Shure SE110 headphones... suck

I bought a pair of these ear-canal headphones and here is my 2 month review. These are in-ear or canal-phones, and cost about $99 retail. For that price they are targeting people that want something better than the stock PMP headphones that came with their iPod or Zune. However I think that both Zune owners have already upgraded. These aren't real audiophile headphones (no canal-phones are IMO) for the reasons I will list below. Most of my complaints are actually problems with the in-ear style that many manufacturers use, and not actual complaints about anything that is unique to these headphones.

The sound quality is very good. Bass representation is very good and is one of the strengths of all in-ear designs. Mids and highs are clear and full, but I've heard sound that seems like high-frequency compression artifacts or saturated drivers. The times I've noticed it required volumes that could have saturated the output of my iPod, and therefore would be unfair to blame the headphones. More testing is required on my part, so I will use the headphones that I use for Ventrilo on my gaming PC, and also plug the 110's into the output of my Audigy X-Fi.

These are amazing at blocking outside noise, which is how they are marketed. This comes at the cost of hearing EVERYTHING that goes on inside your body. Closing your mouth will yield the teeth clicking sound. This could result in you never closing your mouth fully. Coughing will scare the living crap out of you the first time. Breathing (yes, breathing) will be slightly disruptive during quiet segments of your music. Don't bother eating while listening to these headphones. And walking forces you to turn the volume up higher than you otherwise might play your music. You will hear the sound of your feet impacting the floor transfer through your bones to your ears. Normally this sound escapes out the ear and is not noticeable. If you want to know what this sounds like, stick your fingers in your ears and walk around on a hard floor.

The cords "microphones" a lot more than other headphone designs. Microphoning is when headphone cords make contact with something (like sliding over your shirt) and results in unwanted noise at the earpiece. My coat has a zipper, and when the cord moves over that zipper, it is about as disruptive as anything could possibly be.

I keep my ears pretty clean. I go through Q-tips faster than most guys, partly because I can't stand water or wax in my ears. So my ears get swabbed after every shower. At the end of work, there is a light glaze of wax on the sleeves that fit the earbuds in order to block outside noise. This makes an almost sickening sound as you remove the headphones. It's somewhat easy to clean them, but do you keep a tissue with you everywhere you go? Nope, so you are cleaning the headphones on your jeans. If you are adverse to ear wax, you should probably not buy headphones that come with a tool designed to clean wax out of the device. I now keep a small box of Q-tips at my desk at work because of these headphones.

I would rate the comfort at 75-95%. I never got to the point that I didn't know they were in my ears. They come with three sets of foam sleeves (three different sizes) and three sets made of rubber. Like foam earplugs you may have used, you compress the foam before inserting them in your ear. Then you wait for the foam to expand. This means it takes about 10 seconds per ear to put these headphones in when using those sleeves. The foam sleeves are a bit more comfortable for me, but a lot less convenient when putting in and taking out the headphones a lot. The foam sleeves also block more sound, which results in even more internal noise. But the rubber sleeves clean off better. Still, there's no way I'd share these with anyone without swapping sleeves.

It should be noted that both sound and comfort will vary a lot depending on how well you fit them. This includes selecting the proper sleeve and making sure the 110's are put in your ear properly. It's not rocket science, but it can be done wrong. And you may find that the sleeves that are the most comfortable are not the ones that sound the best. Also, the rubber sleeves can form a seal before they are fully in place, leading to the feeling of a pressure change in your ear canal after you finish pushing them further in place.

Overall, these are very good headphones if you don't move or breathe, and don't mind ear-wax. My opinion is that supra-aural headphones are the best choice for most applications. Since most supra-aural headphones are large, they may not be the best choice for a portable application. But I will never buy another pair of canal-phones. My Bang and Olufsen (http://www.bang-olufsen.com/) A8's were superior in every way but comfort and price.