Shure SE310 Sound Isolating Earphones

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/accessories/0,39100116,49288416,00.htm

Reviewed 12 March 2007

Reviewed by Jasmine France

When a company creates a product that's sufficiently remarkable to garner a spot among CNET's testing equipment, chances are that's a good direction to look for further quality products. Such is the case with Shure, whose E4c earbuds quickly became our headphone of choice for MP3 player audio testing.

In fact, the entire E series is impressive, which is why the company didn't stray far from that blueprint when it created its new Sound Isolating line, the SE series.

Shure's latest earphone collection, which offers new sound signatures and an improved design, includes the SE210, SE310, SE420 and SE530 (just a renamed E500). The £170 SE310 headphones are the subject of this review.

Design
On first glance, you might not notice the design tweaks that Shure has made to the SE line. But closer inspection will reveal that the SE310s have a more curvaceous earpiece than that of the E series. The material is also slightly different, giving it a more tactile feel.

The model colour -- black or white -- also applies to the colour of the earpiece, rather than that of the cable. In the case of the white, the colouring is more silver than white, but we actually prefer the pearlescent sheen. These are subtle changes to be sure, but welcome.

The SE310 comes with Shure's Deluxe Fit Kit, which includes everything you see here. Optional accessories include an airline adaptor, a 1/4-inch adaptor and an in-line volume control

Less subtle is the new modular cable. The main Y cable is just 0.5m long to accommodate listeners who carry their MP3 players in a shirt pocket or clip them to a bag strap. But Shure also includes a 1m cable extension for those who still prefer to stow their devices in a jeans pocket or bag.

The rest of SE310's Deluxe Fit Kit includes a sturdy canvas case, a 'wax guard' (for cleaning the earpieces) and various ear tips -- one triple flange, three sizes of soft flex and three sizes of foam. The latter is now tapered for an easier fit, coated for easier cleaning and black rather than yellow.

Features
The innards of the SE310 aren't much different from those of the E4c. In fact, the technology is the same. Shure has just changed the name from High-Definition Driver to Hi-Definition MicroSpeaker to clarify that it is indeed a piece of hardware, as most people think of 'drivers' as software. Unlike the V-Moda Bass Freq, which uses an inexpensive coil speaker (hence the low price), the tiny units in the SE310 are balanced armature speakers, which allow for more precise sound.

There is one internal factor that differentiates the SE310s from the E4cs, and that's the size of the port. That is, the size of the hole where the music comes out is larger on the SE310, which means the earphones offer an enhanced low-end response. Truthfully, we expected it would be pretty hard to tell the difference, but we could indeed detect a noticeable difference: the SE310's bass response is weightier and more encompassing than that of the E4c headphones.

Performance
As far as overall audio quality is concerned, the SE310s sound as you might expect from a £170 pair of headphones: fantastic. We experienced excellent response, range and warmth across all genres of music.

The triangle in Jem's Finally Woken pinged away with excellent clarity, and the underlying bass in The Chemical Brothers' Block Rockin' Beats made us feel rather as if we were inside a speaker. We did notice one potentially negative quality: the bass can overshadow other low-end sounds in beat-heavy tracks. In Kanye West's Gold Digger, for example, there's a blues piano accompanying the rhythm. The piano is quite clear with the Shure E4cs, but slightly less so with the SE310s.

Conclusion
So the question remains: should you upgrade from the Shure E4cs to the SE310s? Well, that depends. The E4c earphones offer a more balanced sound spectrum overall -- as a result, you get a bit more detail in your music. If, however, you want to experience more bass response, the SE310s will please your ears the most.

Available from AdvancedMP3Players. 

Additional editing by Kate Macefield