Shure SE115

Short-Term Use (5.00)

In this section, we discuss the relative comfort of the headphones, so feel free to totally ignore us. See, your head, for all we know, has a vague trapezoidal shape to it, while ours were crafted by Freya herself to be the definitive example of human perfection. Of course, since our heads look nothing alike, the SE115s could feel far more or less comfortable to us than they would to you. Our recommendation, in this case as with all other cases: try on the headphones for at least a few hours before you decide to keep them.

If you’ve read any other Shure review, consider that another reason to skip this section: these things are built the same as every other set of headphones in the series. What does this mean? Well, the cables extend from the top of the ear bud. This means you need to wrap the cable up and around the back of your ear. Don’t like doing this? You have two options, neither of which is 100% ideal. The first option is to wear the headphones upside-down, which causes the back of the ear buds to stick out from your head at a near perpendicular angle. The second option is to wear the right ear bud in your left ear and vice versa. Unless you’re listening to something that has directional significance, this is probably the best option.

Aside from the quirky shape, we do have to say that the Shure headphones come with a good set of sleeves to help users find a good fit. The headphones also stay in well, making them a good gym option.

As a reminder, all our subjective scores try to use 5.00 as an average score.

Extended Use (4.50)

Shure headphones tend to get slightly annoying after multiple hours of use. The foam sleeves get itchy and hot, while the soft plastic sleeves end up exerting too much pressure on our fragile ear canals. These issues aren’t particularly severe, however, hence the small drop in score.

Customizability (5.75)

The Shure SE115s come with two different types of sleeves: foam and soft plastic. The higher-end sets of Shures come with triple-flanged sleeves and a spare set of foam sleeves that the SE115s lack. The SE115s also don’t come with the in-line accessory options of their sisters. This being said, the SE115s have more customizability options than the average set of sub-$100 headphones.