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Sound Quality |
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• Poor high-end response.
• Very low levels of distortion.
• Good tracking.
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Tour & Design |
Page 3 of 12 |
Isolation |
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About our testing:
For more information on our tests, read this article.
Frequency Response (2.69)
What we found:
The Shure SE115s' frequency response looks fine until you reach the high end, at which point it takes an utter nose dive, falling over 15dB in a relatively small frequency span. This is where the SE115s lost a majority of their points. If you look at other areas, the headphones do well: they have a strong base and emphasize middle tones well. There aren't any other jagged areas.
How the Shure SE115 compares:
What is frequency response?
Frequency response refers to the many different ways in which your headphones play back frequencies. Some headphone might be tweaked to bump bass but cut back on higher frequencies for example.
How the test works:
For this test, we play back a known sound file. We then compare that file against the original and figure out what frequencies are being emphasized too much or too little. Our results are printed on a graph, much like the one above. The red line is the right channel, the green is the left, and the dotted black lines are the limits the other two should never cross. For more info about our tests, click here.
Distortion (5.56)
What we found:
Although there are a few areas where distortion picks up above the zero line, the overall distortion levels stay very, very low. The SE115s did very well here.
How the Shure SE115 compares:
What is distortion?
Distortion refers to any difference in the fundamental way a recording should sound. Whatever soundwave your source audio file is telling the headphones should represent it faithfully. Unlike the frequency response score above, which is largely dependent on different users' tastes, unintentional distortion is almost universally a bad thing.
How the test works:
This test involves a frequency sweep, which is played through the headphones. We compare this playback to the original sound file, looking for any deviations. These deviations are bad, because they fundamentally change the way your playback sounds. For more info on this test, click here.
Tracking (8.33)
What we found:
The Shure SE155s had good tracking that suffered from a few quirks. As you can see, on the other side of the 1kHz mark there are a few jagged lines. These lines represent a small shift in volume, from 2dB on the right to 2dB on the left. The average listener would never notice this shift. The loudest the right channel gets before 10kHz is 4dB louder, and that volume onlly lasts for tiny frequency range. On the other side of the 10kHz mark, there's a bit more of a dip, but don't take the graph as gospel at this point: we toss out the extreme high end of the graph, because they're not 100% accurate. It can be used to find the general trend of performance, however. In this case, the emphasis looks like it'll trend to the right side.
Despite its issues, the SE115s have good tracking. At no point should you notice any point where the sound vacillates wildly between the left and right channels.
How the Shure SE115 compares:
What is tracking?
Good tracking means your headphones are playing at an even kiel. No channel should be louder than the other by a significant amount.
How the test works:
This test is similar to our frequency response test, only it's more relative. We don't care about individual levels, just the points at which the left channel is significantly louder than the right. To read more about this fascinating test, you could read words at this link.
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