Review: Shure SE210 headphones
Well, the geeks day job recently got moved to a new office where we’re now part of a cube farm rather than the individual offices that we had before. Let me tell you, it’s a BIG change, especially when you work with some rather loud people who don’t get that working in cubicles is like being in a library. As a result, we needed something to block or drown out the noise.
Looking at the available options, we saw several choices -
- Go on a rampage and punch out all our loud co-workers to teach them to be quieter (HR might get a bit pissed about that…)
- Use normal headphones, and just crank them up to drown out our co-workers and the obnoxiously loud other office tenants (we share a space with other groups…) This is bad for our ears though.
- Get a pair of those active noise cancelling headphones. While those ARE nice, we didn’t like the large size (and price) of the Bose models, and various other brands all had mixed reviews.
- Get a pair of sound isolating bud-style headphones. These had the advantage that they were small, and are somewhat like having ear plugs in, while providing good sound quality and no need for a power source for running active cancelling circuitry.
In the end, we went with a pair of the Shure SE210’s. We considered the older E2C model, but decided to go for the SE210’s (for no real reason other than they were newer.) We paid $120 for these at the local Best Buy store (although they probably can be found cheaper online.) Here’s our impression of the product:
- The packaging was absolute HELL to open! We’re no fan of blister-pack packaging to begin with, but this one was nearly impossible to open without totally destroying the entire thing! WHY do they insist on using that kind of packaging? If they must, could they at least make it in a design that’s easier to open without cutting your hands to shreads in the process?
- The headphones themselves are nice, small and lightweight. The cord comes in two pieces with a quick disconnect (can be useful since you don’t want these getting yanked out of your ear if the cord get snagged.) The cord is a good 5+ feet long as well.
- The unit comes with several different style plugs to put on the ends. We stuck with the default ones for now, but if you find those don’t stay in your ears well, there are other styles to try. You can also get replacement ends from Shure. The ends work similarly to ear plugs, using expansion foam to hold the earphones into place in your ear,while blocking out external sounds.
- The package contained a nice little travel carry case for the headphones and extra plug ends.
Now, in use, we have to say that even without the earphones plugged into a sound source, they block out external sound at least as well as a decent pair of ear plugs will. With these in our ears we really can’t hear any of our co-workers and it allows us a nice quiet area when we’re trying to concentrate on something. While playing music, we can use much lower volume settings to hear as well (which is good for your ears.) Another important aspect is that these don’t stick out so far from your ears, and yet stay in place quite well, so much so that I’ve been able to use them with my motorcycle helmet on. They effectively block most of the engine sound and wind noise while allowing me to hear music much better than the cheap earphones I was using previously.
In the end, while these are rather expensive for a set of earbud headphones, we have to say that they do an excellent job of blocking out external sound while at the same time providing great sound quality. Users who are not used to having earplugs in might find them somewhat uncomfortable though. Do they work as well as a pair of expensive active noise cancelling headphones? Probably not, but they also don’t suffer from the “slight air pressure” sensation that many users report with those style units, and you don’t need to feed them batteries constantly either.
If you’re an earbud style headphone fan, who needs to work or enjoys listening to music in loud environments, we can heartily recommend the Shure SE210’s. You won’t be disappointed!
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Mad Mike - any idea how these compare to the Shure EC3s? Also, any suggestions on getting some decent sound isolating bud-style headphones that don’t fall out so easily (like when I’m at the gym moving around a lot).
Thx!
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