If any of you go fishing you know how dreadfully boring it can be sometimes. Well, last weekend me, my buddy, and his wife, headed on up to the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains to get in some trout fishing. I felt this would be a good opportunity to get some use out of my iPod I got for Christmas. Also, I kinda parlayed this as an excuse to buy some quality headphones to replace the stock ones.
Armed with my $50 credit from Amazon for my HD-DVD player I commenced with the research. I ended up getting a pair of Shure SE310s. I was a little leery seeing as how this was my first foray into noise-canceling phones and worried about comfort.
When I first tried out the Shures, I was disappointed--very anemic sounding. I remember reading here that to get good bass you need a good seal. I went through a few of the replacement buds and found the large foamy ones worked best. A little bit of determination and experimenting pays of with these guys.
With the phones properly seated in my ear, the Shures really came to life. I think the most striking thing about these is the balance between bass and treble. Nothing seems to be accentuated to an annoying degree. There is a great amount of detail in the midrange and the bass is just right--not too boomy and not too thin.
I cannot stress, though, how important it is to take the time to properly fit these to your ears! As far as comfort goes, I probably went a good two hours of continuous listening and felt no discomfort in my ear canal.
It was immensely satisfying to be out in the middle of a lake leisurely casting a lure into the water with a soundtrack to accompany me. Not to mention the noise canceling effects allowed me to miss the sound of my buddy farting in the dawn.
Ah, vacation!
