I love Shure’s personal audio devices and have been a customer of theirs exclusively since 2005. While working technology retail, I used to keep floor samples of some Shure earphones w/ replacement ear pieces on me at all times so that I could turn people on to these amazing earphones and I did sell a lot of these to people who never thought spending $200 on an earphone was worth it.
I bought my SRH840 Headphones the first month of 2010 and my SE530 Earphones in July of 2008. Both units still reproduce exceptional sound but the bodies of these units were getting old with lots of tears, scratches and sometimes faulty wiring experiences. One is over the ear headphones and the other is a sound isolating earphone that goes in my ears. They were $300 and $600 respectively when I bought them and both have since been retired.
I have been shopping for replacements for some time but honestly both of these are so broken in acoustically that I decided to send them in for out of warranty repair. The quoted repairs:
- SRH840 housing replacement (minus the actual audio creating speakers) – $79 for a fully refurbished unit with a new warranty
- SE530, same deal. They’re going to replace everything but the 2 woofers and 1 tweeter that I’ve already broken in for thousands of hours for – $240 w/ a new warranty for workmanship.
$310 for basically new headphones without having to break in new headphones or get used to any annoyances that new models may have. I can afford $310 every 5-8 years to basically get 2 new sets of exceptional personal audio devices.
This is more of a PSA that if you have a faulty high-end electronic item, always inquire to the company if they do out of warranty repairs. It’ll be cheaper than buying new.
Update: I received the replacement Shure units today. They sent Shure SE535 Earphones new in box with all accessories. This is an upgraded unit versus what I sent them. They also sent a new in box SRH840 set. While this is discontinued, it comes with everything it would if I had bought it from the factory a few years ago. Amazing deal spending $310 for a $550 + $240 pair of headphones. The one unknown is that if these units come with a renewed warranty. Excellent customer service.