My Headset Search is Complete

The thought of spending relatively big dollars for a headset still seems odd to me.  However, airplanes are really noisy and wouldn’t you pay to reduce the noise and enjoy your music or a video more?

Of course you would and a quick look around most flights will show you that a lot of other people will, too.  The real question is what to get?  That’s really going to depend on you.  I discovered on my latest journey that I really don’t like the big or small cups you see in the Bose headsets.  My ears get hot so after a while they aren’t comfortable to me.

Ear buds to the rescue.  I’ve been using them for several years now, but until last week I was too cheap to buy an expensive set.  I figured they can’t be that much better, right?  Well I’m not so Shure.

Microsoft employees get a killer discount on Shure products.  There’s just one problem.  You have to fax in the order and wait an undetermined amount for them to arrive.  I have a long trip coming up at the end of this month so I wanted to find something now.  I purchased a set of the Shure SE210 ear buds.  You can get them for around $100 if you shop for an online sale.  I paid a little more. than that.

The SE210’s are really nice.  I wanted to get the SE310’s but I didn’t think the extra expense was warranted for what I need.  I could see buying the 310’s with my discount, but I took some 1600 mile flights  in the past couple of days and wanted to try something.  The SE210’s get the job done.

The first thing you notice about the Shure ear buds is that they ship more tip options in the box than most other makers.  You get all sorts of sizes and materials.  I really like the foam tips.  You squeeze the tip and compress it, insert, then let the tip fill the ear.  This provides a great seal and locks out most of the airplane noise.  Crank up some volume and drown out the rest. 

I wore them for four hours and the foam tips were still very comfortable.  They should be a fine pair to enjoy on my coming trips.