Shure SE215 Pro CL

As a drummer, I've been very happy with the SE215 in-ears. We play metal fairly loud, but these have more than enough protection to keep my hearing safe during live gigs, practice, and recording. Live, I get the kick drum and guitars into my in-ears. In the studio, I can get a bit of a set mix in combination with the live sound that comes through and a click track. During practice, I get kick monitoring and possibly a click track. The sound quality is very good, you could easily use these for music listening as well. Balanced and clear sound. I've had these for a few years now and they're still going strong, excellent build quality and durability.

They're not perfect though: the noise cancellation is not entirely balanced and high frequencies are blocked a bit too much. For me, this leads to hitting cymbals harder than necessary. As with any in-ear devices, they do begin to hurt after a couple hours of wearing them. Keeping the plugs clean is also a tad problematic, as earwax tends to build up inside the earplugs, and I do clean my ears. Minor issues overall though, definitely recommended for drummers.

Playing and rehearsing in metal band is constant struggling with high sound levels. You can't do much to lower the volume level of the drums and that pretty much determines the level of other instruments such as guitar and bass. For the vocalist this situation is more difficult than for the other players in the band. You have to hear yourself to be able to sing in tune. If you are able to get your vocals to the level where you can hear yourself, you often get unwanted feedback which makes everybody feel uncomfortable. If you make a compromise where you barely hear yourself, you start to push and strain your voice. Pulling the earplugs out of your ear helps but sooner or later you are deaf. So these were the things I was struggling with when I started to think about In Ear Monitoring.

I read about different IEM solutions and decided to purchase wired solution because my band is currently composing and rehearsing music. When we start gigging actively I am going to by wireless system. With both solutions you need good earphones. After reading a lot of reviews I thought that Shure SE215 seems to have best quality/money ratio. After first try I still feel that I bought the right set of headphones.

SE215 headphones comes with two types of earplugs (foam and rubber). There is three sizes of both. At first they are a little tricky to put on the head but when you find the right size plugs and learn the trick they seem to stay in your ear just fine. The quality of sound is good. Isolation is good enough for me. I can easily hear my voice and other instruments which I decide to run to them from the mixing desk. I am also able to hear the other instruments well enough. The overall sound level stays this way now in reasonable levels. I don't strain my voice so much anymore and that way I am able to sing better and longer.

I run SE215 with Fischer In Ear Stick -amp and this seems to be good pair. I might take this set even to small stages. If guitarist can handle one or two cables, so can I. Best things are that there is no longer feedback and my ears are no longer ringing after rehearsing. I think that the other members of the band will soon buy IEM-sets for themselves too. These headphones are good ones to start with - wireless or wired system, It's up to you.

These Shure SE215-CL In-Ear monitors are exceptionally good value. They cancel the outside sounds even better than some earplugs but you can still hear your bandmates speech from a few feet distance.
These are a GREAT solution if you want to protect your hearing and still hear everything you play or sing. I bought these exactly for that purpose as my first pair of monitors.
The earpieces are comfortable, durable and stay in your ears very well. I can wear these for hours without any problems. Only reason I have to take them off is that the show is over.
Highly recommend for a first pair of IEM's. The cheaper ones don't really give a good image on how great it is to use In-Ears.
They also come with a small pocket for the monitors, a few different earpieces and a some sort of cleaning tool. I love them!

Olen rumpali ja ostin nämä ensisijaisesti harjoituskäyttöön. Olin varautunut käyttämään lisäksi myös kuppisuojaimia näiden päällä, mutta ulkoiset äänet eristyivätkin näillä jo erittäin hyvin, eikä lopulta ollut tarvetta käyttää muita suojaimia. Vaimennuksen parantuessa ei tarvitse myöskään pitää taustanauhaa niin isolla kuin aiemmilla nappikuulokkeilla, joten kuulo varmasti tykkää volymetasojen laskusta. Sounditkin ovat hyvät tähän hintaluokkaan.

Kestävyydestä ei voi sanoa vielä mitään, mutta vaihdettava johto on iso plussa. Ulkoasukin on tyylikäs, joten pitäisin näitä kaikille varteenotettavana vaihtoehtona tässä hintaluokassa.

Very comfortable once you get the cable properly bent over your ear. Plenty of options for earpieces, so you should be able to find a suitable option unless you have a particularly troublesome ear shape. I personally like the large foam tips as they provide a snug fit and decent isolation.

Soundwise, there's a lot of low bass, and the upper mid / treble response sounds a bit peaky. There seems to be a large peak in the 3-4kHz range, which I really like for bass, but could make these sound harsh for distorted guitar depending on your tone. I like these on bass and guitar, but would go for the SE425 (or such) for lead vocal duty, as they have a flatter mid-frequency response.

All in all, for an instrumentalist, I find these hard to beat for the price, especially when you consider their ruggedness and the plethora of available earpieces and accessories.