The SE115s are Shures latest lunge for dominance in the inner-earphone market. You only need to listen to the earphones on your new iPod for a moment to know you could do better: flaky bass notes and a tendency to share your music with anyone within earshot means anyone with a few notes spare will do well to look elsewhere.
Colour me pinkMost of Shures range comes in sober black-only: the SE115s are available in blue, red, and a rather fetching shade of hot pink. Youre also not short on accessories: Shure bundles an extension cable to go with the attached 45cm cable, allowing you to be flexible on how much wire you trail about. The inclusion of a natty black zip-up pouch to keep everything tidied away is another good point.
Like all of Shures range, the SE115s come with a range of rubber sleeves a good job, as they fit so snugly in the ear that youre almost sure to find that one or two of the bundled sleeves cause the phones to fall out.. You have choices between material types, as well ours came with flexible silicon sleeves and ear-plug style foam plugs which need to be compressed before wearing.
The silicon sleeves provided the best fit and were less prone to falling out, but for those working at desks (and who dont need to hear trifling events such as phones ringing), the foam option is far more effective at blocking noise, if a little less comfortable.
Sounds goodBut its the SE115s sound quality that sells us. Treble was loud and clear without being piercing, while mid-range notes were were equally good. Its the bass that really surprises, though a deep, punchy sound that, while not quite matching the quality of decent closed-back headphones, was nonetheless superb. If youre worried about breaking your current cans by stuffing them into a bag, the SE115s are a great, flexible alternative.
Author:Dave Stevenson
Copyright 2009 Dennis Publishing All Rights Reserved.
Shure SE115 Earphones
