Shure & Etymotic sound isolating earphones

koru

If anyone is thinking about buying these earphones, you seem to be able to get them for about half price, brand new on eBay. There are several sellers from the US, who "guarantee" no VAT or customs duty, but if you look carefully, you will also find some UK sellers with similar prices. In fact, they may cost £2-3 more for the phones, but are £5-10 cheaper for shipping, so actually work out cheaper, without any worry about VAT or overseas warranties. When I bought mine, the invoice and receipt revealed that the seller was really one of the Shure authorised dealers.

My Shure E3C earphones cost £115-130 anywhere else, but I paid £65 plus £5 postage. They have a 2 year warranty from Shure UK.

For those who don't know about these earphones, and may be thinking £65 is still a ridiculous amount to pay, well it depends what you play your music on, and where. These phones fit right inside your ear canal, and form a seal that virtually blocks out external noise. They are the kind musicians use on stage. They seem to work much better than the sound cancelling headphones (the ones that play reverse wave versions of the outside noise, so that it in theory cancels to nothing in your ears).

They produce superb quality sound and because outside sound is blocked, this quality is not ruined and you don't have to turn your volume up so high that you damage your hearing. I normally have to have my iPod on about 90% volume to hear it on the Tube or over the naff music they play at my gym, but with these phones only 30-40%!

If you listen at home in quiet, then ordinary phones would be better. If you listen on a £10 Walkman, there's no point, because you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. But if you paid a fortune for your iPod or other quality player, why waste it by using the rubbish £2 earphones that probably came with it? (And yes, Shure and Etymotic do white leads, if you wish.)

smokieUK

These look great. I bought some folding Sennheiser noise cancelling ones recently (so won't be buying the Shure ones!!). The Sennheiser work very well but as a on-ear headphone with an in-line pen shaped bit to do the noise cancelling they are quite bulky to carry and use.

Is there much difference between the e2c and e3c, except price??? Is bass reproduction good? I often find with buds that the sound is not very rich...

koru

I tried the Sennheiser ones in the Apple Store on Regent Street, but they seemed to do a poor job of cancelling the noise in the shop, and even at full blast I could not hear the music on the phones too well.

I never tried the E2Cs, but there are various reviews if you google. I gained the impression that the E2Cs are significantly poorer, though still streets ahead of the phones Apple give you. Of course there are also the E5Cs, their top of the line model. I presume these are the ones you see Chris Martin from Coldplay wearing on stage (you can tell they are Shure, as they loop up and over your ears, rather than dangle down). But even on eBay these are £209, and Chris has a few bob but I draw the line at that point.

The bass is fine for me, but you do need to make sure you have a proper seal in your ears, and you need to realise that these are tiny drivers, so you are not going to physically feel the bass the same as you would with bigger drivers. It is a more subtle bass, but it is there. Reportedly, the new E4C model has an enhanced bass response.

The E3Cs are certainly compact. They give you a little round carry case, about the same diameter as the width of an iPod, with a winding device so they dont get tangled.

GibsonSt19

I got some e2c's from HERE, and they were pretty well priced.

OK, they may not be as good as the e3c's, however they're cheaper and I've found them to deliver a great sound, tight bass etc, crisp and clear, allowing you to hear all the details.

Paracaine

For my iPod I use Sony MX80's, these are the same style as the Shures and they loop around your ears. They cost me £35 and the sound quality is superb. I advise against using the white earphones are they are calling out for your iPod to be stolen.

terence8888

I have Etymotic ER4-P which I bought on ebay from the US. I think I paid 220 dollars for them.

I use them mostly with iPod. The quality of the sound is FANTASTIC (I'm deeply into hifi) and the isolation from external noise is very effective. They are surely expensive but IMHO worth every penny. Try them in the tube or on planes - you can actually hear the dialog on the movies!

I have not tried the SHure units but they should be very good too.

koru

I read round about Shure vs Etymotic. Some said Shure are better; some said Etymotic. I guess there's not much in it. I went for Shure because they give a 2 year warranty and they have a UK service centre.

I was really just trying to give other MSE users some reassurance that even though the cost saving on eBay (on either the Shures or the Etymotics) seems too good to be true, it isn't. I bought mine with some trepidation, and half expected to have to claim from paypal for a refund, but I am delighted at my phones and my £60 saving.

Clearly some of the other people posting here have had similar experiences.

GibsonSt19

koru wrote:

I read round about Shure vs Etymotic. Some said Shure are better; some said Etymotic. I guess there's not much in it. I went for Shure because they give a 2 year warranty and they have a UK service centre.

I was really just trying to give other MSE users some reassurance that even though the cost saving on eBay (on either the Shures or the Etymotics) seems too good to be true, it isn't. I bought mine with some trepidation, and half expected to have to claim from paypal for a refund, but I am delighted at my phones and my £60 saving.

Clearly some of the other people posting here have had similar experiences.

Hiya, what was the sellers name? I have a friend looking for some.

langers_2

Try Stikajam, I bought my e2cs off him and they were £39.

FruGal_2

What was that?

GibsonSt19

FruGal wrote:

What was that?

Erm, what was what?