Topic: In Ear Monitors

[oldjoe38]

Help! I don't know who to ask, but here is my dilemma.....I just spent $200 on a pair of Shure e315 IEM's to use when playing drums with my band. Haven't had the chance to use them in a live setup yet, but have been listening to some stuff on the iPod with them. I have a cheap $15 pair of Philips earbuds laying around that I can't tell the difference in sound between. Honestly the Philips have more bass than the Shures. Is there any reason I should'nt return the Shures and use the Philips instead and save 185 bucks?!? thanks!

[cybergaloot]

I have a pair of the Se 215's and I like them. Really good isolation. Do you really want a bass boost or do you want to hear the sound unaugmented? So many consumer level headphones and earbuds pump up the bass. If you don't like them, you don't like them but I'd try them for what they are meant to be used for before returning them.

[DSatz]

(assuming that you drive) Say that you're trying to parallel-park your car in a tight situation, where you can't see the front bumper of the car directly behind you. So you ask a friend to stand outside the car and tell you how much room you have.

What if your friend tells you that you have two feet of room to back up in, when you really only have two inches? Is your friend doing you a favor by giving you overly optimistic signals?

--best regards

[oldjoe38]

(assuming that you drive) Say that you're trying to parallel-park your car in a tight situation, where you can't see the front bumper of the car directly behind you. So you ask a friend to stand outside the car and tell you how much room you have.

What if your friend tells you that you have two feet of room to back up in, when you really only have two inches? Is your friend doing you a favor by giving you overly optimistic signals?

--best regards

Huh?

[bryonsos]

(assuming that you drive) Say that you're trying to parallel-park your car in a tight situation, where you can't see the front bumper of the car directly behind you. So you ask a friend to stand outside the car and tell you how much room you have.

What if your friend tells you that you have two feet of room to back up in, when you really only have two inches? Is your friend doing you a favor by giving you overly optimistic signals?

--best regards

Huh?

Hyped bass = bad if you're into the details. I use Sony 7506s which many will say downplay the bass. I'm OK with that, I know how the sound translates to other listening options. At the end of the day, go with what you like best for your onstage monitoring. For other situations, especially critical listening, you'll likely want something without the hyped bass. YMMV

[NOLAfishwater]

Why even start this thread if you haven't used them while working? I have a pair of etymotic research hf5 and o use them to mix on the fly from my Tascam hs-p82. Whole reason I bought them was for the nearly 40db20 of isolation and flat frequency response. I admit, they are a little light on the lowed but that isn't what I was looking for. I wanted clarity during noisy environments and that's what I got. Try different tips and practice putting them in correctly to get the seal.

[oldjoe38]

Why even start this thread if you haven't used them while working? I have a pair of etymotic research hf5 and o use them to mix on the fly from my Tascam hs-p82. Whole reason I bought them was for the nearly 40db20 of isolation and flat frequency response. I admit, they are a little light on the lowed but that isn't what I was looking for. I wanted clarity during noisy environments and that's what I got. Try different tips and practice putting them in correctly to get the seal.

Based on your handle, avatar and general disposition; are you on the sanbox? I was thinking maybe just going with the 215's and saving some money and putting that toward custom fit sleeves? They can't sound that bad right?

[George]

The last pair of Shures I owned were the SE530's and they sounded glorious with a proper fit/seal.

Are you getting a good fit with the 315's?   I bet that's your problem.  It takes a little practice to get a good seal with the right tips.  So assuming you're not getting a good seal based on your first post, I would recommend fiddling with the IEM's some more and try to get a proper seal with the correct tips.  A good seal makes a world of difference.  A bad seal will sound like the bass is sorely lacking and everything sounds distant.  The shure IEM line are known for having a slightly pronounced bass hump and rich midrange.  They've also tried to correct the treble roll-off by sharpening up the high end.

Lastly, do the 315's come with the Olive tips?  If so, go with those.  They are the best sounding tips.

[JasonR]

Don't be afraid to give yourself a wet willy before inserting an IEM.  My Etymotics don't seal well otherwise.

[DSatz]

oldjoe, my message was an allegory. A simpler allegory would be that "tailors don't use funhouse mirrors."

The purpose of montoring while recording is to find out what kind of sound you're actually getting from your mike setup. If one set of monitor phones (or speakers, or whatever) has more bass (or treble, or midrange, or anything else) than another set, that doesn't make them better as monitors, and can very well make them worse. For a while about ten years ago I used a popular model of sealed headphones that has somewhat boosted bass response. They were great in the studio for detecting hum in a setup, but I found that my live recordings were becoming thin sounding, because the headphones were giving me "delusions of adequacy" at low frequencies.

Nowadays I use monitor headphones that I frankly dislike the sound of--but they present the whole relevant frequency range without exaggerating or distorting anything very much, and they are well sealed from room sound. If I wanted to listen through headphones purely for pleasure, I would choose a very different type of headphone.

I hope my point is clearer now?

--best regards

[cybergaloot]

Why even start this thread if you haven't used them while working? I have a pair of etymotic research hf5 and o use them to mix on the fly from my Tascam hs-p82. Whole reason I bought them was for the nearly 40db20 of isolation and flat frequency response. I admit, they are a little light on the lowed but that isn't what I was looking for. I wanted clarity during noisy environments and that's what I got. Try different tips and practice putting them in correctly to get the seal.

Based on your handle, avatar and general disposition; are you on the sanbox? I was thinking maybe just going with the 215's and saving some money and putting that toward custom fit sleeves? They can't sound that bad right?

Again, I'm very happy with my 215's and at $100 they are affordable. Mine fit well with the foam earpieces right out of the box but they include several others so one is bound to fit. Great isolation. I had somebody talking to me last night right in my face and I couldn't hear a word they said but heard every bit of the band just fine.

[capnhook]

I had somebody talking to me last night right in my face and I couldn't hear a word they said but heard every bit of the band just fine.

Even if there wasn't a band playing, this would be worth the cash...!   

[earmonger]

You have to try every set of sleeves in the package.

I love my Shures, and gradually moved up from E3 (SE 215) to E4 (SE 315) to SE 535,  but of all the sleeves in the package only one EVER sounded good. The rest, with no seal, sounded like listening through a car radio.

But the right fit sounds excellent. You may have large ear canals as I do (see avatar) and need the biggest possible sleeve--either the largest gray rubber ones or, if you got one in your package, the black "olives"--but if you do get a seal, you will see why so many people love them. You may need to twist them like a corkscrew to get them into your ear correctly, too. If you have trouble, call Shure--they are human and will respond helpfully.