You get what you pay for

This is my second pair of Shure in-ear phones. I will take a minute to tell you about the first experience because it was long term and tells you of the quality of the Shure products.

SHURE QUALITY

The first I had was a pair of E-3C's that I beat the heck out of. I carried them everywhere for 4 years. They had been dropped, stepped on, spashed with water, you name it. And they sounded great, with great sound isloation, great detail to the music without any enhancement. Somewhat light on the bass but I do not want my head pounding anyway. Recently I abused them one time too many as they fell out of my briefcase and someone walked on them, smashing the right side earbud. Even then I was able to glue it and amazingly they still worked, but the right side was off a bit. I realized the jig was finally up for my E-3C's.

COST

I set out immediately to find out what the current equivalent would be in the Shure line of products. The rap against their products is their price, its one thing many list as a "con"; so here is a quick run through the models and a chat about pricing:

SE110, SE210, SE310 all use a single speaker (microspeaker) in each ear; one speaker covers the entire frequency range. I will give you lowest prices I have seen on the web for these; the 110 ($78), 210  ($120), 310 ($178). These prices are all well below the manufacturer list price. So when your see a review that says the SE310, MY GOD, its $299! that is not really true. I got mine for $178.

SE420 uses two microspeakers, one for the high/mid ranges and one for bass. Best price I saw was $250.

The SE530 has three microspeakers in each ear for even better handling of the frequency ranges. Best Price I saw was $318. This is not bad since the list price for these is $500. These phones are widely heralded as some of the best out there.

You may be able to do even better on prices. So bottom line on price, don't believe the first shock-value price you hear, do some shopping and you can find reputable firms that will sell you brand new product at much better than list.

REVIEW OF THE E310's

Okay, enough foundation, lets get into the reason you are reading this review; you are considering the E310's and want to know if they are any good.

QUALITY: They are VERY well made, sturdy cabling/connectors, well constructed in all ways.

SOUND REPRODUCTION: This is a challenge to discuss because its a personal thing. I like my music to be accurately reproduced and I don't want the bass to be overbearing. If you are like me, you will like the E310's. What supposedly separates the the E310 from the E210, is that the E310 is better tuned for bass reproduction. The bass is better than it was on my 3C's; you do get a nice bass sound from this headset. But its not profound on the bass side. If you want real thumpers, this is not the headset for you.

The high and mid range sounds are excellent; you will hear things in your music that you did not hear before, there is so much detail. I like to listen to "Eminence Front" by the Who as a kind of benchmark when trying out new 'phones or speakers. The music just sparkles when you listen with the E310's. You can hear the fingers slide on the guitar strings, you can hear every background singer, its really cool. Of course I had this experience already with my E-3C's.

To sum up - it has a spacious, crisp, accurate sound, filled with detail that makes you feel like you are there in the sound studio as they were recording.

FIT: The headphones come with a complete set of ear fit options; several sizes of soft foam, and soft rubber pieces. They also come with a pair of "christmas tree" rubber earpieces that look like...a christmas tree and are another way to try and achieve a good fit if the other options are not working for you.

It is important that you get a good seal as you put these in your ear, the seal is what allows the bass to come through most effectively, and you also get the best sound  isolation that way. I use the soft rubber tips, they hold up real well and the medium sized ones fit me perfectly.

These are made to have the cable rest behind your ear when the buds are inserted. Shure also says that you can just have them inserted normally without the cable behind the ear, just hanging down in the front. I have tried both ways, either is fine.

The cable on the phones is about 19 inches long, made for the situation where you have your player in a shirt pocket. There is an extender cable that adds a couple of more feet, in case you want to plug into a computer, DVD player, etc.

I have had not trouble with the earplugs falling out or anything like that. You may read some reviews where people say these don't fit, fall out, etc. Mine fit perfect and stay in great, even during exercise.

COMFORT: I find them very comfortable. I wear these a total of 5 hours a day during my commute in and out to work, the soft rubber tips do not rub or cause any irritation.

SOUND ISOLATION: In a word, excellent. I ride a noisy train every day with idiots yapping on cell phones, people talking and laughing, stuff rattling around. These block it all out and I enter my own little world. I put them on. Ahhh...

IN SUMMARY

These in-ear phones are very sturdy, look great, are comfortable to wear for the long haul, and block out the annoying background sounds of our fellow man so you can enjoy your music. Shure have figured out some amazing technology to get such sounds, such accuracy, crispness, and detail out of two tiny little speakers.

I bought these, admittedly in the middle of the pack of the Shure product line, as I had heard they were similar to the E-4C's, what used to be a step up from my old E-3C's. I was looking for just another step up and did not want to break the bank. With shipping, etc I paid about $200; that is plenty of cash for a pair of earbuds. However, I feel these are well worth it. Outstanding, delicious sound - and I get my money's worth out of them every day.