Ultimate Audio accessory: Shure SE530PTH First Look

Every now and then a product comes a long that is just good at what it does. Sometimes it does one thing specifically and sometimes it’s many things at once. In other cases it does something totally new or in a new way, while in others it doesn’t do anything new but does it in such a manner that it still becomes famous. Such products become objects of desire and in some cases even reach an iconic status. We don’t have to search very far for such an example: The classic N95. It did many things at once and did them very well.  It sold in large quantities despite its relatively high price and without any doubt it will reach iconic status. But the product I’m talking about today is in many ways a complete opposite to the N95: it doesn’t do many things, in fact it only does one thing. I also doubt it will reach iconic status or sell in large numbers. But the reason why I think it deserves so much attention is because it does what it does so well, rivaling products twice its price.

I’m talking about the Shure SE530PTH Isolating Earphones. I’ve been lucky enough to score what is probably the ultimate accessory for your Nokia Nseries device! Ultimate in the sense that they have an MSRP of about $570 (Shure SE530: $499 + PTH module: $69.99) and sound just as good as earphones costing twice as much like the Ultimate Ears Pro 10 ($900) or the Pro 11 ($1150).  There are two version of the SE530: the basic model the SE530 or the SE530PTH. The SE530PTH includes the Push-To-Hear (PTH) module which allows you to activate it’s microphone to adjust the level of external sounds, enabling you to make conversations without removing your earphones. As you may or may not know the SE530PTH fall into the category of Canalphones or In-Ear Monitors (IEM). IEM are ear buds that sit directly inside the ear canal and fully envelop it and basically work like earplugs, blocking external sounds. Instead of having to remove your earphones you  turn on the PTH and you can have a normal conversation hearing all external sounds through your earphones, despite that they block sounds: it’s genius!

But the most awesome aspect of the SE530 and SE530PTH is the sound quality. I was just blown away by the sound, it truly is amazing. Shure has managed to squeeze in three balanced armature drivers—one dedicated tweeter and dual woofers on each side. Initial impression indicates that the earphones produce the deepest and impactful bass I’ve ever heard from an earphone. It produces a meaty overall sound with impressive and airy highs. A negative of these earphones is that it bring out every single detail in an audio recording, this comes down to the fact that 128Kbps mp3’s will sound horrible, but WAV or high quality mp3 or WMA files are amazing and reveal details not heard even when playing on expensive Home Theaters. This was using the N95 8GB. Too my surprise the N95 8GB did a great job powering the SE530PTH with good a clean output and volume to spare. On other earphones, including the supplied N95 8GB earphones a lot of times I had to set the volume to 100% to get a loud enough volume, the Shure provides comfortable listening level below 80% on the N95 8GB which is something remarkable and for me something never before seen during the time I’ve used the N95 8GB. I can’t imagine how it would it sound on devices with an even higher quality output through the 3.5mm audio jack, like the N81 or N91.

That’s all for now, but due stay tuned as I’ll update on my experience through various updates and reviews.