Shure E2c Sound Isolating Earphones
by Shure
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Our Price: $199.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $79.70 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Shure E2c Sound Isolating Earphones
Customer Review: Excellent headphones... with lots of options
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the Shure E2C headphones for my iPod, which came with a pair of awful ones driven by paper drivers that went bust in a couple of months (they caused a rustling sound if the volume was turned up more than 50%).
Honestly, this was one of the best $65 I ever spent. First off, the sound on these things is excellent, especially given that they are an in-ear design. Some people on here have complained about the poor bass, but I find that the bass is great if you set the EQ on your iPod or MP3 player to Bass Booster (or equivalent). Also, the bass is largely a function of how snug the headphones fit into your ear. I believe that they work by using your ear drum as a sort of subwoofer, so the tighter the seal the better bass response.
When I took them out of the box, they came with the clear plastic sleeves on, which are sort of tough. I didn't like them at all, as they kept falling out of my ear (they were too rigid). I then tried the foam sleeves. If you roll them between your fingers and then twist them all the way into your ear, they expand inside, creating a tight seal. You really can't hear a thing of external noise when they're on. The sound that came out was unbelievable. I was in heaven, especially when riding the subway in New York City (which is so incredibly loud, it used to drown out my iPod headphones with the volume turned all the way up when I was on the train). The downside though, is that you need to be extra-alert when wearing them since you really can't hear a thing of outside noise.
I then decided to experiment because I was a little put off by not being able to hear ANYTHING outside and the fact that it is a weird sensation to have your ear canal entirely blocked off. So, I tried the really flexible plastic sleeves (the black ones). With these, I still got a great seal, but was able to hear some ambient noise from the outside. This was good since I could only hear the quiet hum of the train (not the loud rattle like before), but could also hear honking or a siren when I am walking outside.
I am not sure how these things will sound if you listen to lots of rap and dance music which are heavy on synthetic bass. I don't listen to those very much, and mainly stick to rock, indie, jazz, and classical. Natural bass comes through beautifully on these headphones and you can really hear the sound quite clearly. You might want to try these out by listening to some Leonard Cohen, Radiohead, and Wagner to really feel the range of sounds they are capable of producing.
The product description says that they come with a cleaning kit. They don't. Only the E3's and higher models come with those. These come with a wax-guard, which are little peel-off stickers you place onto the nozzle to prevent it from getting clogged up. They can be a pain to get on, but well worth the patience.
Also, people's ears are not identical. I found that my left ear has a slightly larger opening into the ear-canal than the right one. So, I use two different sized flex sleeves for the left and the right. However, since the foam sleeves expand to conform to the size of the ear-canal, I use the same size on both (using these phones, I discovered that I must have really small ear canal openings).
I am in love with these headphones and I love the options that the different sleeves give me. If I want complete isolation, I just stick on the foam sleeves. If I still want to hear some ambient noise, I put on the soft flex sleeves. The sound is great and the price is $35 less than list. Definitely get these if you want great sound and good fit.
Customer Review: 2 1/2 Stars
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not particularly talented with reviewing things, so pardon my shoddy review of this product. I figure i'll start at build quality because it is the most glaring feature of a pair of headphones right out of the box, and is not manipulated by usage. The build quality on the e2c is roughly average, out of the box, one of the housings was slightly loose, and the plastic they are made out of isn't particularly great, it happens, but i would have greatly preferred a metal housing, although that has the potential to severely impact the sound. The cable on these headphones is great though, and is approximately 3/16ths of an inch thick, which is really thick as far as cables go. The stress reliefs are the typical stress reliefs found on any pair of in ear monitors, with the cable terminating in the same L plug the westone 3 uses. Comfort with any pair of earphones is highly subjective, however, the e2c perform well here because of the large variety of tips that come in the box, 9 pairs of them, you would expect to find a pair of tips that are reasonably comfortable, however, the foam tips are abrasive, the PVC tips are hard, and the silicon tips dont really fit. Either way, ive had reasonable success with the PVC tips, and find that there are times when i barely notice them, the housings are where the real comfort issues are though, and ive found the housing to rub my outer ear raw from time to time, also, the cable behind the ear may be painful for some users. Directly correlating to comfort, sound reduction is good, and blocks out more sound than many earphones, but it certainly isnt the best reduction ive experienced. Sound quality, the most important aspect of a pair of headphones, is diminished on the e2c, i gave it 2 stars, its really only 2.5, but i bumped it down to make up for the 3 in comfort, ive gotten some nasty ear infections from using these despite keeping them very clean. The sound signature of the e2c is rather bassy, and the rest of the music sounds to be muddy and colored by the bass. The treble is exceptionally recessed, so i EQ the treble up to make the rest of the music sound less muddy and dark, thats how i will review these. Even with the trebly bumped up, the bass can be a bit boomy and loud, personally, i wouldnt EQ the bass down anymore because it compliments my musical taste fairly well, but i would like a more flat pair of headphones. the mids, as stated above, are colored by the bass, listening to death metal, the mids were actually so dark and heavy that it became irritating because it made the headphones sound so sluggish. The treble, in its current state, is terrible in the department of clarity, separation, and sibilance, and if i drop the treble boost, my treble goes away. The clarity throughout the rest of the range is only average, but the separation in the mids is proficient. Volume and distortion wise, these earphones are fantastic, and clock in approximately 2.5x louder than vmoda bass freq, which are pretty loud to begin with, and distortion seems to be pretty insignificant, with volume 70% distorting an extra 7.5% than on volume 35% (this distortion number is arbitrary and estimated). finally, there is the durability of the earphones, ive owned my pair for 5 months, and in that time, a strain release has snapped, and a cable is starting to tear, the strain release was trivial damage, and the cable was user invoked to some degree.
Overall, id advise you to find a pair of e3c for an extra 30 bucks, which has a flatter sound, better design, and a more durable cable.
Customer Review: I really wanted to like this product...
Summary: 2 Stars
I don't consider myself to be an audiophile by any means but I am particularly savvy with mid-priced ear buds having owned several pairs thru the years. I tend to go with the Sony products even though they are cheaply made and tend to fall apart with normal use. I have been plunking down $50 a pair for various Sony ear-buds for the last few purchases and am generally pleased with the sound-isolating capabilities as well as a rich full sound - I currently have the MDR-EX81LP/B. I remember the first time I tried decent ear buds I felt like I was underwater, hearing myself breathe and all. This sound-isolation feature provides tremendous sound benefits in my opinion, even better than some high end DJ style headphones where you sometimes have to press the earpieces to your head to get the full sound. If it wasn't for the poor build quality of the Sony products they would have had a loyal customer...
That brings me to the recent purchase of the e2c from Shure. Most of the reviews of this product are glowing with praise, far outweighing the negative reviews - I should know, I think I read every single one on the internet. Shure is a great company, the e2c looked sharp, and I had a burning, unfulfilled desire for high quality, durable ear-buds at the $100 and below price-mark. From the moment I was able to get the packaging open, all seemed extremely well. The e2c is hot, the cords are nice and thick, the length is perfect, and above all, this company seems like they really care about getting that sound-isolating feel with all the possible ear-bud attachments. I even thought that not labeling the right and left bud was a dope style idea (the right is black and white). They even thought to include earwax guards that you install prior to use. I was easily able to get a tight, perfectly sound-isolated fit with EACH of the possible attachments (hard rubber, soft rubber, and plugs). I found them easy to put in and use due to my previous experience with and tendency for sound-isolating style ear-bud headphones. I also really liked the way they fit the ear, with the cord going behind the ear - extremely comfortable. I preferred the hard and soft rubber ones equally to the plug style; the soft rubber ones are actually much like Sony's buds.
Everything changed after that. Now I want the 5 minutes I spent trying to get the stupid earwax guards off the sticky paper and on to the buds. In a word, the sound is WEAK. Everything - and I mean everything - EXCEPT the sound on these headphones is absolutely top notch. I completely ignored all the reviews about no bass, tinny sound; etc (there weren't that many) based on the assumption that these people had no ear for sound and had no idea what they were talking about. To you people, I say now that I'm sorry, and one of the biggest mistakes in my portable-audio life was not listening to you. I've since returned the headphones and am happy now with my Sony MDR-EX81LP/B, knowing that I have made an effort to at least try to find higher quality headphones even if at a premium. I suspect I will venture out of this price range ($50-$100) onto the next tier, hoping to get what I'm looking for, however, I doubt I will take any sort of chance on the higher end Shure products because of the experience with the e2c. I am interested in checking out the Etymotic products, they seem pretty good for high end buds.
If you think I have a bad ear simply because I think these things are terrible, then I don't ever want a good ear.
Customer Review: Warning: May cut your music player's song capacity by 50%!
Summary: 5 Stars
Shure E2c's are amazing at "opening up" your music, expanding the stereo field and exposing details & nuances you never knew your music had. Problem is, you may soon find yourself unsatisfied with the low-bitrate encodings you were using. So you'll spend hours re-ripping your whole CD collection... and then you won't be able to fit as much music on your player anymore... what a pain! (grin)
Low-bitrate encoding is only good enough if your headphones are too crappy to reveal that most of your music has been thrown away to make that songfile so tiny.
I'm used to Philips' & Sony's in-ear offerings, like the MDR-EX51 and MDR-EX71. While their in-ear pieces nudge up bass levels and cut down a bit on ambient noise, the tiny speakers in them aren't very good, so they tend to "blur" or "smear" your music enough that it's hard to notice the compression through all the muddiness.
Here's an experiment for you: find a song with alot of subtle stuff going on at once... shakers, light cymbal taps that fade slowly, soft latin percussion, something like that. Rip it twice, once at 256kbps and once at 96kbps, and use your best headphones to compare. Start with the 256kbps file: close your eyes and find a specific shaker that repeats throughout the song. Pay close attention to that shaker for several seconds, then switch to the 96kbps file and try to find it again.
You'll probably find that it has been thrown away... replaced with a muddy, vaguely shaker-like sound that's not really in the same spot.
Now here's the kicker... with the Shure E2c's you don't need to have your eyes closed to catch details like that shaker... you don't even need to be paying attention! If your music's at a decent bitrate you'll be listening to an old favorite when you'll suddenly notice some cool flare or riff or subtle effect that you "somehow" missed the first hundred times you heard that song. The E2c's will give you hundreds of those "oh that's cool... I never heart that before" moments.
The E2c's handle high volume without breaking a sweat, but what's particularly breathtaking to me is their performance at very low volume. Right now I'm enjoying some music (@256kbs), and my Hi-MD player is at volume level 2 of 30. Even in my quiet office my last pair of earbuds had to be at 10 before what came out of them actually sounded like music, but with the E2c's I get balanced sound at 2... I still hear every detail of the music! Even the bass is still there... quiet, but defined and audible.
I get the feeling the E2c's are going to save my hearing... I had to really crank previous earbuds to hear my music on the train every day, and to overcome traffic & wind noise on the city-streets biking part of my commute (for safety I use the only the right earbud while biking).
Once you get the fit right (and get them in DEEP) the noise seal is nearly as effective as a good set of earplugs. At work I leave them a bit loose in my ears and run them at low volume so I can enjoy my music but still hear the phone ring. And so I can notice if my boss is in my doorway talking to me (at which point I remove one earbud so I can hear better and talk without shouting).
The bottom line? Rediscover your music collection with a pair of E2c's. They may cut your music player's song capacity in half, but they'll more than double your enjoyment of it... which is worth it, in my book!
Customer Review: Well rounded and most definitely worth the money you'll spend for it!
Summary: 4 Stars
I just wanted to say that I had just received my pair of Shure's E2/C earphones and I love it. There is a slight learning curve, but shouldn't take you more than a 1/2 hour to learn how to use them. As stated in the included user guide, the cord goes around your ear and earphones go in your ear. The earphones come with a personal fit kit that includes:
3 pairs of Clear flex sleeves (Small, Medium, and Large, respectively)
3 pairs of Black "Soft" flex sleeves (Small, Medium, and Large, respectively; E2C/-N/EFS and E2G models only)
3 pairs of Disposable Orange Foam sleeves, and
10 Wax Guards (E2C/-N/EFS and E2G models only)
Each of the sleeves have different properties; for example the foam sleeves are excellent at blocking out ambient noise, such as a jet engine whir while on a 5-hour flight from Hawai`i (Yes, that IS how you're supposed to spell it people; WITH AN O`KINA (backwards apostrophe) IN BETWEEN THE "I's") to "Lost Wages", but are a hassle if you constantly have to remove & re-install the earphones in your ear. Another downside is that they (the foam sleeves) don't last too long.
Like I have stated earlier, there is a slight learning curve to using these earphones. For starters, you need to identify which side is which (On See-through E2/C models, "Left" is clear, and "Right" is clear and smoke. On E2/C-N/EFS and E2G models, They're marked "L" and "R", respectively). Next, you have to wrap the cord around your ear. Then, Pull your ear up and out and insert the respective bud in your ear.
These earphones sometimes lack low frequency response, or bass, but usually depending on how long you've owned it, what type of sleeves you use, and what type of music you listen to. I, personally, own a 30GB iPod, and when I first received them, the bass could only be heard if you have your EQ (Equalizer) set to "Bass Booster" and volume set at the max*. But after a 5-10 hour burn-in time, they'll start to warm up and the bass can be heard with brilliant clarity, without having the volume at the max. Now, I can listen to "Funky Y2C" by The Puppies and literally hear the bass in every single beat! One drawback is that if you do not install the included wax guards, and have Shure clean the wax out for you, they (Shure) will charge you a nasty service fee!
All in all, these are great earphones; they provide head-shaking lows, good mids, excellent highs, and noise isolation like you wouldn't believe. Like I've said before, each sleeve has its own very distinctive properties and while I've found the foam sleeves to be the best in comfort and noise isolation, you (the person reading this) might find that after you purchase these earphones, you might feel the soft flex sleeves are the better in comfort and the best in ease of removal and installation. Remember: it's solely based on your own opinion. If I had $100 to buy a new pair of earphones, would I buy these again? Two words: DAMN RIGHT! (You've got to "Pimp my Riiiiide!")
*CAUTION: I, CSK '07, or Shure Inc., neither condone nor endorse the act of listening to music at high volumes over an extended period of time. Hearing loss is no laughing matter. It is recommended you see a specialized ear physician and schedule a regular hearing test. Lastly, please listen to all music at reasonable volume to prevent permanent hearing loss.