Thursday, May 1, 2008

'Shure' you need new headphones...

Shure ES110Shure is one of those companies. Rather than being a renowned producer of consumer grade products, they're mainly associated with high-end high-performance equipment designed with the professional in mind.

Their equipment prices aren't discount, that being said, their prices aren't unreasonable either. You get what you pay for with Shure.

Now, what you pay for when you plunk down those hard earned greenbacks for a pair of Shure SE110 headphones is a set of Hi-def Mircospeakers with unique soft foam sleeves. These sleeves, or the parts that go in you ear, are made from the same foam material as the earplugs you would wear at a rock concert or an auto race.

This idea is genius. Forget noise canceling headphones that attempt to mask outside noise, the Shure SE110 completely isolates the music; without even a hint of outside noise ruining your listen experience. You hear nothing but superb highs, clear mids, and thumping bass. All while enjoying your music at a level that won't damage your hearing.

If you read the instructions of most sets of headphones there will be a warning against turning the volume up enough to drown out noises. Say what!? Now I know in a sue crazy world disclaimers are a necessity, for dummies; but, how could you enjoy listen to your music on the bus if you can still hear the crazy homeless dude beside you rambling incessantly.

Lucky for us there is no sign of this disclaimer in the Shure SE110's literature. As I'm writing this and using the ES110s, I have the volume on my iPod touch set at half, and I can't even hear the strokes of my own keyboard. Just think of what these Shure's could do for annoying managers.

There are some drawbacks with the SE110. Having to clean the ear wax out of the nozzle is kinda gross but completely required, plus Shure designed the ES110 so they are worn with the wire going behind the ear. This configuration is a bit annoying and lacks the familiarness of other earbuds, not a deal breaker at all though.

Bottom line on these Shure ES110s is they're a great entry level professional in-ear headset. Offering superior sound quality and wonderfully effective noise isolating foam sleeves, which won't let any of the music get away from you.

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