Shure SE420

Summary

The SE420s are a set of in-ear headphones from Shure, available for $200. Like other Shure headphones, the SE420s have angled nozzles, which make them look a bit different than other in-ears. If you like to wear your headphones’ cord looped around the back of your ear, the SE420s were built for you. Otherwise the fit might be a bit awkward. These headphones are very short without their extension cord, which is great for joggers or anyone else who might wear a media player in an arm band.

Frequency Response (4.02)

The Shure SE420s had a pretty good frequency response result. As you can see, these headphones put some emphasis on the bass frequencies but trail off towards the higher end. The lines dip a bit below the lower limit here, but overall the line progressed evenly. If there were any sharp peaks or long furloughs far outside the limits, then it would have been an issue. As it is, the Shure SE420 wasn’t perfect, but still performed pretty well.

The SE420s’ managed to score ever so slightly above average here compared to the comparison headphones. As you can see, the SE420s managed to perform better than the SE210s, although the general shape of the curve was about the same. The MM 50 iPs scored a bit better, because they barely strayed outside the scoring limits at all (the bass was a bit loud, but we don’t score on the extreme low or high end). The other set of headphones that did better than the SE420s was the 6isolators, which had a very even keel to their frequency response. This is great for music purists who want a faithful representation of their music. Again, overall a good showing from the SE420s, but not particularly outstanding.

Headphones	Score	Frequency Response
Shure SE420	4.02
Shure SE210	2.46
Sennheiser MM50 iP	5.04
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3	3.32
Denon AH-C351	2.8

Distortion (3.82)

While it wasn’t terrible, the Shure SE420s did show a bit of distortion. Most of it was in very low amounts across the whole spectrum, but it did have a small bump around the 1kHz mark. Overall, it stayed below 1% the entire time, which means it’ll be less noticeable than a brief spike in distortion.

The only set of headphones the SE420 had less distortion than were the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3s. If you check out the graph you can see why. The other headphones might be less obvious due to the small increments involved and the minute size of the thumbnails. Most have slightly bumpier lines, but the bumps are brief and, most of the time, involve a lower distortion level than the SE420 at its max.

Headphones	Score	Distortion
Shure SE420	3.82
Shure SE210	4.12
Sennheiser MM50 iP	12.6
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3	1.77
Denon AH-C351	5.52

Tracking (10.10)

The SE420s had great overall tracking. Again, what we look for here are any sharp hikes or plummets. We don’t score the far high or low end, which renders those spikes around and after 10kHz moot. The response is very, very flat across virtually the entire stretch, meaning the audio will be very balanced. In the results pictured at here, the right channel was about 2dB louder virtually the entire way. This imbalance is so small it’s almost insignificant, and could likely just be remedied by adjusting the ear buds.

The Shure SE420s had a very flat tracking score. It managed to do better than just about every other set of the comparison headphones. Some of the headphones pictured below have seemingly flatter graphs, but keep in mind that these graphs are normalized: there was probably some brief spike that got flattened out somewhere along the line. Really, though, anything above 8 is really well balanced, to the point where the typical users probably wouldn’t notice. The Shure SE420s simply manage to be better than they need to be.

Headphones	Score	Tracking
Shure SE420	10.1
Shure SE210	9.43
Sennheiser MM50 iP	8.2
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3	7.87
Denon AH-C351	8.26

Maximum Usable Volume (10.00)

The headphones were able to squeeze out 122.54dB before the distortion got bad. This garners the SE420s maximum points for this score. Any more than 120dB is dangerous to anyone without pre-existing hearing problems. It can also have adverse affects on your headphones. In the SE420s case, however, anyone who likes it loud will be very pleased.

Isolation (10.12)

The Shure SE420s have an amazing capability to drown out external noise, partially due to their wide selection of sleeves (the bits that stick onto the ear bud to protect it from the nastiness that hides in your ears). We tested out the three types of sleeves and found that, contrary to our initial beliefs, the foam sleeves were able to block out more sound than our previous pick for best isolators, the triple-flange sleeves. This makes sense, because actual ear plugs nowadays are made of foam, not little plastic Christmas trees. To the triple-flanged sleeves’ defense, however, they came in a very close second place.

In any case, these foam ear buds were able to block out an impressive amount of noise. Like most in-ears, the majority of this blockage happened towards the higher frequencies, but it did block out an impressive chunk towards the lower end too.

The Shure SE420 is, at the time of this writing, the best set of headphones for isolation. The Etymotic Research 6isolators, one of our first reviews, has finally been dethroned, and active-cancellers out there lie prostrate before its attenuating might. The SE420s are excellent for blocking out sound.

Headphones	Score	Isolation
Shure SE420	10.12
Shure SE210	9.57
Sennheiser MM50 iP	6.6
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3	4.68
Denon AH-C351	5.43

Leakage (10.00)

These headphones barely let out a whisper. You should have no fear of anyone ever hearing your playback. These headphones would be great for hipsters that don’t want to continually say they’re listening to Chiptunes or La Bouche ironically.