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WillMak

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
957
0
I'm looking to buy a better set of earbuds but I'm very confused about shure's quality. Cnet states that nothing can beat the shure e4s but they are freaking 300 bucks! Then there's shure 3s that people here seem to like when I used the search option. Even cheaper are the 99 dollar shure 2s..so I'm very confused about which ones I should or should not buy. I feel iffy spending 300 bucks on earbuds.
 
Oh wow, I just found out there are shure E5s now and that the E4s can be had for less than 200 bucks. Ahhh.....are these shure 5s good?
 
Shure are!! (sorry...had to) I recenly had a chance to use the $300 pair, and maybe the set was defective, but they sucked. I could hear loud hissing and scratching. Like I said, they could have been defective, but if that is the way they sound I wouldn't pay $10 for them.
 
I don't have any experience with the other models. With something this pricey you're going to want to test them out first. Perhaps you can find a friend who already owns a pair? I would really recommend you try them first, I almost bought the $300 pair without testing them first:eek:
 
I grabbed the e2c at a local music shop for a steal of $70 and it's VERY WELL worth the money. I'm not an audiophile, but they are signifcantly better than the bundled iPod buds. It completely isolates surrounding noise and I can hear new things in my music that I've never heard before.
 
jadekitty24 said:
I don't have any experience with the other models. With something this pricey you're going to want to test them out first. Perhaps you can find a friend who already owns a pair? I would really recommend you try them first, I almost bought the $300 pair without testing them first:eek:
Just get the E4's or any other Shure model from Crutchfield. I got a pair of E4's for $269 2 weeks ago (in their outlet, it was the model they used for the web photo). I love LOVE them.

Besides, Crutchfield will accept returns within 30 days, no questions asked.
 
Thanks for the reply guys. I finnaly ordered the E4c today for $184.99. I hope these headphones will be good....I've never spent so much on earphones before!
 
WillMak said:
I've never spent so much on earphones before!

Be prepared to rerip all your music. They can be unforgivingly revealing when it comes to poor source material.

Me? E3Cs :cool:
 
I just got some E2c's to replace my ex71 sony's. The fit is a little fiddly but once in (and cables wrapped around your ears, this is the fiddly bit) they are very high quality. The quality is much higher than the sony's and don't have the noise transmission through the cable problem that the sony does.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Be prepared to rerip all your music. They can be unforgivingly revealing when it comes to poor source material.

Me? E3Cs :cool:

lol this is what I'm afraid of! how are your e3cs?
 
WillMak said:
how are your e3cs?

They're great — they go everywhere with me (currently hooked up to a Shuffle 'cos iPod died). You will hear things in your music you hadn't noticed before, guaranteed.
 
Blue Velvet said:
They're great — they go everywhere with me (currently hooked up to a Shuffle 'cos iPod died). You will hear things in your music you hadn't noticed before, guaranteed.

eeeek, a lot of my mp3s are encoded at 128 tho! Will these new sounds I'll notice be good or bad?
 
WillMak said:
eeeek, a lot of my mp3s are encoded at 128 tho! Will these new sounds I'll notice be good or bad?

At 128? Most likely bad. I'd say the minimum for this (this differs from person to person) would be 224/256 AAC. For some 320 AAC.
for me it stops at the aforementioned. At home though I can hear the difference between Lossless and AAC. Always depends on your equipment.
 
Diatribe said:
At 128? Most likely bad. I'd say the minimum for this (this differs from person to person) would be 224/256 AAC. For some 320 AAC.
for me it stops at the aforementioned. At home though I can hear the difference between Lossless and AAC. Always depends on your equipment.
yes, it does depend on your equipment. however, i'd say for most people 128 vs. 256 AAC will be difficult to discriminate through the e3c out of the headphone port on the ipod. the amp on the headphone portion of the ipod isn't very good. however, use the line out and a dedicated headphone amp and you will really hear how good the e3c can be.

ditto on ArcTeryx's post about getting more info on head-fi.org...sorry about your wallet!
 
kugino said:
yes, it does depend on your equipment. however, i'd say for most people 128 vs. 256 AAC will be difficult to discriminate through the e3c out of the headphone port on the ipod. the amp on the headphone portion of the ipod isn't very good. however, use the line out and a dedicated headphone amp and you will really hear how good the e3c can be.

However, the bigger question is how you intend on using it. For me, I bought e3cs to block out the background noise (I cannot stand noise cancelling headphones) when I'm out and about. Most of my collection has been ripped twice: once with apple lossless for my home system and once at 224 AAC for my iPod. Since I'm still using my 10 GB 3rd gen, the trade off of sound quality vs. drive space was key.

That said, if you're ears are relatively good (an I assume they are if you're buying Shures), then you will tell the difference between 128 and 256 even with the built-in amp.
 
Well I bought the shure e4c for almost the same reasons you did. I am using these crappy sony 10 dollar earphones and listening to them in a crowded street or diner is almost impossible without turning up the volume to levels that would blow up my ears. I've been told the shures are one of the best at blocking out noise without noise cancelling technology.
 
iBS23 said:
However, the bigger question is how you intend on using it. For me, I bought e3cs to block out the background noise (I cannot stand noise cancelling headphones) when I'm out and about. Most of my collection has been ripped twice: once with apple lossless for my home system and once at 224 AAC for my iPod. Since I'm still using my 10 GB 3rd gen, the trade off of sound quality vs. drive space was key.

That said, if you're ears are relatively good (an I assume they are if you're buying Shures), then you will tell the difference between 128 and 256 even with the built-in amp.

Funny. I do exactly the same.
 
I've bought a pair of E3cs (for full price :( ) They sound great but to warn you, the bass is weak, but it's nothing an equalizer cant compensate for. If you like a lot of bass, these aren't for you.
 
Just got em. And they freaking suck. In fact, the stock apple ones sounded better. Then I changed the stock sleeves to the yellow ones and WOW!!! Freaking sweet! The bass isn't boomy, instead it's more focused and clear; I haven't decided how I feel aboutit yet. Are the yellow sleeves pretty much the best ones?

PS: how lopng will these yellow foamies last?
 
WillMak said:
Just got em. And they freaking suck. In fact, the stock apple ones sounded better. Then I changed the stock sleeves to the yellow ones and WOW!!! Freaking sweet! The bass isn't boomy, instead it's more focused and clear; I haven't decided how I feel aboutit yet. Are the yellow sleeves pretty much the best ones?


It depends a lot on the shape of your ears.
 
Supposedly, higher end buds sometimes need a 'break-in' period-- leave them plugged into your iPod or a stereo for about a day...
 
Thanks Dev, I've been told that as well. Hey, Does anyone know which end the yellow foams go in my ears? One side seems to have a slight layer of coating...does that part go in my ear or the other non coated side?
 
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