Shure earphones...

Hi all!

I am looking for a new brand earphones, and I heard a lot of those Shure series modells.

What I know are E4c, E4G, e2c and e3c.

I am want to hear any positive or negative about those earphones.

You guys are also welcome to add some other else earphone brands.

What I am listen to mostly are rock, jazz, Modern Fingerstyle Guitar and piano (Final Fantasy piano collection for example), so if you guys have any recommention which earphones that suit best for those genres I am listening, especially for rock and modern finger style guitar, it would be really awesome.

remember to criticise about those earphones, and I don't want any comments like...
"Buy this!!! because it got good sound quality! and it isolate your ear 100 % completely I LOVE IT!!! "

I am not looking for those type of answers, I am more interessted to hear clearly details like "This earphone you can hear the tremolo, like the sound from the front are more clearly of the vocal singer, plus the essence of the bass gives more clearly/pure sound than disturbing "buzz, dotz, dotz, buzz" and also it gives a little bit ekstra preassure bass sound"

Well, that could be an example what I am talking about, since mostly I have read reviews everywhere, it always mention about how good sound it is, and it isolate your ear 100 % completely, plus I love it bla bla bla bla....

Cheers!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Take a look here, buddy =D Handy site~

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Oh, I'm all over this.

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I am looking for a new brand earphones, and I heard a lot of those Shure series models.

Don't forget about Etymotic, Westone, and Ultimate Ears.

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What I know are E4c, E4G, e2c and e3c.

There is also the newer E500.

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I am want to hear any positive or negative about those earphones.

I have only owned the E4C, so I will comment on that one. I had it for several months before selling it, and I really liked it. The sound is very laid back and easy on the ears, a slightly forward lower midrange. That, combined with a roll-off in the upper midrange gives the E4 a very smooth sound with no grain or harshness whatsoever. The only problem with this is that vocals and certain types of instruments are rendered rather dull and lifeless, especially female vocals and string instruments. The word that is commonly used to describe this is "dark". Muffled would also be a good way to describe it. Eventually, this began to bother me so much that I had to upgrade.

They are fairly small and don't fit very deeply into the ear canal. The cable goes over the ear and I found the whole setup to be very comfortable.

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You guys are also welcome to add some other else earphone brands.

My personal favorite right now is the Etymotic ER-4S. It sounds very different from any Shure IEM. The upper midrange is far more prominent and the lower mids are flatter (more neutral). Some people find them harsh-sounding, most people don't. Some people complain that there is a lack of bass; while this is not technically true, because of the way a lot of music is mixed, it may sound like it for some. The frequency response of the IEM is flat down the line from 1kHz to 20hz. The overall sound is very neutral, like a studio monitor. The only way to know if the bass is to your liking is to try them yourself.

They are very small but some people don't like the fact that they fit into the ear canal itself, rather than sitting in the cradle of your ear. They also have a high impedance, so some opt to get the lower impedance ER-4P instead.

I have also used the Ultimate Ear super.fi 5 pro. At first I thought they were great, but ultimately their weaknesses became too much for me to bear. They are very bassy, and the large amount of bass relative to the midrange caused me to keep the volume lower than I normally would otherwise. There is a deep suckout in the upper midrange that dampens vocals and makes them sound like there is a blanket on them. They are extremely large; myself and many, many others find them to be unbearaby uncomfortable. Nevertheless, some people adore them. I wouldn't recommend them for the type of music you listen to though.

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What I am listen to mostly are rock, jazz, Modern Finger-style Guitar and piano (Final Fantasy piano collection for example), so if you guys have any recommendation which earphones that suit best for those genres I am listening, especially for rock and modern finger style guitar, it would be really awesome.

If you're listening to rock and jazz, that alone is enough for me to recommend the ER4 over the others; the dark midranges of other universal IEMs will leave you wanting something with more energy.

There is also the Westone UM2 and UE Triple.fi 10 pro. I have not heard either of them, but a most people describe them as being very bassy and dark, especially the 10 pro.

How ya doing, buddy?

I just use a simple headset. I'm not sure what it is called. plantronics or something. it's not too bad. i like it. got it at best buy

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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I just use a simple headset. I'm not sure what it is called

Yeah, knowing the make and model of your cans would be pretty much the most important piece of information here.

By the looks of it, it seems money isn’t the number one factor for your IEM purchase, so I would consider getting the E3Cs or even the E4Cs, however, if you do choose to go with the entry level E2Cs, then I can provide some input.

Let me have a shot at this thread too. Just recently, about 2-3 weeks ago, I finally got some Shure E2Cs and now I love very much. I can honestly only speak on behalf of the E2Cs and not the other models, but after listening to various genres and types of music, the E2Cs will deliver a crisp sound for a $100 or less pair of IEMs. This model is obviously overshadowed by the superior E4Cs (which has gained a 5/5 rating by Headphones.com - Gechmirs site), however it can hold up its own at that price range.

The Shure E2Cs come with 3 sets of sleeves – clear plastic, foam, and black rubber in small, medium, and large to fit your ear canals as best as possible. Personally I go with the black rubber small size, as this seems the most confortable for my canals.
The E2Cs also seem to come with an earwax guard, which are tiny circles that fit over the nozzle and block out the earwax build up, which can get pretty nasty I find. But I have dry wax and I just blow them off or just lightly and gently move it off.

As for the performance of the E2Cs, its decent for a $100 set, however, I find the bass lacking quite a bit, and I hope whatever source you’re hooking up to this (ipod.,MP3, computer speakers, what have you) will have a good equalizer to boost up the bass. The only other set of headphones that I can compare these to are the full size head phones, namely the Sennheiser 555s and the much smaller cousin 477s – which obviously is a totally different class and performance league, so the comparisons aren’t fair at all. The bass response seems to be very weak, and sometimes the treble comes off as a bit too harsh, especially for pop and rock music, despite playing around with the equalizer settings. For the most part, these perform FAR better than your $10 headphones or the stock ones that come with your ipod or MP3 player, so for sure the E2Cs aren’t a rip off in my mind.

Pictures:

Here’s the clam shell case that comes with these little guys, it’s a nice little case that’s obviously pretty portable and looks quite nice. The mouse is for scale.



The clam shell opens up unobtrusively and has a plastic coil with two feeds for you to place the termination plug and the earphones in the center, while the cord is wraped around the plastic coil.



The cord has about 5 feet of length, plenty of slack incase you are a tall fellow, and they are quite thick and durable.



The right monitor is cleverly molded with the inner part in black to denote it is for the right ear when you place it on. You really can’t put it on incorrectly or upside down, because it will feel just weird in your earlobes.



Here’s an end of the nozzle with the black rubber sleeve surrounding it. The sleeves themselves behave and don’t slide off by themselves, but are easy enough to remove should you want to change them to some other sleeves included.



It’s terminated with a 3.5 mm standard L plug which pretty much fits into most any HPJ plug in.

For the treble, I find that sometimes the E2Cs just don’t quite carry the robust or full sounds that I’m accustomed to from full size headphones (obviously), and sometimes it might seem a bit off balance and too “bright” for my tastes, but for the most part, faithfully reproduce most of the music you’re listening too. The smooth silk like flow of jazz music won’t carry over on the E2Cs all that convincingly; the sounds of hammered keys on a pianoforte just don’t have that same punch when listening to Beethoven’s Sonata Nr 23; the guitar riffs of Queen just don’t quite have that zing…

One thing you might immediately notice is that if you compare the general volume of your stock earbuds to these Shures, it will seem the stock quality sounds much more robust and full, whereas the Shures are hollow, however, don’t let this fool you, as stock earbuds are EASILY overcome by any ambient noise, and hence force you to pump up the volume to compensate and fight off the ambient noise. The IEMs, however, carry the same or identical response whether you are in a hushed library or generally ambient noisy environment, therefore not requiring you to adjust the volume to compensate for the noise pollution.

The noise isolation is pretty good as they are closed aural and pretty much act like ear plugs. With the IEMs in your ear canal and with no music on, you can hear a finger snap somewhat, however, once you have pretty much most pop, jazz, or rock music, you really can’t hear snapping fingers, unless you really tried to hear out for it. Quieter sounds such as key board clacking are inaudible. Even speech at a regular conversation volume will seem significantly lowered, and there are times where you will need the person to repeat a few times. Heck, sometimes I use these and I get called for dinner like 5 times, yet still go like “huh, someone’s talking to me?” I’m guessing the E3s and especially the E4s and up have superior noise isolation where you’re pretty much in your own audio world. Having the E2Cs in the outside noisy world will significantly help reduce ambient noise, but not eliminate it. You can still hear some heavy traffic and general city noise pollution which really depends on what environment you’re in.

And for comfort, the IEMs can get very uncomfortable the very first time you fit on any shures, even the black rubber ones. It will feel really weird and you will have a sensation that you want to use your pinky and dig out your ear canal. Try to get used to this sensation and about one hour later, it might seem a bit better. Basically as time goes on, your ears will adapt and learn to become one with the Shures. So the more you use it, the more comfortable it will get. Of course full size headphones will beat these IEMS any day in terms of comfort, what do you expect, but most people learn to deal and adjust using IEMS. Also, if you wear glasses, I recommend taking your glasses off, and putting the IEMS wrapped around the ear lobe (like they’re supposed to in the instruction book) then putting back your glasses on, as sometimes I even forget my 4 eyed ness has the arms somewhat tangled up with the cords.

The only other person I know who has the E4Cs is Mucknuggle, so if you have any questions for the higher end Shures, I’d recommend PMing him.

In short, if you’re on a budget and want something good for $100 or less, check out either the Shure E2Cs or even the Sennheiser CX300s for about $20 cheaper. If you have a much larger budget ($150-$250 USD and up plus) then check out the E4Cs and up.

I hoped that helped.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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The only problem with this is that vocals and certain types of instruments are rendered rather dull and lifeless, especially female vocals and string instruments. The word that is commonly used to describe this is "dark". Muffled would also be a good way to describe it. Eventually, this began to bother me so much that I had to upgrade.

Hmm, I never really noticed. However I have nothing to compare them to. I use my E4Cs every day with my iPod (video iPod) and they sound FANTASTIC. If the price is right, go for 'em. No complaints from me. Female vocals and strings sound fantastic to me.

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i <3 my e2cs - a marked improvement over my old sony fontopia earbuds.

the seal of the e2cs takes a while to get used to, but ends up providing amazing passive isolation with generally great sound (though i agree with previous criticisms).

kinda want to try mine with one of those creative xmods...

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by tenebrousfire

the seal of the e2cs takes a while to get used to, but ends up providing amazing passive isolation with generally great sound (though i agree with previous criticisms).

Yes, with all IEMs it is crucial that you choose the right tip so that you form as tight a seal as possible. A loose fit will result in greatly diminished sound quality (i.e. horrible bass).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

Hmm, I never really noticed. However I have nothing to compare them to. I use my E4Cs every day with my iPod (video iPod) and they sound FANTASTIC. If the price is right, go for 'em. No complaints from me. Female vocals and strings sound fantastic to me.

Oh, they do indeed sound fantastic. I loved mine and sometimes I even miss them. But the lack of energy on the top end just bothered me too much, and it is very evident when you compare them to something more neutral like the ER4.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek

Oh, they do indeed sound fantastic. I loved mine and sometimes I even miss them. But the lack of energy on the top end just bothered me too much, and it is very evident when you compare them to something more neutral like the ER4.

You're just a picky audiophile with too much selection in high end audio equipment. :P

Oh, and that audio shop I told you about is advertising GRADO on their store sign. I was confused - isn't that illegal to sell outside of the US?

There's nowhere I can't reach.