Pros: Overall sound quality, looks and design, microphonics, comfort, isolation
Cons: Fit and location of P.EAR.S for refitting (if you live outside of Switzerland), accessories
Packaging & Accessories: 5/10
Build Quality: 9/10
Design & Look: 10/10
Microphonics (higher ratings means lower cable noise): 10/10
Isolation: 10/10
Comfort: 9/10
Sound Quality: 9/10 (rating is separate from universal earphones)
Value: 8.5/10
My final Rating: 9/10
Review Date: December 2015
Review Price: [CHF 550 / £370] +80 CHF for Swiss walnut finish = CHF 630 / £425 (not including in-ear impressions)
It should be noted that the company ‘harschacoustic‘ was renamed to ‘P.EAR.S‘ – the review has been updated to reflect that, as the product (The SH-2) has remained the same!
First of all, I would like to thank Samuel from P.EAR.S for sending me the SH-2 for review.
P.EAR.S was created and founded by Samuel Harsch, also known as the co-inventor of vital audio characteristics of the Audéo PFE series. To this day, the best universal earphones I’ve owned and reviewed is the Phonak Audéo PFE 232, a set of MSRP £400 universal earphones, which only housed two Balanced Armature drivers, but had such an amazing crossover that the two drivers in the PFE 232’s compete with 4-6 driver BA drivers found in other earphones.
Therefore, when I saw Samuel created his own earphone, I was excited to see if I could review it – as I wondered if he improved/added to the PFE 232s sound and created it into a CIEM of his own.
Before getting into the review, I would like to state that this is my first CIEM review, I have previously reviewed/heard a lot of earphones (in excess of 100 different earphones), but never ventured into the CIEM world, as I’ve previously had problems with fit. For example with the 1964-SLV Universal IEM Custom Sleeves, the Custom Art custom tips and even tried going to a professional audiologist in London as an attempt to get a good fit for custom sleeves for the PFE 232s. No matter who I tried or how many times I tried redoing the impressions they didn’t work – and I always had the impressions done by a professional audiologist.
I was therefore going to give up trying until I saw the SH-2s, where I thought to myself – I have to give this one more go and if it fails, then I’ll give up for good on CIEMs.
I was lucky enough to get good impressions at my local Specsavers for only £29 – which I was sceptical about. I will expand on this in the comfort section.
More information on the SH-2s, including specs can be found on P.EAR.S’s website!
To complement the written review, here’s my video review of the earphones:
Let’s get into this written review!