Shure SE215-CL

As a drummer, I've been very happy with the SE215 in-ears. We play metal fairly loud, but these have more than enough protection to keep my hearing safe during live gigs, practice, and recording. Live, I get the kick drum and guitars into my in-ears. In the studio, I can get a bit of a set mix in combination with the live sound that comes through and a click track. During practice, I get kick monitoring and possibly a click track. The sound quality is very good, you could easily use these for music listening as well. Balanced and clear sound. I've had these for a few years now and they're still going strong, excellent build quality and durability.

They're not perfect though: the noise cancellation is not entirely balanced and high frequencies are blocked a bit too much. For me, this leads to hitting cymbals harder than necessary. As with any in-ear devices, they do begin to hurt after a couple hours of wearing them. Keeping the plugs clean is also a tad problematic, as earwax tends to build up inside the earplugs, and I do clean my ears. Minor issues overall though, definitely recommended for drummers.

Playing and rehearsing in metal band is constant struggling with high sound levels. You can't do much to lower the volume level of the drums and that pretty much determines the level of other instruments such as guitar and bass. For the vocalist this situation is more difficult than for the other players in the band. You have to hear yourself to be able to sing in tune. If you are able to get your vocals to the level where you can hear yourself, you often get unwanted feedback which makes everybody feel uncomfortable. If you make a compromise where you barely hear yourself, you start to push and strain your voice. Pulling the earplugs out of your ear helps but sooner or later you are deaf. So these were the things I was struggling with when I started to think about In Ear Monitoring.

I read about different IEM solutions and decided to purchase wired solution because my band is currently composing and rehearsing music. When we start gigging actively I am going to by wireless system. With both solutions you need good earphones. After reading a lot of reviews I thought that Shure SE215 seems to have best quality/money ratio. After first try I still feel that I bought the right set of headphones.

SE215 headphones comes with two types of earplugs (foam and rubber). There is three sizes of both. At first they are a little tricky to put on the head but when you find the right size plugs and learn the trick they seem to stay in your ear just fine. The quality of sound is good. Isolation is good enough for me. I can easily hear my voice and other instruments which I decide to run to them from the mixing desk. I am also able to hear the other instruments well enough. The overall sound level stays this way now in reasonable levels. I don't strain my voice so much anymore and that way I am able to sing better and longer.

I run SE215 with Fischer In Ear Stick -amp and this seems to be good pair. I might take this set even to small stages. If guitarist can handle one or two cables, so can I. Best things are that there is no longer feedback and my ears are no longer ringing after rehearsing. I think that the other members of the band will soon buy IEM-sets for themselves too. These headphones are good ones to start with - wireless or wired system, It's up to you.

The SE215-CL are good in-ears for the price. Somewhat modular to change parts if something breaks and easy to keep clean. There's many options of foam etc. pads to find a good and tight one. I recommend se215 to anyone for the first in-ears to have. The monitors work for any level of musician very well. I seen lots of people use these and all say they are good for the price. If you would try monitoring your playing or listen music instead of normal "phone"-buds - you will be happy. Monitoring band rehersals would be greatly better. I have se215 spares around and sometimes let others try them out - then they go and buy their own.
If step to critical listening..
The differences are supricingly small, so consider how critical your ears are. What could be better on SE215 (I compare to SE846 Gen1):
The SE215 can't produce such low freq and low freq tightness (but it produces low end well).
The SE215 starts to distort (not much) with high volume levels.
The SE215 has a high freq pump that could start to "tire" your ear hearing after a while of listening and more so if higher volume level.
Experienced that a bit more in-ear monitor mix tweaking is usually done with se215 vs. se846. Still.. very happy using se215 sometimes.

These Shure SE215-CL In-Ear monitors are exceptionally good value. They cancel the outside sounds even better than some earplugs but you can still hear your bandmates speech from a few feet distance.
These are a GREAT solution if you want to protect your hearing and still hear everything you play or sing. I bought these exactly for that purpose as my first pair of monitors.
The earpieces are comfortable, durable and stay in your ears very well. I can wear these for hours without any problems. Only reason I have to take them off is that the show is over.
Highly recommend for a first pair of IEM's. The cheaper ones don't really give a good image on how great it is to use In-Ears.
They also come with a small pocket for the monitors, a few different earpieces and a some sort of cleaning tool. I love them!