them on my Little Dot MK III headphone amplifier. I used a gain setting of 3 on the amplifier and connected it to my high-end CD player. I experienced jaw-dropping fidelity on the SE535 which I didn't expect. The highs were more noticeable, the instrument separation became very direct, the soundstage was much much better and the bass was deep and punchy. I had no idea that the SE535 could actually do this. I used different genres such as rock, bass-heavy music and pop music to notice the differences. It sounded very similar to my audiophile full-size open cans. Full-size cans are still better of course, but the SE535 really had the same style of sound. It could not be compared to sound coming out of my smartphone. On a serious headphone tube amp, the SE535 is so much better that smartphone output is a joke. The SE535 is notorious for having a serious lack of bass. It's the Android/iPhone's fault. The SE535 has very impressive bass when amped on a good tube amp. Very deep and rich.

If your SE535 sounds mediocre on your mobile phone, trust me, it's your phone, not the IEM's. I thought the SE535's were overrated. I felt ripped off and wanted to sell them until I heard the capabilities on a decent source and serious headphone tube amp. The SE535's are stunning IEM's and not overrated at all. It's just sad that it's too good for a smartphone. Because of these IEM's I found out how bad the output of smartphones is. I ordered another pair of IEM's that have more soundstage and bass. They are on the way, but I might return or sell them, because the smartphone is the bottleneck. Even if I'd buy a $1000 IEM, it would still suck on the smartphone. I'm keeping these SE535's.

On a good portable audio device, these IEM's should sound better. A smartphone is simply too weak and not worthy of such an IEM.

 

[Spyro]

It's deceiving because SE535 goes loud and is very efficient but with my 2nd time around with them and using my Ibasso T3 analog + Westone star tips it's the best universal I have ever heard.  Total different IEM.  I also used the same amp and tips with W4.  No comparison, SE535 is much better (or I prefer it much better).  This is the best discovery on HF right now.
 
This is why Shure had to go up to $1,000 on the SE846.  There was really nothing to improve upon SE535 except to make it more fuller and headphone-like.  If SE846 was priced at $599 it will steal many sales away from SE535.

 

[Spyro]

UPDATE:  Been playing around with "amped" versus "unamped" for about an hour today with SE535 +Ibasso T3 analog version with the Westone Star tips.
 
In retrospect there is very little difference....but there is a difference.  AMPED I find everything just a tiny bit tighter and more controlled.  Ironically, with SE535 this may NOT necessarily be a good thing because I think SE535 is already a bit conservative and reigned in on everything.  However UNAMPED the bass seems a bit looser (and bigger) and I am finding this actually more enjoyable.  The SE535 is already a disciplined sounding IEM and there is no need for an amp to do that task in this case.  Of course the somewhat bold and bassy Ipod sound sig actually helps the SE535 IMHO.    SE535 is also efficient and very loud unamped so....
 
The differences are very subtle.  If you are NOT an amp kinda person the SE535 will still do the trick and do it well.  Many have already commented how straight out of their Iphone the SE535 rocks!
 
There's better stuff out there but an unamped SE535 with the Westone Star tips is a really really nice listen.  Really rolled off treble bugs me and I do not find that to be the case at all here and I'm sure the "star" tips help quite a bit.    But I do also use EQ....
 
Ipod Classic on "rock" setting (its a good one!) tipping the lower and upper register with zero distortion.   Sounds frickin awesome!!!  Any music.  Great all-arounder!   More than content with this set-up.  Moreso than either UE900 or W4 amped.
 
I'm sounding like a broken record across a few different threads here but I can't recommend the "star" tips enough. 

 

[s0ny]

Maybe an iPod is a better source. The SE535 lacks bass and highs on the iPhone 4. The mids are good and the SE535 is still much better than the stock iPhone 4 earbuds. I did some more tests on an XA50ES CD player. The SE535 really stands out on a high-end source. For an iPhone 4, I recommend getting cheaper IEM's. The iPhone 4 is simply not good enough to output great sound. An iPhone with Shure SE535 is like having $2000 tyres on a $400 car.

Thanks for the STAR tips recommendation. I ordered a set to try out.

 

[ScaryFatKidGT]

First I do agree with the above 4 posts, not the 535's isn't a hard to drive ortho, it's pretty much the exact opposite but because of that it benefits from amping in other ways. From most consumer source's the hiss alone is to much but when run threw my E17, hiss is almost non existent, as well as being less congested sounding.
 
Anyway my problem is that I had S4's then 215's and wanted something better and when I asked I was told the UM3X was a flat boring monitoring/mixing tool, the W3's had a bloated midbass hump, and the UE900's were not released yet soo I focused on the W4 vs 535 and wound up getting the 535's. Bass impact is pretty low (isn't this a typical BA thing?) but other wise every thing below like 8khz is amazing. Now the upper mids get a little sibilant which is very annoying to me in a $500 IEM said to be very smooth, idk if it is from the 7-8khz IEM spike or what but its annoying. Then the treble is very rolled off and idk why, it is a little beyond dark/warm/inoffensive in a bad way. I miss the treble and bass of the S4's even tho they are hardly a good sounding IEM. The treble on the 215's was more forward than the 535's but still didn't have the sparkle and the bass was to short and tight, while the S4's made everything sound like a 808 in a club the 215's make club music sound like a jazz bass drum almost.
 
Wat should I try next? From this thread it sounds like the UM3X.... headphones are so confusing :/

 

[TekeRugburn]

Quote:

 
 
The Westone UM3X, on the other hand, is an IEM that also has forward mids but in my view the treble and bass are rendered much better than on the SE535, and all 3 frequencies are presented in a much more convincing, lifelike way. One of the quite remarkable aspects of the UM3X and the new Westone 4 is that they're not fatiguing at all, even at loud(er) volumes, during long listening sessions.

 
Couldn't have described the UM3x any better!

 

[moddyhhhhh]

Yea. I quite agree with u. Actually I think such earphone such as w4 535 gr10 is impossible to be compared to ie8 about sub-bass. But if u use some amps it could be better

 

[goodvibes]

Quote:

Let me first say that I do not have the se535. I have had the se530 for a couple of years and think its a pretty good earphone. What gets me is that Shure charges so much for the se535 when 90% of its development costs were paid off years ago with the se530. Shure had an opportunity to pass these savings on to its customers, but instead decided to screw them. 

SE500 actually but every part in the 535 is new other than the drivers. That said, I didn't feel it better other than cable durability and modular setup.