Price Paid:  $0.00 from Online

Summary:
As a frequent traveller I ve been impressed by the level of background noise that can be removed simply by using earbuds-as I am interested in the quality of the sound being produced I have never been very taken with the idea of noise-cancelling products and having tried a friends Etymotic 4Ps I decided to invest in a pair of Shure SE530 PTHs (not because the Etymotics were poor just that they have no bass to speak of)
The 530s really are a class act-there is fabulous clarity and detail to be heard across almost the full frequency range and yes there is a copious amount of bass to be heard from these diminutive transducers and my one real criticism concerns this level of bass
At times the upper-bass/lower-mid can sound a little congested with complex music-it feels almost as if the Shures are trying too hard to produce a volume of bass that earbuds simply shouldnt-as if they are defying the laws of physics-but to my ears they end up sounding just a little forced
Having said that these buds are incredibly refined smooth and offer a genuinely large soundstage with a lovely feeling of space and a fair degree of texture to the sound- with the right fit they cut out a remarkable amount of background noise and the PTH facility is quite useful on the plane (chicken or beef?)
As always with such a revealing product any flaws in the recording and problems with the source are shown up for what they are-music played by an uncompressed source sounds noticeably better than MP3 or similar

Strengths:
Sound quality- looks- comfort- no fatigue listening

Weaknesses:
Price- over generous bass

Similar Products Used:
Sony MDR D77
Etymotic 4P
Sennheiser 600
Shure E3

Price Paid:  $290.00 from www.amazon.co.uk

Summary:
these earphones are expensive but for the price you really are getting the best in this earphones league,they are fantastic,ive had some earphones and sound systems i can tell ya and these really are the best earphones ive used,they are superb.i am using the se530 model which is the exact same as e500 with better foam tips which are optional now for the e500 anyway

Strengths:
the best sound,bar none in the earphones world (bare in mind I'm not talking headphones as well but these are close to the best of both full stop.
these have fantastic clear,balanced all round musical sound,
perfect mids,no other way of describing them,
surrounded by clean clear highs,
and super tight,clean,never exaggerated or boomy bass.
three balanced armature speakers in each earpiece,
considering the size of the earphones that makes these a damn fine design.
fantastic hard case to carry them in,which is a must for expensive earphones.

Weaknesses:
cable has been known to split by the earpieces themselves,yet after 5 months of use i can honestly say I've never had any problems with cable or earpieces,and considering you get a fantastic 2 year guarantee i am not going to worry about any defects.
although the earphones seem very well built and able to withstand life itself,a bad point for me is the fact i still worry about knocking them about even slightly considering price and quality,now I'm sure they can take knocks and so on but its always a worry to me generally that they will recieve punishment,so its great you get a superb portable case to carry them in,if slightly big.

Similar Products Used:
I've used:

shure e2,e3,e4,se310 and my current se530
ultimate ears super fi 3,super fi 5 pro and briefly triple fi 10 (big competing model to shure e500/se530
etymotic research er6isolator and er4p
bose triport ie
sony mdr ex71
sennheiser cx300

although all ears and preferences are different,some will like the er4p more or even the super fi 5 are great value my current favourite is ofcourse the se530,ive had the opportunity to change these to the triple fi 10 but chose the se530 due to cleaner mids and better overall balancing of bass and highs,yet all of this is subjective this is ofcourse my oppinion,and i would suggest the super fi 5 ahead of the shure se530 if you want to compromise a bit of balance and clarity for cheaper price