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General discussion

Shure earbuds are unreliable

Sep 19, 2009 7:34AM PDT

I purchased the E4c in 2006 at a cost of over $300. I had to return them twice for repair service during the warranty period. On the second repair, Shure sent the SCL4 as replacement in late 2008. Although I only used them a handful of times since receiving them, I took them on a business trip recently, and, guess what, the left phone became full of static and finally stopped producing sound. Before people blame the user, I always kept them in the hard-shell case and was very careful with them. Now Shure wants to charge me over $80 to repair them. Forget it. I've already paid that price with regard to out-of-warranty SCL3 earbuds (which, conincidentally, were also returned twice during the warranty period), and I think it's time to move on to another, more reliable brand.
Any suggestions? Looking for a great set of buds that are also well-made!
Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Well...
Sep 20, 2009 4:04PM PDT

Since I've never used any of the models that you've gone through I won't pass judgment on the user...but given the posted failure rate it's EXTREMELY tempting. I started my long-term usage of Shure products with the E500 and yes they broke (cracked 'trumpet' arm on the right earpiece); Shure sent the SE530 (re-badged E500) as the replacement and they've worked great until I finally retired them after discovering sonic wonders of the Sennheiser IE-8. That aside, I WILL admit that I wasn't easy on either of my Shure sets at all (though I was surprised that the E500 broke while doing something as mundane as swapping eartips). In hindsight it's amazing how easy it was for me to forget that these were $500 IEMs.

ANY set of IEMs will fail if treated improperly; for instance, yanking them off via the cabling--even gently--instead of physically removing the earpiece by "digging" them out from your ear does wonders (NOT) to the connection points of the wire into the driver housing, for instance. The top-range E500/SE530 are notorious for having relatively weak contact/wire durability at this junction point, so it wouldn't surprise me if other models in the range also suffered from this.

My Senns use a detachable cable assembly, so in theory this should relieve some of the stress that pulling on the wire could place on either of the earpieces. Of course a good yank could also potentially damage the socket(s) that the cable itself plugs into. Of course, I didn't buy the IE-8 merely for its replaceable cable and any potential improvement in durability as a result (though having potential 3rd-party wire options was in the back recesses of my mind); these, simply put, sonically EMBARRASS the bejezus out of anything from Shure...plus I've always been a sucker for 'the Sennheiser Sound'. Not cheap, but well worth to my ears.

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You spent how much???
Sep 20, 2009 6:26PM PDT

I cannot believe anyone spent more than $30 on a pair of h/phones -- and they were still fragile cr@p.....

I must own about 5 sets in various formats from Creative, Sony and Philips but still mostly use the Sony MDR-40s which came with my Sony Walkman Pro cassette -- bought in 1986.

Apart from sensitivity and great sound, these have the advantage of being relatively easy to repair by soldering in a new cable set scavenged from some lesser model -- and occasionally replacing the sponge covers.

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Well, it's like this...
Sep 25, 2009 12:36AM PDT

I do care how my cans sound. That's the reason for their pricing, and the manufacturers are (sadly) more than capable at taking advantage of people who do give a rat's *** when it comes to superb audio performance. I don't expect anyone who repairs and recycles tattered and battered dregs to understand this mindset, and based upon your comments my expectations are indeed fully met. FWIW, at the time of the my E500 purchase, its durability (or lack thereof) wasn't widely known since I was a fairly early adopter. Besides, earlier Shure designs like the E5c (essentially the direct predecessor of the E500/SE530 line) didn't have the same sort of build quality concerns.

While I'm glad for you that you're happy getting the most out of your electronics, I'm also quite content with what I buy as well. They may be simple electronics to you, but for the sonic performance it's all the difference in the world to me.

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Well ...
Sep 21, 2009 12:39AM PDT

I must admit that I am harder on the SCL3 than I was on the SCL4. I was extremely careful with the SCL4, given the incredibly high price tag, using, like I said, the hard shell case when not using them and gently pulling the phones out of my ear without touching the wire. However, the SCL4 nevertheless failed ... repeatedly. After sending them in the first time for warranty repair, I discovered on other forums that people also consider Shure unreliable. Now I can see why.

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a little O.T.
Sep 26, 2009 4:12AM PDT

a bit out of the topic, but what do you guys look in a good earbuds/headphones? Because you spend that much, it should be of top most quality.

I don't buy expensive ones but they sound good to me, regular headsets with good sensitivity level, frequency range and output resistance are some of the things I look at. What about you?