[Beyerfan70]

For my Christmas present to myself this year i decided that after never owning a pair of 530's i thought well lets go for it.
Now i've been listening to these with my Sony Rh1 hi-md,s638f and S618f all loaded with classic rock,metal etc encoded with high bitrate aac and lame.
Let me start by saying that i love the shure sound signature,my Se310 is imo the best iem out there,price to performance its unmatched,from the moment i first plugged them in i was in heaven.
So they stand as my reference iem.
i've had the se420 which didn't last long,a lemon pair indeed,they sounded ok to me,a bit nasal but ok,however nowhere near as good as my 310's.
But i wanted to own a pair of the 530's for some time even though i had tried a pair for about 20 mins and wasn't overly impressed with the boomy bass i figured spending more time with them would reap rewards.
Nope that just isn't the case,after a few days with these they just dont cut it,and yes they are 100% official.
Dont get me wrong i'm not saying that they are poor far from it they are a great sounding phone and i can fully understand why people love them.
The argument that i have is that after hearing these and then swapping back to my 310's there is just not the jump in sq that there should be considering these are double the price.
They are a lot more efficient with the high sensitivity which is nice but thats where the plus points end.
Bass is too much,it just seems to boom away to me,great if you like it but hardly clean sounding,310 has just about perfect bass to me.
Mids are exactly the same on both absolutely no different exactly the same.
Highs both slightly rolled off but very very pleasing to listen to however they are again exactly the same.
Comfort and fit goes to the 310 here,its so comfortable i could wear them all day,whereas the 530 is ok but just awkwardly shaped and doesn't feel as nice.
And after i'd took all this on board it just became more apparent that while the 530 is indeed great when truthfully compared to the 310 its overpriced and does not perform as well as it should.
For me as i have said before the 310 is indeed my favourite and my perfect iem and when you consider that one has one driver and the other has three it just doesn't make any sense.
And thats what i mean about diminished return,apart from being louder and more bassy there is no difference,it seems you are paying more for the metal box fancy packing and extra driver which in all honesty doesn't make a huge difference.
I love shure phones and the sound quality and isolation they provide but the 530 is overpriced and does not perform.
This is just my humble opinion,as i'm not a huge bass lover but even so they are not as good as they are made out to be.

 

[member1982]

Use the EQ

 

[Spyro]

Odd....

I have not heard the 310 but I owned the 420.

While I think $300 (new) is very fair price for SE530 I would NOT have paid $125 for the 420. I thought the sound was that inferior. Closed in, compressed sounding, weak bass, no dynamic range to speak of.
Guess I'd love to hear 310's.

 

[Motty]

tut tut, opening your christmas present and it's not even December

I'm glad that you have found a iem you like, you can (hopefully) return the 530, get your money back and feel happy that you have an iem you like and (hopefully) not suffer from upgradeitis!

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I hear you, Beyerfan70. Ultra-high-end IEMs such as the SE530 need a much better source and amplification than a typical portable music player with its puny, gutless built-in amp in order to sound significantly better than mid-level IEMs such as the SE310. Although the SE530 is a bit louder than the SE310 at the same volume control setting even out of a PDAP, the PDAP itself just doesn't deliver enough output power at the headphone out to make full use of the SE530's enhanced sound quality. (Underpowered, the SE530's bass sounds loose and a bit unfocused.) Moreover, PDAPs have digital volume controls, which can mangle the sound quality at lower level settings (yes, these volume controls perform best at relatively high settings).

The primary purpose of my use of an IEM is ultimate portability. And this is the biggest thing holding me back from the SE530, an IEM which I consider "somewhat hard to drive" (the SE530 is amply loud, but doesn't sound as good as it should unless I give it a fair amount of amplification).

 

[Xena]

Boomy bass in the SE530?

Yah, whatEVer ....

 

[CaspianPH]

I don't want to make a new thread, and I really don't want to hijack this one...but can someone tell me why these headphones cost as much as they do??

 

[pila405]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaspianPH /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't want to make a new thread, and I really don't want to hijack this one...but can someone tell me why these headphones cost as much as they do??

good question

 

[The-One]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaspianPH /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't want to make a new thread, and I really don't want to hijack this one...but can someone tell me why these headphones cost as much as they do??

Let me give you the quick and unintentionally sarcastic answer:

Because they predict there enough customers who buy it at that price for them to make the max return.

 

[Beyerfan70]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaspianPH /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't want to make a new thread, and I really don't want to hijack this one...but can someone tell me why these headphones cost as much as they do??

It is a good question indeed.
Here in the uk the cheapest price is £215 bar a penny.
For £170 i could buy a Beyer Dt880! ok its not an iem but i would be guaranteed absolute sonic bliss.
As far as iem's go i can get a Se310 for £110 and be far happier.
So where they come up with the price i just dont know.
To get back on track i have really given these a good listen today and i've thrown all my favourite music and test pieces at them,things like the intro to Bowie's Station to station,the crunchy guitar break in ozzy's 11 silver,bill wards drums in sabbath's swinging the chain,nightwish......i could go on but everything just sounds boomy and artificial.
I keep thinking they must be duff ones but they are 110% official,serial number,date made etc.
I am just so bewildered as to why these sound so....well average really.
If they were £100 i think they would be about worth that but certainly no more.
It breaks my heart that as a shure lover these would turn out to be such a let down.
Odd indeed.

 

[mark2410]

to each their own, i personally think the 530's are spectacularly good

 

[lauinbeta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The-One /img/forum/go_quote.gif Let me give you the quick and unintentionally sarcastic answer: Because they predict there enough customers who buy it at that price for them to make the max return.

I dont find that sarcastic at all.

 

[Tmacfan4321]

About the 310s, do you guys think that they outperform the other IEMs in the $150-$200 range? I am looking into cans in that pricepoint.

 

[immtbiker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaspianPH /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't want to make a new thread, and I really don't want to hijack this one...but can someone tell me why these headphones cost as much as they do??

Headphones in the $35-150 range cost about $6 each to make in China.

Take that and add multiple armatures, decent wire and a crossover network, plus a case and adapters, and it fits right into the progression.

 

[tnmike1]

ok, I've read this and now have a question: how do these sound properly amped? Like with an Imod and Hornet or Reference amp?? Seems like most of the responders here are trying them ampless. WOuld love to know the answer, as am looking at these or the new Westone 3