A benefit of the ultra-low distortion and neutral transparency is that I was happily listening to the KSE1200s for much longer periods than I can normally tolerate most earphones, something that only the Sennheiser IE800s have matched, although I found the Shures more comfortable and secure to wear. More recently I became an owner of Stax earspeakers too. Rotel Michi Series 2 amps boast new DACs and better sound, Tidal is introducing hi-res lossless FLAC but says the MQA catalogue will remain. The KSE1200 Includes: KSE1500 Electrostatic Earphones. The Shure KSE1500 IEM delivers world-class sound and can be used in a desktop setup on the go. The 3D printed ear chamber and custom H.O.D.D.U.S. Digital Trends Media Group may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. Find out more about how we test. The Shure KSE1200 Electrostatic Earphone System is priced under $2000. The black-finished amplifier is about the size of a pack of playing cards. One of the best of that line, the Sony Bravia XR A90J OLED TV, is currently on sale at Best Buy. As with many other Shure models, the earpieces are identified with coloured dots (blue for left and red for right) and inserting the earpieces requires the same simple technique as other Shure models. Both use the same earphones, and the difference between them relates only to the amplifier pack and its facilities. The KSE1500 in-ear electrostatic earphone was a breakthrough product 3 years ago and occupies a top spot in the high end in-earphones market then. Next to the micro USB is a sliding switch to attenuate the input by 10dB, in case your source doesnt have suitable volume adjustment. In the slow movement of what is really a miniature piano concerto (16/44.1 WAV, master from Bravo!, Stereophile STPH014-2), the Shure's clean, uncolored midrange allowed the piano to sound as brilliant as it had when I made the recording. About $50 in parts. In short, there is (currently) no better method of reproducing sound! Both of the supplied cables have straight plugs at both ends, but I much prefer to use right-angle plugs as I've found that straight plugs, when pulled sideways as they so often are, exert leverage onto the socket's contact springs, bending them and eventually causing poor and intermittent connections. A portable electrostatic IEM is a very different kind of product and Shure deserves a lot of credit for their design creativity. The resultant soundwaves are coupled to the user's eardrum via a small tube. Why you should buy the Hisense A6 Series A lot of people can attest to what I will say; many try the Shure KSE expecting no bass, but in fact it extends so deep it's incredible. Shure claims up to 12 hours of use on a full charge, though much depends on the source material and volume level you listen at. One such moment came from an old favorite from Weens White Pepper, the tropical parody anthem, Bananas and Blow. The clean, clear highs in "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," from Bill Frisell's classic East/West (16-bit/44.1kHz ALAC ripped from CD, Nonesuch 7559-79863-2), allowed the cymbals to breathe, while the resolution of the subtle reverb on Frisell's electric guitar in the opening was simply delicious. And the KSE1200 are no exception. In some ways, the KSE1200s dumbed-down analog system may be more future proofed than their digital cousins, though with the continual demise of the headphone jack in phones, you may want to buy a dedicated player. How do you find these compare to the Stax 002? Modern electronics have solved that problem, though. KSE1500 are faster, more detailed, more direct, more tangible, more holographic, and above all more real than anything I've heard so far. On pieces with a lot of inter-play between musicians, the KSE1200 did a wonderful job of clearly defining each musician in their proper place, and revealing every nuance that lesser IEMs cant recreate. KSE1200 UPDATE (with some thoughts on form factor) And it includes the amp! NET QUANTITY. The battery performance has also been improved from the KSE1500; we managed to achieve an average of 11 hours of playback time with each full recharge. But there are few products of either type that will do justice to these Shures. Shure - KSE1200 Electrostatic In-Ear Sale price 179,999 Regular . One of the advantages of this technology is that the diaphragm is virtually mass-less it certainly weighs less than the air surrounding it, unlike a moving-coil transducer design so it has negligible inertia and can respond virtually instantly to the subtlest nuances within a signal. Are they really worth $2,000? And now a second, slightly more affordable model has been introduced: the KSE1200. Shure took eight years to develop those original '1500s to the point . . . It comes with an amplifier system that can be used for the in-line portable media players. Another sophisticated transducer technology that's occasionally used for high-end loudspeakers and headphones is the electrostatic transducer. The $3,000 USD asking price made the KSE1500 one of the most expensive IEM systems on the market and it was also one of the first electrostatic IEMs ever made for consumers. The electrostat technology created for the KSE1500s driver system (and utilized in the KSE1200) is not only highly complex, but also extremely difficult to deploy in small spaces. Veiti 23.03.2019. The KSE1500 has a four-band digital equalizer. The separation is brilliant but would like to have even more space and more air between the instruments. Is the product really as good as we thought? Finishes 1. Now, Shure has a new earphone in the SE Model Series: SE112 at $49. You must log in or register to reply here. Strongly recommended. Conventional IEMs also start to roll off in the top octave. Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. KSE1200 Electrostatic Earphones are labeled KSE1500. Enter the Shure KSE1200. Focal Utopia: out of a pair of good sources, I was very . The tonal balance is excellent, and the bass is nigh onto unbelievable. With the Pono I used either of the two male-to-male 3.5mm cables (they're 6" and 36" long) supplied with the Shure. And the KSE1200 are no exception. The PAD switch attenuates the input signal from high output devices to prevent clipping; the A&K DAP certainly does present that challenge and I decided that it made prudent sense to start there. For example, a sports mode smoothens the image and adjusts the colors to highlight sports better. More recently I became an owner of Stax earspeakers too. They also made some modifications to the battery to extend the playback time. Der Shure KSE1200 bleibt fr lnger . The KSE1200s' amp is a nicely built unit that weighs in at just 155g and takes up a little less space than a pack of cards. . It isnt often we see an audio product take a quantum leap forward like Shures KSE1500 headphones. Its something to bear in mind if youre seriously considering buying a pair. Q. Theres a strong sense of the headphones giving the listener everything on the recording, not veiling information with distortion. The Shure KSE1500 are very similar in their operation to the STAX over-ear electrostatic headphones that require the energizer to operate. Was gegen den Shure KSE 1200 spricht kann nur der Preis sein. The earpieces themselves are pleasingly slim and lightweight at just 44g, and are actually pretty much the same size and shape as most conventional Shure earphones. Ive found a problem with the KSE1200 amp when Im on the move, the volume control has a tendency to turn by the movement of my pocket. Close. Web site designed & maintained by PB Associates & SOS. Cringe. Soundstage is very big for an IEM, and almost like in open back headphones, although still bested by for example Sennheiser HD800 or Beyerdynamic T1. Unfortunately, the KSE1500 have some real drawbacks, namely a handcuffed DAC/amplifier, and a whopping $3,000 price tag. As always with earphones, the external sound isolation and lowfrequency response is entirely dependent on how well the sleeves fit the listener's own ear canals, so having such a comprehensive range of options is very helpful. I am coming from a dynamic driver that is more bass-oriented IEM; the Campfire Audio Atlas. Every instrumental track is rendered with precision and remains easy to follow, no matter how dense the production gets. I concluded my review of Shure's KSE1500 in November 2016 by saying that it was the finest-sounding in-ear monitor system I had experienced. Every headphones that I compare to them seems to me to be veiled, rounded, incomplete. KSE1200 Electrostatic Amplifier with the following functionality: 3.5mm analog line input for any audio source. Bath Di m trm: i vi cc mu tai nghe trm tai s dng driver tnh in nh Stax, mt trong nhng c im ni bt ca loi driver ny khi ti to . The charge on the diaphragm causes it to move toward or away from the electrodes in direct relation to the music (voltage and current provided by the source). The amount of depth, clarity, separation, tonal accuracy, speed and . Advertisement. As such, the KSE1200 keep you constantly off guard when bouncing around to different selections for better, and of course, for worse. USB Micro B jack for charging. It comes down to sound quality. As for the new amplifier, its hewn-down, aluminum-housed design offers simple elegance, boasting just the headphone jack and earphone connection on top, LEDs to indicate power and input level (red means youre feeding too much power, green means go), and a silky-smooth volume knob/power switch. This can be recharged via a USB micro-B socket in the base from any standard USB port (a USBA to micro-B cable is . I review TVs for a living, and this simple trick will massively improve picture quality, Why the Q Acoustics 5000 speakers' new cone technology is a rather big deal, The best home entertainment buying advice, Issues delivered straight to your door or device. Cons: . 2001-2023 Head-Fi.org. Shure in 1925, who sold kits to build radios. Theres really nothing quite like Shures Electrostatic buds. You are using an out of date browser. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Read more about Shure's warranty in India. One side of the unit has two rubber bars that serve as feet when set on a desk or spacers when bundling the energizer with a DAP or phone. By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies. There are, of course, multiple similarities between Shures spinoff electrostatic buds and the KSE1500, including the same translucent housings complete with multiple eartip options for the same uber-isolating fit, as well as the same custom-designed, Kevlar-reinforced cable with proprietary six-pin connection. If you want the best sounding in-ear headphones on the market, the KSE1200s are a good place to start. Despite the new model number, these are the KSE1500 in-ears with a simplified, analogue-only amplifier. What Hi-Fi? The cable length seems to assume the amplifier will be pocketed, but although a couple of wide rubber 'amp security' bands are provided (presumably to minimise case scratching), Shure don't supply a belt hook or pouch, which seems a bit stingy given the price of the system. Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. Again, the earpieces' extended, weighty low frequencies allowed the bass guitar and kick drum to appropriately underpin the craftsmanship of these musicians playing at the top of their game. We certainly are. These headphones are so clear that such things are obvious. But they have a blend of strengths, particularly detail resolution, clarity and speed, that we havent heard bettered elsewhere. All rights reserved. All of these produce music in a less fatiguing way than their counterparts. While the headphones sonic talents are among the most impressive weve ever encountered, a major component of the experience is their ominous, almost transporting sound isolation, which reaches up to 37 dB of ambient-noise killing solitude. Given the 200V biasing voltage employed here, the custom-designed cables running into each earphone are a little thicker than normal due to additional insulation around each conductor. Was gegen den Shure KSE 1200 spricht kann nur der Preis sein. . . We play Radioheads Everything In Its Right Place and are astonished at the clarity on offer. Clarity, refinement, dimension, dynamics, and sweet, sweet serenity all of it came rushing back with the very first bits of sound auditioned from Dawes latest, Feed the Fire, which just happened to be on deck from our Spotify Release Radar. If I go for the 1500 thats my entire budget gone for cans such as the lcd4z or possibly the stax 007mk2 but I would need to get the carbon to go with the 007s. Bass is deep, powerful and tightly controlled. For example, Sennheiser applied its considerable expertise in moving-coil headphone drivers to develop a miniaturised version just 7mm in diameter, for use in their top-of-the-line IE800 earphones, which I reviewed a few years ago see www.soundonsound.com/reviews/sennheiser-ie800. The electrostatic transducer modules are encased in transparent bodies (although there's nothing interesting to see), and the cable entries have the usual stiffened sections which can be shaped tightly behind each ear. Technology. The second LED displays the status of the analog input signal: green indicates that the amplifier is receiving audio signal, amber that it's receiving input at the ideal level, red that the input level is too high. There is a locking port that requires a sleeve be pulled to the rear to unlock the connector before it can be removed. ), or put too much emphasis in the midrange making vocals sound too forward and lacking in accuracy, and nor will they add too much energy in the treble in an attempt to open up the soundstage. But you do need a dedicated amplifier that provides power for the unit to operate as well as delivering the music signal. They are completely fatigue free even during longer sessions. It all sounds simple, but it's hard to get right thanks to the high voltages and other practical demands of electrostatic operation. Electrostatic panels or drivers offer a level of transparency that conventional drivers cant achieve. A problem with armature-based IEMs, such as my Ultimate Ears 18 Pros, is that their vibrating reeds start to run out of excursion with high levels of low-frequency tones, producing "doubling" (second-harmonic distortion). Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The scrape of the Guiro wasnt just audible, it was palpable, as if it was resonating next to our right arm, while the twangy guitars rang inside our brain, sunken deep into a chasm of studio sound, as though our skull was a carefully treated control room. The KSE1200SYS come with a two-year limited warranty for parts and products, and a one-year warranty for the battery. A leather pouch with belt loop is available as an accessory for around $45! Sound . All rights reserved. Essentially, each micro-driver consists of a tiny membrane suspended between two miniature plates. Or only for the serious enthusiast who spends hours measuring and analysing and comparing (not me!). Thats what youll get with the KSE1200 from square one. The KSE1200 headphones are powerful tools of sonic perception tools not to be aimed haphazardly or used lightly. The overall soundstage performance is good; nothing is exaggerated but you will notice that the sound does move both outside and inside your head as musicians move around the stage. Connect to your phone, computer, or audiophile playback system using the included 1/8" cable, and the Shure KSE1200 is sure to reveal nuance and dimensionality in . X6 but with treble. Cable length 92cm. At $2999, the KSE1500 was and is pricey, and recently Shure introduced a less-expensive electrostatic headphone system, the KSE1200SYS ($1999), with the same amplifier and earpieces but just an analog input. I planned to write down detailed comparisons to other headphonesthat I own (such as Campfire Vega, Etymotic er4xr, Etymotic er4pt, Massdrop Plus, Sony EX800st, Beyerdynamic T1, Beyerdynamic dt150), but at every head to head confrontation i realized it's just not makes sense. Its a pleasure to come across headphones that dont have the fashionable emphasis on bass frequencies. It may not display this or other websites correctly. When a high AC voltage (carrying the audio signal) is applied across the grilles, the film is attracted and repulsed by the changing electric charges, and by moving back and forth it acts as a diaphragm to reproduce the acoustic audio signal. Having listened to a number of electrostatic headphones over the past five years, I had very high expectations for the KSE1200. Read on. However, not all manufacturers choose to use balanced armatures. We were somewhat confused by the KSE1500 markings on the earpieces the energizer unit features a KSE1200 branding which apparently indicates which model you are using. email . Other than the Stax portable IEM system, for which I have not read any high praise, the KSE are the only full range single estat driver IEM system that I know of. (Though, we admit KSE1200, take me away! just doesnt have the same ring.). It takes a lot of engineering prowess to manufacture an electrostatic loudspeaker or pair of headphones/IEMs. With the exception of Sennheiser's IE800, with its single moving-coil transducer, most high-end earphones employ multiple balanced armature transducers in a multi-way configuration, typically with several BAs working together in each band. By contrast, the Shure KSE1200s's high frequencies had excellent treble extension. Both status LEDs are tri-colour, with one indicating the audio input level with the usual traffic-light scheme while the other shows battery status (green for on, amber for charging and red for low battery). Your email address will not be published. What's interesting here again, electrostatic technology flexes muscles because these sharpness is never annoying. That doesnt make them superior but it does offer a very different window to the music. The KSE1200's amplifier is housed in a nicely machined black aluminium case with dimensions of 59 x 93 x 21 mm (WHD). Such headphones work by having a highly charged, light diaphragm between two metal grids. Thats where the KSE1200s come in. Shure are one of the most respected and familiar manufacturers of earphones, with their own range of sound-isolating models starting at under 50 (for the SE112GR), and extending up to nearly 900 for the SE846. , that we havent heard bettered elsewhere highlight sports better KSE1200 electrostatic system. 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