SE215-CL-EFS

I bought these after deciding that I didn't want to keep buying endless pairs of Sennheisers which were constantly failing after about 4-6 months. I spend a lot of time out of the house and so I use headphones for extended periods of time, so comfort and durability are just as important as sound quality for me. First, and probably most importantly, sound quality: these are definitely the best sounding earphones I've ever used. Good depth of tones although at lower volumes they can lack slightly on bass for my liking, although it depends on what you're listening to in all honesty. I have quite an eclectic music taste so I can say that they'll handle anything from Ludovico Einaudi to Daft Punk to Metallica without much trouble. Overall I'd give sound quality 9/10. The only drawback in terms of sound quality, while it is truly excellent for the price, it takes some effort to get the best out of these headphones, as getting the right fit from the sleeves requires some trail and error. It is worth the effort as when you have it sorted because not only do they sound excellent but the noise cancellation is also very good - perfect if you're planning on getting something to use for commuting. This brings me neatly on to comfort. They are very comfortable, I usually wear them when travelling, or when I'm in university. I've worn them for around 3 hours every day for the last 6 months and haven't experienced any issues on the comfort front. These come with a selection of three silicon and three foam earbud sleeves and without a shadow of a doubt the foam ones are better in terms of both creating a good acoustic seal, and in terms of comfort so I would go with those. Unfortunately for me, the medium buds are just slightly too small for my ears which makes getting a good acoustic seal that little bit harder, but short of paying for custom molded sleeves there's nothing I can do about it. All in all, a very comfortable set of headphones. In terms of durability, these have held up very well considering the amount of use and abuse these headphones have been through. They still sound pretty much new, and the cable is holding up well. My only niggle on that front is that the cable twists itself together when I'm using it which is a bit annoying , and I'm sure will probably kill it eventually, however since the cable is replaceable (albeit at ~£50 for a new one from their website, although I imagine you could find it cheaper elsewhere) this isn't too much of a problem. Overall these are excellent for the price, the sound quality is brilliant, they are comfortable over long periods and definitely worth the money. The lack of bass at lower volumes is annoying, and the awkward fit with my ears doesn't do it any favours. If I'm being picky a 4.5/5 would be about right

My job is pretty boring, requiring the use of an iPod most of the night. The only thing is, all the movement thru a 12 hour shift wrecks even decent quality headphones. So the demise of my last pair led me to press the button and purchase these entry level In Ear Monitors. I didn't want to spend more than £100.00 getting these from AXL /Amazon at just £72.99 plus P&P for which I used Special Delivery. Rapid service! They were in my hands by 10:00 the next morning. Straight from the package with no change to the fitted standard size foam sleeves I first fired them up on my Macbook. Wow! I'd read the reviews so I knew they'd be good, but I wasn't expecting to have to turn down the volume level they were so sensitive. They are the single driver version of these In Ear Monitors and at first trial, I'm impressed with the bass response and the very smooth top end. Next try was on the iPod... OK maybe not as responsive to the output as they were in the Macbook, they still run at a slightly lower volume level than I normally have it. That being said, I work in a high background noise environment so the proof of the pudding will be when I use them in work, although I see no problems, isolation to external sound is pretty good around the home. I look forward to also using them in my secondary work too! Fitting them is a slight fiddle until you get used to the mouldable wrap around cable at the ear but once you've done it a few times it becomes second nature. The day they came, next door was having carpets fitted, so I wore them playing very low level music whilst I slept. I must say they were extremely comfortable even when lying on top of the driver housing. They fit very snugly into the ears and as of this moment are being road tested on my iPod as I do some chores. As long as you set up the adjustable sleeve to fit the divided cable snugly to your the back of your head, these units are pretty much staying where they are put and I am only very slightly aware of the sleeves in my ear. So far so good. As I said the the real test will be during a 12 hour shift at work. The other plus side of this range of In Ear Monitors is that spares are available! All in all I'm ecstatic with these and will probably go for the SE 515 CL model at a later date - oh and did I mention they'll come in pretty handy for my other work, studio recording, audio manipulation & mastering! Now, over 6 weeks after having them, I've tried them at my main work, where I am in areas of around 90dB plus of background noise for approximately ten hours a night. I have worn these throughout my shifts and the noise isolation is still pretty good. I hear the music more now than with my previous headphones although I do have to raise the volume slightly upwards when in high background noise areas. The bass response rolls off with the greater background noise with the standard foam sleeves, so I reckon I may visit an Aural Dispensary to purchase personally moulded sleeves for my ears to achieve greater compatability with my ear canals & achieve a better seal. The adjustable sleeve unfortunately moves easily with the amount of activity, so I am regularly adjusting the fit to keep the cables snug to my head. A small inconvenience for the added sound quality against run of the mill in ear headphones. I added a small clip taken from some old in ear headphones to the main part of the cable before it divides into two, enabling me to secure it to my clothes so the individual ear cables don't get pulled about with the severe activity I undertake at work. As said I wear these almost constantly over a shift of 12 hours and do not feel any discomfort, feeling more relaxed because of the amount of ambient noise from which they they protect me. So, they double up as ear defenders with the bonus of piping in music too! Result! All in all, for the money I would recommend the Shure SE215s... I am well pleased. So much so I bought another pair in Black for my better half!

I have for some time been searching for a pair of earphones that meet my somewhat exacting standards: good noise cancellation, sound quality, fit and, most importantly, price. I've used a couple of pairs of Sony in-ear phones and a pair of entry-level Ultimate Ears; they were good, but I felt that they were all missing something that could have made them a lasting pair of phones for me. I've been using these phones for about 10 months now so feel well-placed to offer my two cents. Step up the Shure SE215s, then. I had a bit of spare cash so decided I wanted to invest in a pair of phones that I wouldn't want to replace again before stepping up a level to having my own custom monitors produced. So I was looking for phones that slotted into the market at a step or two above entry-level - I couldn't have been more surprised when I received the Shures. Straight out the box I was impressed with the design features that have been incorporated for user-happiness: foam ear buds along similar lines as that used in ear protection; over-the-ear cable that gives a good, tight fit in both the ear canal and to the ear itself; and the moulded plastic casing that fits nicely in the ear so doesn't protrude, nice for when travelling and resting your head against a pillow or such like. The fit on these phones is beautiful. Just a quick compress of the foam bud, slot the phone into your ear and you're away. This foam provides an excellent seal to block out any background noise. I was completely blown away by the noise isolation as when I first went outside the sound of the city traffic was down to a mere hum. A problem I had with other earphones was that over time the fit would become painful but even on long flights of 4 hours or more I just don't notice that they're there. The Ultimate Ears phones came with a moulded over-the-ear wire so this was not something new to me, but on the Shures they worked perfectly meaning the phones themselves remained firmly in the ear canal giving that all important acoustic seal. After about 8 months of use, however, the thicker protective plastic coating for the moulded wire split as did a couple of the electrical wires of one of the cables. Fortunately this is an easy fix with a replacement cable (approx. £40 from Amazon) and, considering I have used this for at least a couple of hours every day in that time, with countless removals and insertion cycles requiring moulding of the cable, it could have been a lot worse! Just something to bear in mind that perhaps every year you will need to invest in a replacement cable if you're a heavy user. Now, most importantly for this review is the sound quality. I have to say, again I was blown away by how good it is. I had to turn the bass down on my iPhone but it wasn't an awful booming bass that would grate after a while so this would be a great pair of phones for bass-lovers straight away. Once I'd sorted the bass 'problem' out, I was able to road test the phones and find out what they were good at. Even for single driver phones, the variety of sound is good if a little restrained. You can definitely hear how there is room for improvement when going up to two or even three drivers with the more expensive kit. I like the tweets and highs which don't sound as if they're separate from the music and over-emphasised. The mids are where the music sounds most restrained to me and the lows, once I sorted the equalizer settings out, were warm and at just the right levels. Overall, the sound quality is very, very good and has certainly made a Shure fan of me but these phones lack that killer edge that would come with the more expensive multiple driver units. In conclusion, I don't think you will find a better pair of headphones in this price bracket. If this is all you have to spend, I would urge you to invest in these. That being said, bear in mind that you will be investing in a new cable every year or so if you use them every day for commuting to work or the like. If you only use them occasionally then I wouldn't imagine this problem would rear its head for at least a couple of years so not a major issue. If you are looking at these phones with other more expensive units in mind, I would suggest at multiple driver phones; if I remain unconvinced of the mould process for custom in-ear monitors then my next step will be with higher-end Shure phones for sure. In this case I would look at Amazon's Shure SE425 dual driver phones. 4 stars given due to the fraying of the moulded over-ear wire and the limited, but still very pleasing, sound band.

I’d like to add some context before we get into the nitty gritty of my review. I am not an audiophile, I do not claim to be and do not know the technical ins and outs of a pair of earphones, or in this case in-ear monitors, and these are for personal use in listening to music on Spotify, YouTube, or podcasts, so I cannot provide any feedback on how they perform for live music etc. Prior to buying these IEMs, I had owned a pair of CCA C10s for 10 months (the left in-ear just stopped playing music last week despite having a new cable). Those, despite their ‘Chi-Fi’ reputation, sounded pretty good for £40 IEMs. After the left earphone stopped working, I didn’t want to invest in another short-term purchase, so decided to invest in something that would last me for the foreseeable future, but wouldn’t hurt the bank balance too much. After doing a few days worth of research, reading reviews of the top selling budget IEMs on the web, I decided that I would take the plunge and give these a go. Sound Quality: Now this is subjective, you will see some people say that these IEMs lack the instrument separation that other IEMs do, and that to some extent is true. These IEMs, due to only having one driver, won’t have as wide a soundstage as other IEMs and won’t have incredibly clear instrument separation. These IEMs, as other reviews have said, are quite bass heavy. This is something that I found out of the box, and it wasn’t comfortable to listen to, to my ears at least, with the sound being quite ‘muddy’ on some tracks. However, if you also find this, then I would recommend, like I did, going into whatever music app you use and trying out the equalisers. I’ve managed to find one that reduces the emphasis on the bass and provides an overall more comfortable listening experience. The sound quality itself however is very, very good for such a small package. Vocals are clean, bass can be strong and sometimes a bit overpowering, but this can be rectified with an equaliser preset/setting your own settings and instruments are also crisp and clean. Noise cancellation This is where finding the right size ear tip (sleeve as Shure calls them). As the top line of the review says, a perfect seal is everything!!! These particular earphones come with six pairs of tips (3x foam and 3x silicone). Whereas EarPods sit at the entrance to your ear canal, these go into the ear canal itself. Choosing the right ear tip for you is a key part of the process of creating a seal that keeps the music in and the outside world ... well ... out. I would recommend that buyers try every set of ear tips that are provided and try to find ones that not only create a good-perfect seal, but also ones that are comfortable to you without the worry of being too loose or to far in your ear. Once this is achieved then the difference in sound levels from the outside world should be noticeable immediately. Luckily, my ears were a fit for the medium sized foam tips that come pre-installed, and they create an almost perfect seal in my ear canal and it feels and sounds like I’m wearing a pair of noise cancelling headphones without the characteristic hiss that accompanies ANC devices. Comfort This, like sound quality, will be subjective to each user. These in-ears are seemingly designed in a way that will allow the earphones themselves to fit the majority of ears. I will admit, I was sceptical as to how these would feel and fit in my ears. I’ve tried a number of different brands in my search to find a comfortable, affordable pair of in ears that also provide amazing sound quality and noise cancellation/isolation. The best example I can think of here is the AirPods Pro. These sounded great but sadly they fit so badly in my ear that it caused a cut to the inside of my ear due to the hard plastic rubbing against the ear itself. I feared that these would be the same, being made from plastic. Thankfully, my fears were not confirmed. These are a very, very comfortable pair of in-ears. They do not rub against the inside of my ear like the AirPods Pro and sit very nice inside my ear and ear canal. The cable itself can be a bit of a fiddle, especially if you are not used to wearing earphones where the cable goes up and behind the ear. However, once you get used to it after a few tries, it becomes natural to do when inserting them and the cable itself is very well made and is reinforced with Kevlar so it is guaranteed to be durable. This was a concern of mine before purchasing due to my cable failing on my previous pair of IEMs only after a few months of owning them, however this cable feels very well made and is sure to be durable for a long while yet. Overall Like I said at the beginning of this review, I am not an audiophile. I will have missed things in this review that others are more attuned to, especially with regards to sound quality when compared to similarly priced/more expensive IEMs. But this review is aimed at people like me, who do not have an audiophiles ear, but still want to extract the most out of their music listening experience without having to remortgage their house. These in-ear monitors, to me, provide that in spades. The sound quality, both for the size and price of this product is incredibly impressive. The noise cancellation, overall, is near enough faultless and you will be pleasantly surprised as to how much sound these little things can block out. And finally, these are a very comfortable pair of in-ears, especially with the foam tips that are a bit kinder on the ears than the silicone ones. If I was to advise someone who is new to the world of IEMs, I would personally avoid the emerging ‘Chi-Fi’ market of IEMs. You might get a pair of IEMs for less than this, but as I’ve found out, they can and do fail on you. I would advise buyers to spend the extra money and get a pair of in-ears that really are the perfect overall package from a very well known and respected brand in the music business.

I bought these as an upgrade to the standard £30-50 in-ear headphones I've been buying for the past few years, like sennheiser CX400, 500 etc and the RHA earbuds. The se215s are an amazing upgrade in terms of build quality - I say this even though the first set I was sent came with a bad cable. Very robust so far (this contrasts with some of the reviews I've read of these emanating from the US) and the soft carry case is way better than sennheiser or others supply. Hopefully they will last more than the one year I have got out of every other brand.... The sound of these is a revelation! With the foam earbuds (and also to a good degree with the latex ones) there is excellent passive noise isolation: it is as good as having very good quality earplugs in and the behind-the-ear cable routing really minimises the cable-rub noise of other in-ear designs. The sound is extremely well balanced (for comparison I find RHAs just a little bit tinny, and most sennheisers a bit on the bassy side) and the detail is great - I'm hearing stuff in my old music that I just hadn't picked out before either on phones or on speakers. They are a real step up from the £30-50 price range and I would recommend to anyone. One note of caution - I find these very very comfortable indeed (as comfortable as sennheiser cx400II, my previous favourite fit), but I can imagine that if my ears were a different shape, they might not be so ideal. They are very configurable (e.g. angle of cable, form of wire behind ear, cable exit position in relation to ear etc....) but they are bulkier than standard earbuds and I can imagine that they won't work for some....

Very pleased with these. I don't use them all the time, but when I am going to listen for a long time, and I am not going to be interrupted by someone, they are great. The wire looping over the ear is a good design that helps then stay on when I am using them in a crash helmet for audible sat nav. Takes a while to get used to them but when you learn to tuck the curved bit of the speaker into the bottom corner of your ear and then push the insert in they work really well. It takes time to remember that the wire loops forward and then up and around the ear. Music sounds great. I am middle aged so I don't think my hearing is the best, but I can tell these are much better than my Sennheiser MX50s or gasp, apple standard buds. I also appreciate the replaceable wire, which seems quite robust compared with many other ear buds. Also sound transmission when the wires rub is minimal. Pricey but you get what you pay for. *** Update 30th October 2014 *** I have had the headphones for two years now and they are still working as well as the day I bought them. I use them with the StoreONE Black Triple Flange (Medium) Replacement Silicone Sleeves Ear Tips for Shure, Westone, Earsonics IEM Earphones I have used them for satellite navigation instructions from the Tom Tom app on iPhone when riding a motorcycle where the long cable is especially helpful and the ear wires prevent them falling off when you put a helmet on. Currently I am walking miles and miles for fitness around my local town. The triple flange ear tips keep out all traffic noise and the Shure speakers provide wonderful fidelity. I have had no problems with the cable. Once or twice I have had a slight fizz on one speaker and I just twist the earphone on the detachable cable end and it is fine again. When I remove the buds I gently clean the earbuds and they are ready to go.

I've been using these for a few months now: they sound great, but they aren't the most comfortable headphones I've had. I can feel the body dig into my ear a bit when they've been in for quite a while, and the foam buds weren't as good as I'd hoped. The cable having to run around the back of the ear then down is also a bit of a pain: the cable is pretty thick, which is good in that it feels pretty durable, but means it's not as flexible as I'd like around the ear. I haven't noticed this arrangement helps prevent them falling out of my ears or anything- it seems a bit unnecessary, but maybe it's well suited to musicians or joggers. That being said, I'm not disappointed - they do isolate sound quite well and the sound is crisp: in particular, the bass is clear without getting in the way of the higher frequences. Headphones also fit some people better than others, and in the past I've had headphones that have fit me just fine when others have complained. All that being said, if you shop around you should be able to find equivalent or better headphones for around £50-60.

Now that my top notch Bose earphones have 'gone west' after years of good and faithful service because the jack pin has burst its wires, it was time to invest in a new pair of top rated earphones to accompany my Cowan S9 MP4 player. So I settled for these, after reading some good reviews (a) because they were reduced in price and I adore a bargain and (b) because I had £26 Amazon voucher to help shoulder another sizeable chunk of the outlay, bringing the price for me to around £47 - a snippet for such great quality highly regarded headphones that retail at nearly £100 'squid.' At first I was dismayed at the awkwardness of having to learn the mechanics of inserting them - with the lead near the buds to curve and then behind the tops of your ears, whilst inserting the buds into your ears, which is a tricky manouvre at first. But I soon got use to it, after a few minutes of practice and a few expletives later. Now I find them very comfortable and not at all difficult to fit even when grappling with the impediments of having long hair and wearing glasses too, which is hardly helpful. The sound quality for these earphones is really good as long as you push the jack hard into your audio machine's jack socket. Otherwise, the earphones tend to crackle like a bag of crisps and you might just get sound through one earpiece and a very faint sound or nothing at all coming through the other. The sound quality (with my superior Cowen BBE technology) is really pure and true and without too much base, which was an issue I had with my Bose phones despite the sound being great for those too, which is why I hung onto them for so long - rubbish earbuds or not. The other great thing about these earphones is that the rubber or foam earpieces (they provide a good selection of both in different sizes) fix very tightly onto the ends of the earphone and can't fall off, no matter what. This is so unlike my Bose earphones, which had loosely applied transparent slanted buds that loosely slotted onto the tips of each earphone and had an annoying tendency of falling off, resulting in a mad and frustrating rummage through my handbag to see where they had disappeared to. The Shure wire is also tangle free, even though it tends to look a bit scruffy against dark clothing - rather like a long white shoelace, which hardly accompanies a smart black Cowan MP4 player. I should have purchased the black ones. All told, these are great earphones to own, so long as you don't mind the mechanics of fitting them in as well as over your ears instead of just ramming the buds into your ears without a second thought and you don't want a too base orientated sound. I can't yet comment on the durability of these earphones yet, having read some reviewers' comments who claimed they had to replace theirs after a relatively short time of owing them. I've only had mine a week, and so I'll report back on that matter later on if I have anything more to say that is worth commenting on. The only reason I haven't given them a five star rating is because they are a bit unuser friendly if you are in a hurry, and I always am, aren't you?