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Isolation |
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• Very high decibel output without distortion.
• Good isolation.
• Excellent leakage control.
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Sound Quality |
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Comfort |
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Maximum Usable Volume (10.00)
What we found:
The SE530s are capable of a harmfully high 127.87 decibel levels. We have a cut-off at 10 points for 120dB for this section, because any louder is just likely to hurt your hearing. We wouldn't recommend trying to max out your volume (unless you want to wind up in the news espousing the evils of iPods).
What is maximum usable volume?
Headphones are all generally capable of a loud output. The problem is, when you increase volume, distortion also increases. Most headphones reach an ugly amount of distortion (3%) far before they've reached their actual decibel output max. While you can turn up the headphones more than the level listed above, chances are you audio quality will suffer because of it.
How the test works:
This test is a series of distortion tests carried out at various decibel levels. We're trying to zero in on the point at which playback reaches 3% distortion, which is noticeable. For more info, read this article.
Isolation (7.57)
What we found:
Like any good set of in-ears, the SE530s do a good job isolating their user from external noise. Also like other in-ears, the SE530s do a much better job blocking out the higher-end part of the spectrum as opposed to the lower.
The SE530s are definitely above average for a set of in-ears, thanks in part to their foam sleeves. These sleeves are essentially a pair of ear plugs, so it isn't surprising they resulted in such a good score.
How the Shure SE530 compares:
What is isolation?
Isolation refers to your headphones' ability to block out external noise. There are two types of isolation: active and passive. Active noise cancellation uses an internal microphone to listen to ambient noise, which the headphones then play back at an inverse amplitude. This effectively nullifies the incoming sound. The downside is the technology isn't perfect: it has the tendency to create some mid-range or high-end noise and only typically blocks out bass sounds. Passive isolation is just fancy talk for "they plug up your ears."
How the test works:
To test isolation, we put the headphones in HATS and blast the setup with pink noise. Since this noise is a known sound with known levels, we can match up the sound HATS recorded with the initial noise to see exactly what was blocked out. For more info, read the page at this link.
Leakage (10.00)
What we found:
Most in-ears are great at leakage control, and the SE530s are no exception. Unless you're playing your music at an ungodly loud level no one will be the wiser. Even at higher decibel levels, the most anyone would hear is a whisper.
What is leakage?
Leakage refers to any sound that escapes your headphones and is audible to a third party who is near by. For our test, this listener is standing right next to you.
How the test works:
Once the headphones are on HATS, we play back pink noise through the headphones. Like our isolation test, this noise is a known sound with all its levels mapped out. We have a microphone set up a few inches away that records anything that leaks out of the headphones.
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