Shure SE110 Earphones

Back on topic

So, sound performance – that’s what it all comes down to really for most people. As I said, I tried a wide range of bands with the SE110s on my music player, but I didn’t leave it there. Just to be sure I was doing things properly, I tried listening to the heavy metal collection of a colleague and I tried my girlfriend's iPod out too.

I tried the SE110s out on some games too, plugging them directly into my X-FI soundcard, but I couldn’t really notice any difference in most games because the sound was often limited to explosions and swearwords.

The music which most fully illustrated the sound performance of the SE110s though was, in my opinion, Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf. I’m just going to give those people who disagree a chance to leave gracefully, albeit disgusted with my love of that song.

Done? I’ll continue then.

Bat Out of Hell is great because it mixes a load of different instruments and styles – there’s violins for the high range and the revving of motorbikes for the powerful bass. More importantly, I know the song very well and can appreciate the subtleties of the SE110s performance with this song.


First impressions were generally good and the SE110s do very well considering the low cost, but the more I listened the more I got the feeling that the bass was being somewhat forced.

It was like someone had taken the rather wimpy reality of bass capacity and pumped it up with steroids and pep. The result is a passable illusion of strong bass, but not something that’s actually going to win any fights with the all the other headphones in the playground. The high range tends to sound a little scratchy on rare occasions, but I couldn’t really pinpoint if that was due to the recording or the output – I’m a journalist, not a…music listener..?

The bass is the worst problem though and though it never sounds bad, it does feel a little bit forced and full of itself every now and then as if the bass had been artificially boosted.

Conclusions

The SE110s are a decent pair of headphones and, for the price, they’re definitely worth considering and trying out if you’re thinking of straying into the higher-end in-ear headphone market. The difference is definitely noticeable if you compare them to the type of headphones that most people will insist on using simply because they came packaged with their iPod.

However, the SE110s aren’t without problems and the feeling that the bass has been boosted artificially can taint some of the satisfaction you might derive from the earphones, especially when you could just as easily upgrade to a more expensive model. The SE210s, for example, don't have the same issues with bass and are overall a much better pair of earphones - all for just £15 more than the SE110s.

Still, in terms of value and overall performance, the SE110s serve their purpose well and make a good entry level earphone even if there are better performers just a little further up the food chain. If you’re looking to improve your listening experience and don’t want to flash too much cash then the SE110s would be a good choice.

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

What do these scores mean?