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Shure SE535 Limited IEM Review

Rate this IEM:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 54 33.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 83 50.9%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 24 14.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 2 1.2%

  • Total voters
    163

amirm

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This is a review, listening tests, EQ and detailed measurements of the Shure SE535 Limited Edition in-ear-monitor. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $404.
Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM review.jpg

I like the look and feel of the IEM and with larger tips (as shown), it fit my ears well. The cable is microphonic but sitting stationary, it wasn't too bad.

Let's see how it performs.

Shure SE535 Limited Edition Measurements
Let's start with the IEM frequency response and comparison to our target:
Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM frequency response measurement.png

As expected from the brand, bass response is flat. I was surprised by the treble shortfall though. This is going to make it pretty bland sounding. EQ would be mandatory:

Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM relative target frequency response me...png


Bass correction will be easy. The treble correction will be hard to do manually but I tried (see next section).

Dynamic range is excellent allowing the IEM to get quite loud but there are a few imperfections:
Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM relative THD distortion measurement.png

Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM THD distortion measurement.png


Group delay is more or less uneventful as is typically the case with IEMs:
Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM Group Delay measurement.png


Impedance is low but fairly variable:
Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM impedance measurement.png


Sensitivity is excellent though so just about any source should be able to drive it:
Most sensitive IEM review.png


Shure SE535 Limited Edition Listening Tests and EQ
Out of box tuning was "OK" on first female track I listened to. It wasn't until I developed the few filters that I realized how much better fidelity can be had:
Shure SE535 Limited EditionSound Isolating Earphones IEM PEQ Equalization Filter.png

Turning off the EQ made the sound very recessed, lacking any excitement. With it, my reference tracks all sounded very good. With volume at just -50 dB on my RME ADI-2 Pro, the IEM is sipping power even with my EQ and its negative gain.

Conclusions
The 535 IEM ignores much of the research that indicates listener preference. In absolute sense, it doesn't seem to bad, resulting in a non-fatiguing sound. But EQ it to proper target and you realize how much enjoyment is missing that could be there. The cost would have been a bit high a few years ago but now, you can get superb IEMs for $50 and less, leaving the Shure no where to hide.

I can't recommend the Shure SE535 Limited Edition IEMs.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

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Thanks. Can’t wait for 25 bucks IEMs are crap fraction to comment.
 
Once had its smaller sibling, the 2 driver SE 425 and it was almost as described here: so okay, it's average.

Nevertheless: It's definitely a postman panther.
 
Thanks. Can’t wait for 25 bucks IEMs are crap fraction to comment.
Reminded me of a headphoneshow video (from back when I used to watch that crap) where they said the following about crinacle truthear zero reds
"a lot of people were hoping it would be more expensive IEM, but it turned out to be just a 50$ dollar IEM"
where as when they auditioned it before release they called it crazy good, brain melting blah blah blah
crinacle might have trolled them a bit with price. bunch of clowns
 
I still have the original SE500s which are the same as SE535s. I concur with the findings, but I bought these in 2007, they were a revelation at the time, had many hours of listening pleasure. Thanks for the review @amirm!
 
ignores much of the research that indicates listener preference
I'm more of a 'preference boundaries' kind of person anyway but these seem to be geared towards monitoring instead. I used to have some 200 series Shure IEM's back in the day and they sounded unimpressive but flat and with good subbass extension. I think considering the fact that they pre-date many of the research by Harman and especially all of the HRTF and blocked ear-canal data, it's amazing that they clearly have a 3kHz ear-gain with some boost in the presence region as well. Shure was on the right track to IEF neutral.
 
Those were the days when people bought headphones based on the sound. There was no right or wrong.
 
Started with the se315 which I lost moved to se425 and then upgraded to the se846 after it came clear that if I want bass I need that. Made to the se846 a filter modification and now I'm happy. I went with Shure since the first ones were a good fit to me I didn't want risk to much on that amount with a company I haven't tried before.
 
I still have the original SE500s which are the same as SE535s. I concur with the findings, but I bought these in 2007, they were a revelation at the time, had many hours of listening pleasure. Thanks for the review @amirm!
Shure still sell the SE535 but mark them as ‘for professional use only’ and don’t bundle them with a Bluetooth module anymore so they are only expecting them to be used with on stage IEM systems these days.

They rebranded their consumer in ear canal stuff as AONIC and increased the price.

I had several iterations of Etymotic Research until they removed the inline volume control and mic and retreated into the pro market and I bought the SE535 when on offer just as Shure were discontinuing them for consumer use.
 
Since Shure makes equipment for live performances, I can understand the thought process behind the tuning:
-recessed loudness region to make loud listening less taxing and exhausting on your ear
-less bass because you won't hear it over the PA anyways and it might just muddy things up instead of doing anything useful
But I'd rather make these decisions conciously in my mixing console instead of having something baked into my IEMs.
 
No surprise to me here. I had some expensive Shure headphones a few years back and when I had a problem with them, their support policy was tough luck: buy a new pair.

Junk product from a junk company. No thanks.
 
I have an old pair of the non limited editions (shure site suggests different tuning filter ). Dug them out again after this . Definitely require some eq but even then they are just less engaging than more current (and vastly cheaper ) sets .

What I will say is that these are very light and comfy with the right tips .

Unless these offer something to the pro world I am not sure what the market for these are .
 
I would go for a nuanced position here.

- I agree this is not worth 450$ for most audio enthuasiasts in 2024.
- It is kind of weird that these kind of Shure IEMs (215, 435,..) are still top sellers on Thomann and other hi-fi shops.

But

- These IEMs are over 10 years old (maybe not the Limited, but I think it is just the color). The head-fi topic was started in 2012. This was far before Harman research. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/review-shure-se535.631340/
- I once owned the SE 215. The deliver comfort and isolation, which is important for professionals.
- The distortion measurements were a positive suprise.
- While the sound signature does not look like Harman, it does not look bad. It is rather flat, it has pinna gain in the right era, and the balance between bass and treble looks intact (both far below Harman). I sometimes think people cannot read these graphs and only see "it deviates from Harman, so it must be bad". It is important how it deviates.

So, calling this junk or a scam product or whatever seems of the mark to me.
 
That's a lot of money (relatively speaking) for 'ok'. People will buy based on the brand reputation, these should be better.
 
Had two pairs of theses. The first got lost on a flight to China. Loved them for clean sound, comfort and great isolation. Think they aged pretty well and are great for stage use.
 
In humans, a generation is considered 25 years, in dogs about 3-4 and in IEMs around 1-2. So this IEM measures like from several generations from the past, absolutely not competetive, neither in target adherence nor in price. At least the distortion is quite low....
 
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