My take on the SHURE SE215 earphones.

Good heapdphones are like a good yoga or gym session, they give you happiness and can calm the mind. Bad headphones are like a day at a daycare centre with 20 screaming infants and hardwood floors. It's stressful, straining and damaging to the ears. 

I would not say I am an audiophile but I do like music to be played as close as possible to the way it was intended. With my limited time recording in studios I appreciate that what the musicians get out of their gear will often then be distorted by the perceptions of the audio engineer, the mixer, masterer and producer. So I figure it's probably important not to further murder their efforts by using crap headphones. Can't afford them? Then save up and don't spend less in the meantime. You'll be glad you did.

This is my second set of Shure in-ear earphones. The first was a set of E2C back in about 2004 when they were new and Shure were making the transition from musician in-ear monitor solutions only to mainstream music earphones for general consumers. I expect this move was a good one and they have thanking the good stock value fairies ever since.  The E2C offered great passive noise canceling but were quite big, lacked in bass and took some getting used to fitting with the behind your head, big wire, down the back fitting style. In addition the foams which were replaceable we're a little nasty after a while of trying to fit them with newsprint covered fingers. 

The Shure se215 improve on all the main complaints I had with the E2C. 

Main features:

• Smaller form fitting to the ears
• Nice rubberized tips that don't require changing
• Solid bass
• Excellent passive noise canceling
• Super flush fitting in ear. You can hardly see then face on (I wonder if people think they are super cool  hearing aids)
• Comfortable

Note that with all headphones fit different in different ears but I expect these would be good in most.

There are benefits also in the behind the head, down the back wiring in these things in my personal opinion. Drop the wire down your jacket or shirt, adjust tension to allow head movement left and right and with some small tweaks you have firm fitting earphones that block noise, fit snug, look cool and sound great (price considered). Some days I don't take them out of my shirt and hang them on my shoulders. And there is never the mistaken pull your ear off moment when you snag the cables.

So how do they sound?

Good question and you would think I would have started there but headphones are about more than just sound. If you carry these things on planes, trains and automobiles you needed to know they are not annoying and dont fail certain situations.

Sound with price considered is very good. Bass is really strong, stronger than the other common frequencies but not overwhelming at all. Separation of instruments and stereo panning is great also. I listen to everything but mostly guitar based rock and some days I would like a little more cut in the high ranges but this also depends on your audio player and quality of mp3 files etc. Overall though the high treble is somewhat muted. It's hard to find headphones at this price that balance the spectrum and would rather take a hit on treble than bass. I have a set of etymotic er6i which I loved the sound of but they lacked bass and had great highs. The Shure fit better and cancel more noise.

Conclusion.

You wont regret buying these unless you hate the idea of a wire running down your back or shoulder (Just close your eyes and imagine you are on a stage rocking it like a rock god). The sound is as good as your going to get at this price range and anything lacking might be correctable with some eq tweaks. The passive noise canceling is really impressive, even compared with my active audio technical headphones which I fly with. If you need quick in - take out earphones  these are not them. These would not work for an office where you needed to always remove them to talk to people. You might consider the klipsch S4 or S4i for that. As a bonus I would use these for live in-ears monitors on stage if needed.

Shure se215 get my vote. Don't pay retail price and you'll be cheering.

Written while listening to oh Sleeper, Razorlight and Damien Rice on my Shure SE215.

Available here at Amazon