I’ve had a pair of Shure EC4 in-ear phones for a few years and I recently shorted out my second pair. I’m not sure what the deal is with my usage, but I tend to kill mobile headsets and earphones far too easily.
Tonight while waiting in Atlanta I decided to go for it and upgrade my listening experience. I was holding off on getting another high end pair of earphones but after a few days with some low end and cheap Denon’s from Target I couldn’t take it anymore. I have a full week of travel ahead and had some time to kill in the airport tonight…
The Shure SE420 Earphones 
They run about $350 so I hope my wife is not reading this while on vacation with the kids! The price defines the experience though … Having tested the full line of Ultimate Ears Including their $500+ pair of 10 Pro’s I’m very pleased with my decision. Shure has restyled their entire line of earphones so they work better over the ear (wrapped as you might see a professional musician wear) and are now modular in design as well. The modularity allows for various accessories to be attached including their phone attachment which I can definitely see adding now that I get how this all works. With my previous set, the phone piece would have made a substantially longer mess of cable, but the base line is quite short so adding a new piece for a phone mic and call button is both easy and logical to do. This will actually kill my quest for a pair of multipoint bluetooth earphones so I can use them across my small army of mobile gear… Perhaps another post is warranted for this topic.
I’ve been jamming to a variety of music – electonic, hip hop and jazz on a Zune 8GB and am very pleased with the results. The Nokia N810 was next as I do a lot of watching and listening and soon the N95 where I expect to be using the aforementioned phone adapter.
Shure’s earphones are in-ear and sound isolating – not noise canceling. I much prefer this method as the sound is focused the environment remains unaltered. I can’t hear anything going on around me on the plane as I type this … and I was unable to hear anything in the airport either. I’m saying this as a positive and an extra bonus is that you don’t have to jack the volume causing potenial damage to your ears.
You should be careful if you plan on walking around a high traffic area.
All in all – a solid purchase. I’m very pleased with this upgrade and looking forward to many hours of happy listening with my new Shure SE420 Earphones
Technorati Tags: shure, earphones, travel, zune, nokia, n95, n810, music, video
View Comments so far ↓
1 Technology - News about Technology // Feb 25, 2008 at 3:22 am
2 Christian // Feb 25, 2008 at 10:11 am
I have the same “problem” with my Shure headphones. I have been through two pairs of E2C, and now my E3Cs are getting rather weak.
The “weak spot” seems to be where the headphones bend over the ear. The isolation breaks, and sound gets crackly. They have a life of about one and ahalf year for me – but I always buy new ones.
I will definately consider these when the pair I have now wear out. Thanks.
3 Jonathan Greene // Feb 26, 2008 at 7:29 am
My second pair shorted in the cord near the plug which I’d think would be the strongest part … I think the first pair shorted out near the earbud. Shure does offer a nice warranty and replaces things when they go wrong so at least that’s working in our favor for the same hardware anyway.
4 RSSmeme | Shure Se420 Earphones - The Best I’Ve Used! // May 8, 2008 at 7:56 am
5 nokia best earphone - Dogpile Web Search // May 9, 2008 at 5:37 pm
6 Nokia BH-903 Stereo Bluetooth Headset // May 21, 2008 at 2:24 pm
[...] it’s better but I’ve been using a pair a Shure in-ear ear phones for a long time and upgraded to the SE420 model not so long ago. To compare a multi-function device to a single purpose high end one is not totally [...]
7 Black Earphones // Dec 29, 2008 at 10:05 pm
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