Damn I wish I'd read this a couple of weeks ago.
I bought a super-cheap set of JVC canal buds from Dixons at Heathrow Airport (UK) a few weeks ago, and was astonished at how good (relatively) they sounded for the £17 price tag. They weren't anywhere near as horrible as I thought they'd be.
Anyway I foolishly lost them after the trip, so on flying out of Heathrow again last week I thought I'd replace them, but got tempted by the Head-Fi upgrade bug. "Well," I thought, "if the £17 JVC's sound OK, maybe if I spend a little more I'll get something that sounds pretty good."
I didn't have long so I quickly summed up the options, and decided to go with the Shure SE110 which was priced at £60 and, like the JVC's, came with a selection of buds for different size ear canals, plus a zipped nylon case to keep them in (big deal!).
I accidentally tore the outer packaging in my hurry to get into it, and so threw it in the bin and got on my flight. Big mistake!
The Shures were massively disappointing: Firstly, the design. They are large and unergonomic. They go in 'upside down', in that the cable comes out the top and is supposed to loop over the ear. The trouble is that in trying to loop the stiff, microphonic, high-memory cable over your ear, you pull the buds out and have to start again. Also the permanent cable is so short that the included extension cable literally must be used, unless you put your portable player in a shirt pocket, and even then you'd better not move your head! This is ridiculous and only serves to add unnecessary weight.
In contrast, the £17 JVC's were small and light; the super soft cable came out the traditional way (at the bottom) which made fitting a breeze, and didn't suffer from 'kink memory' at all. (I actually used these as IEM's on a gig playing drums because I forgot my moulds, and they were fine. They didn't fall out and they isolated well enough.)
Anyway after several minutes of fiddling and faffing I finally got them fitted and started to play some music. It sounded sh1t. I know that's not very technical and pretty non-specific, but it's the most appropriate term in this case - everything just sounded plain sh1t!
There's a distinct lack of bass and the treble suffers a similar lack of extension, but the mids are the most disappointing, sounding shouty and unnatural - God forbid a saxophone appears in the track, you'll be diving for the volume control! Also they were pretty quiet which meant I had to set the volume on my N95 at 90 or 100%, which isn't good for battery life and leaves little headroom for EQ (I did try to dial in some of what I thought was missing using the media player's graphic equalizer, but with little success - if the drivers can't do it, they can't do it).
Honestly, how Shure can put their name to this product, and set the retail price so high, I will never understand. I feel I have been conned and will never trust the brand again. I could've bought 3 sets of the JVC's and still had enough change to buy a CD to listen to!!
Of course Shure's high end stuff is great - but to be honest Ultimate Ears will most likely get the sale next time I upgrade my pro IEM's.
*feels sorry for wallet already.*
