[Slothington]

I recently had my most prized possession, my shure SE535's, stolen out of my car while i was in class. needless to say i'm utterly crushed, as I used them every day (and often even fell asleep wearing them.) So i'm on the hunt for new headphones, but can only afford either used shures or something else, as it took me a long time to save up for the 535's in the first place. I can't place an ad looking to buy in the trade forum because i'm a new member, so here is what i'm wondering: What are some alternatives that are comparable to the shure (in my case, definitely for fit/comfort, shures were super comfy to me, and passive noise isolation, as my room is very loud and the shures were absolutely excellent) of course sound quality is important too, but it needs to preferably have all these qualities. any help you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Trower]

First off sorry to hear your iem's were stolen

As far as new ones go, what's your budget? What do you listen to for music?

 

[Slothington]

my budget is somewhere around $350. I listen to all kinds of music, but predominately electronic and alternative (broken bells is a good example)

 

[lee730]

Quote:

my budget is somewhere around $350. I listen to all kinds of music, but predominately electronic and alternative (broken bells is a good example)

Sennheiser IE80, Sony MDR-7550s. If you really love your highs look into the EX1000. The IE80s are on sale at amazon.italy for around $260.00. MSRP is $450.00. I got my MDR-7550s for $250.00 on sale. Not sure if you can find the EX1000s for less than $350.00, I'm sure its possible. They just didn't agree with my ears when it came to the treble. But their bass was superb. The MDR-7550s manages to fix the issues I had on the Sonys .

 

[goodvibes]

All great recommendations but nothing isolates as good as Shure olives. If you can deal with little less bass HF5s would allow you to go through a few without breaking the bank and you can use your olives on them.

 

[nipit]

get etymotics, the er-4p model.

 

[goodvibes]

HF5 sounds more similar to the Shure. The 4p has over 6db more output at around 15khz than either of the others.

Here's another graph with the Sony 7550 which look close but they can't use olives. UE600s aren't too far off either. There's more to it than just FR curves but they'll get you in the ballpark.

 

[Slothington]

yeah i truly love those shure foam tips. Honestly after i learned how to put them in well, and wore them for around ten minutes, i could no longer feel them in there, they were that comfortable to me. so any replacement would have to have that over the ear low profile fit that the shure's had. i'll look into the suggestions you guys have made. anyone have any experience with the next step down from the 535? 425 i think it is. i'm guessing the fit and noise isolation is the same, but is it a significant drop in sound quality? they are quite a bit cheaper. I'm currently searching places for used shures and the sony models. I have no experience with high end sony headphones, only the ~80$ ones and they definitely didn't suit my tastes. I'm sure the high end ones are much better though. Another model i'm interested in are westone 3's (4 if i can find a great deal) i've read several reviews that go back and forth between them and the 535's on sound quality, but haven't heard anything related to comfort/noise isolation. Everyone i know is completely astounded that i dont just buy a $20 pair (and much less why the hell i would spend $350 on headphones) so it's nice to talk to people that can relate . I understand it's a little ridiculous to spend that much for a pair of headphones but then again I use them more than anything else and i could just never go back to the cheap ones. no way.

 

[Slothington]

Thank you to everyone that messaged and gave suggestions. I got a good deal on a pair of Westone 4R's, I will let you guys know how they are when they arrive! I'm sure i'll appreciate them more than the dude that stole my shures