The increasing popularity of headphones finally melted the studio-hardened hearts of Shure and they are pretty soon releasing *gasp* consumer on-ear headphones! The current shipping estimate at Amazon.com is 2-5 weeks. The new consumer line-up starts at $40 with the Semi-Open SRH-144 (folding, non-detachable cables on each side, replaceable ear cushions, 34 ohm impedance, 36mm drivers). Interesting choice to go with semi-open here, given how many consumers at this price-range are not necessarily familiar with the trade-offs of semi-open vs closed (vs open).
But hope is not lost, because also at $40 they have the Closed-Back SRH-145 with similar specs but slightly more sensitive and with a slightly different frequency response range.
For the all-important (to every marketer it seems) mobile users, the SRH-145m+ On-Ears go for $10 more ($50) and otherwise have similar specs as the SRH-145 closed-back.
Turns out, the SE112-GR was the herald of this line-up
Also coming along with this group are the new SE112m+ GR in-ears for $60 (also 2-5 weeks) with an Apple MFi 3-button remote/mic as well.
So now these fill up a consumer line-up, finally putting the previously released SE112-GR in-ears in context, making it the canary in the goldmine – or insert any other overly used saying here 😉