Shure professional headsets

My partner and fellow musician, Don Kelley, has finally given in to using in-ear phones for monitors on stage. This is after years of screamingly loud floor monitor systems designed to take the bark off an oak tree from 50 yards, or to allow you to hear your vocals over the stage volume of the band.

So Don decided to go to Guitar Center and talk to the audio pros there. They got him to buy the Shure E5’s, professional and ubiquitously used throughout the music and entertainment industry.

The sound of the E5’s is very good, according to Don. Full, loud, and clear. The problem is that he was using them not in the way they were intended. Don plays rhythm ad lead guitar, changing from flattop to electric several time a night. After all those years of loud monitors and amps he is now virtually deaf in his left ear, and his right ear is probably hanging on a sonic thread. The E5’s are meant to be used as a constant two ear monitor in situations where there is a sound engineer, and all of the music–guitars, bass, drums, and vocals–is monitored through those phones. But because we have no sound engineer at the club, and the instruments are not mixed in to the monitor send, he uses the phones strictly to hear himself sing over the stage volume of the instruments. And that’s only through his right ear.

The problems arise when he has to take the monitor out for his electric solos. He can’t hear himself play with the ear phone in. So he takes it out. RRRip! After the solo he quickly sticks it back in his ear. In. Out. In. Out. Very thin chord. BREAK! Oops. They’re not meant for that kind of ab(use). And they’re expensive to fix.

So I leant him my set of SE210’s to see if they’d work for him. He likes them better than the E5’s. Not because they sound better. They don’t. But they sound good enough. And they come out of and go in to his ear much more easily. And the chord is a lot hardier. And because the E5’s are so much heavier they kept slipping. Not so with the SE210’s. He’s pretty happy with the SE’s. And not because they’re a better product. But because they’re better for him and what he need them to be.

I guess the lesson here is that not all things quality will mean all things utility to all people. Like I told my friend who was shopping for a computer–What are you going to use it for? She said internet and email. I made a few suggestions, including a 13″ MacBook. She said oh no. Not enough power. Speed. Memory. She had her sights set on a giant Dell packed with crap, including Vista. I told her she didn’t need a Boeing 747 to go to Walmart. She just looked at me with knitted brow. Huh?

Fine, get Vista. But when it falls out of your ear, don’t blame me.