Shure E2C Headphones

Intro - I seem to have had a lifelong love affair with portable audio. As I noted in my earlier review of the Sandisk Sansa E 260 ( http://www.epinions.com/content_370631151236 ), I was into portable audio before iPod was ever a strange look on Steve Jobs' face as he was shaving at 5 AM. I've had more pairs of (mostly cheap) headphones than I could ever count.

Thus, one might guess that I've never been fond of paying what I feel are exorbitant prices for headphones. Good guess! And the audio world is simply bristling with overpriced speakers, headphones and all sorts of sexy, yet ultimately disappointing goodies. I've never been able to quite bring myself to spend a lot of money on headphones, in spite of my undying love for them and my obvious lust for the intimacy they can provide with a good recording.

A couple of years ago, I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD-497s for a reasonable $60, or so. I wasn't really impressed with them for a while but after listening to them for all this time, I have to say that in terms of sound quality, any claim that there was a better sounding set of headphones for under $100 at the time I bought them would have been highly debatable. And they still sound so good that I'm dreading the day one of the drivers eventually kicks the bucket.

But as I noted in the review I wrote shortly after their purchase, where they fall flat is comfort. The pleather of their earcups sits directly on my ears and simply squishes them beyond all reason. It's not bad for an hour or so but becomes increasingly painful thereafter.

Now I don't know if my ears are any more sensitive than those of the kind folks at Sennheiser who designed those things but that #@*&@ hurts!

So, although I was (And still am) in love with their sound, I began looking for a set that sounded at least as good and were comfortable to wear for more than an hour. It's a more difficult search than one might think. And at those prices, who can afford to make mistakes? After careful consideration of all of the circum-aural full-sized headphones available in my price range, I reluctantly began considering canal headphones. There's been considerable buzz about them in the last few years by more than a few serious audiophiles. If they're good enough for them, I reasoned, surely they could serve my needs. I have to admit that the idea of headphones that you stuff inside your ear canals was not one that I found immediately appealing. It does sound rather uncomfortable, to say the least. But I read many, many reviews of the Shure E2Cs before I finally (grudgingly) exchanged my $99 for the little plastic package that contains them.

First Impressions - More bulletproof packaging. This time, I did slice myself with the knife I chose to attempt to coax the package open with. Fortunately, I only bled for a few moments and a bandage was sufficient treatment.

When I finally got them out of the package, I really couldn't help but feel kind of cheated. The things barely weigh an ounce. Literally worth their weight in gold. They sure don't look or feel like anything particularly special. I've seen some that have clear housings but mine are black. Very low key. I like that, however. I don't like wearing anything that draws stares. Bonus. They match my Sansa (I don't really care but they do).

They come with a nice, round, squish proof carrying case that should come in handy if you travel a lot. Mine came with three sets each (small, medium and large) of three different kinds of sleeves (The part that actually goes in your ears). There are clear flexible ones, orange squishy foam ones and black (very soft) rubber ones that bear a striking resemblance to olives if they're just laying around.

The Fit - Much has been made of the fact that getting a good fit and seal is crucial to the sound quality (and comfort) of the canal style headphones. This became immediately apparent when I tried using the small clear ones that came pre fitted onto the tips. First of all, it's kind of tricky getting the Shures in your ears because of the way they're shaped and the fact that the best and most comfortable fit (for me) is obtained by running the wire up over the top of my ears and around the backs of them. It's pretty counterintuitive. You do kind of get used to it but I don't know if I'll ever be able to feel perfectly natural doing it.

At any rate, I didn't like the sound with any of the clear tips at all. Very tinny. No matter how good the seal I managed to get with them, the sound just wasn't right. It sounded a lot like listening to TV speakers through a hole in the wall or something. I next tried a set of the "olive" ones. The sound was considerably better with those but I moved on to the orange foam ones.

Swapping the sleeves isn't as easy as it might seem, by the way. It takes some careful work coaxing the sleeves on or off. Anyway, this is that squishy foam that you can mold and it will hold it's shape for long enough for you to get it in your ear canal. It then expands to a nice, snug fit. These are just like those earplugs that are used in industry for hearing protection except they have a hole in the center for the tube of the headphone to pass through. The sound with these was much better than with the clear ones and somewhat (subjectively) better than the black rubber ones. Outstanding isolation and comfort, as well.

So, I was pleased.....until I started looking for a store to buy replacements locally. They're made of foam and they go in your ears. Naturally, they're not going to last very long even if you wash them. So. Silly me. I was thinking you should be able to buy them wherever they sell the headphones. Makes sense. Right? Wrong. Apparently, you have to order them from Shure. And the prices aren't exactly reasonable, if you ask me. I just paid $100 for a tiny pair of headphones. The least they could do is make sure replacement sleeves are easy to find and inexpensive. I doubt this is an accident or oversight, if you catch my drift. Anyway, I'm not a mail order kind of person. It really irritates me.

So, unfortunately, I'm going to end up having to place an order, I think. I'm not entirely sure the replacements can't be found locally but I haven't had any luck yet.

I decided to go back to using the medium black rubber olive sleeves. The seal and comfort are both very good and the sound is just fine.

The cord (which seems surprisingly sturdy, in relation to that of other similar headphones) could be a bit shorter for portable use. It's about 4 feet, I think. A twist tie keeps it under control.

The sound - This is the bottom line for me. If I just wanted comfortable canal headphones, Sony sells them much cheaper (As does Koss and a slew of other companies). However, if I pay this much for headphones, they'd better be comfortable, durable and sound good.

Well, I wasn't really expecting miracles. I know there are more expensive headphones (even Shure makes much more expensive models). The sound quality seems quite good to me. As I said, the HD 497s are really tough to beat on the low end of the price scale. They lack a bit in detail but have a fuller sound than the Shures. Where the Shures have a distinct edge is sensitivity, fine detail, comfort and isolation. You put these things in your ears and even with no music playing, you won't hear much (except for the sound of your own breath and maybe your heart beating).

The 16 OHM impedance means almost any portable player will drive them with considerable ease. If there's a weak spot, it's the bass. It's not that it's bad, really. It's easily more detailed than that of many other headphones. But it just feels a bit lacking with all of the stock sleeves except for the faom ones. If you get a good fit with the faoms (most people can), it actually sounds pretty good). But it still may be insufficient if you're a bass head. Fortunately, I'm not really.

These have a slightly nasal sound out of the box. It's not really bad but some people might find it harsh or unpleasant. This can be nearly entirely cleared up with the EQ if you take the level around 4 KHz down a bit, however. So, assuming you have a pretty good EQ on whatever you plan on using these with, this shouldn't be a big. It's just a matter of getting the levels just right.

These also aren't very forgiving headphones. If the material isn't well engineered, they will reveal it with ease. You might well hear lots of detail you never knew was there. It depends on the quality of headphones you've used in the past. Unfortunately, my old Sennheisers were (IMO) far better in the audio department than their price might indicate so I'm not hearing a whole lot of new detail. I am, however, hearing a lot of details that I knew were there but couldn't quite make it out. My mind doesn't have to fill in the gaps with these. These are nice for analytical listeners as long as you're not expecting to hear too much detail in the extreme highs or the lowest lows. The highs seem slightly recessed and although the bass is nicely detailed, there's just not gobs of it.

Conclusion - Are they worth $100? Well, as I noted, I never enjoy paying that much money for a simple pair of headphones. In 2007, high quality audio reproduction shouldn't be a special request. Nor should it be a guessing game or something you should have to mortgage your house to enjoy.

The sad state of the lower end of consumer audio being what it is, however, it's hard to fault a company that makes any effort at all to rise above the junk that routinely passes for headphones in department stores across the land. I have to give Shure credit where it's due. But I also have to give them some demerits because I don't think Shure customers should have to order the replacement sleeves or wax guards. You can go through a set of the foam ones in a couple of weeks. Clearly, this could get annoying. I saw a bag of 50 pairs of the foam ones on Amazon for $60. Outrageous?

They did, however, solve my main problem. They're quite comfortable to wear for extended periods. Naturally, anything that touches your sensitive ears will become uncomfortable after many hours. But with the e2cs, this doesn't happen for quite some time.



And there is actually a nice bonus. Many people just can't resist turning up the volume when they listen to portable music devices trying to drown out outside noise. Some also crank up the volume trying to hear fine detail. This might work but can also do considerable damage to one's hearing. Canal headphones make it possible to hear the finest nuances in your music at significantly lower volume levels because it isn't competing with the environment. Unfortunately, many probably still blast the music but it's nice that you don't have to.


Update - 7/14/07 - In the time since I wrote this review, I managed to construct some homemade foam sleeves for these using inexpensive polyurethane ear plugs and the plastic tubes from the worn out foam sleeves. The results aren't exactly factory perfect but once inserted into my ears, the tips aren't really that visible, anyway.

And surprise! These are Mack's SafeSound brand ear plugs from Walgreens. The sound is actually better than with the factory foam sleeves. There is considerably more bass, as the seal is much better. The entire frequency range sounds much better. I do believe the sound isolation is much improved as well. It takes some experimentation, however. It took me four tries (and failures) before I got a set that works well. But the ear plugs I bought were somewhere around $4.00 for 10 pair. I simply trim them down to the appropriate length, squish them flat, punch a hole with a standard hole punch and (with a little effort) insert the tubes from the old foams. After a bit of tweaking, they don't look bad, sound great and are very comfortable.

Of course, it still doesn't negate the fact that this shouldn't be necessary. Most people wouldn't bother. The Shure replacement foam sleeves are around $11 for five pair.

I'm also a bit concerned about the wax guards that need to be placed on the ends of the sound tubes to keep wax from getting to the drivers. The best way to describe these are tiny, circular pieces of screen that are coated with some sort of adhesive on one side. They're also a PITA to put on unless you have a rock steady hand. The real problem, however, is that Shure only includes five sets of these critical little guys in the package. They should stay on pretty good if you're not constantly swapping sleeves and you keep your ears immaculately clean. However, I've had mine a couple of weeks and have already gone through one set due to my constant fiddling with the tips. The replacements (which you have to order, naturally) are somewhere around $9 for another set of five. That's not exactly reasonable.


Considering their size and the precision which is undoubtedly required in the manufacturing process, I'm sure they're as much of a hassle to produce as they are to install but that's really no excuse for additional (some might say hidden) ownership costs for an already expensive product.

These are great sounding headphones but boy are they high maintenance! And for the price, they really shouldn't be.