The Bottom Line: Shure's E3c earphones are by far the best earphones I've ever used and after a short adjustment time, I think I'm in love. They suit my audiophile needs just perfectly.
MattBjorke's Full Review: Shure E3C Consumer Headphones
Introduction:
Being an audiophile has many pluses along with a few minuses. Among the plusss is knowing your way around any music store and the innate ability to pick out good, unknown music. Another plus is having lots of music to listen to. One of the minuses is finding someone who shares your love of music or someone who just plain lets you indulge your impulse. One of those impulses is also spending "crazy" money on products that add to your listening experience. One of those impulses for me was buying the Shure E3c earphones (headphones).
The E3c's are of the 'inner-ear' variety of earphones and they also are 'sound isolating' in that you can literally not hear much outside what is playing in your head. Unlike "earbuds" which come with mobile music devices like the iPod or Zune, Shure has created a earphone that fits quite comfortably in the ear canal and with that the first thing the E3c's do is eliminate the need to 'blast' your music, that is unless you want to go deaf.
The E3c's come with a superb array of fittings for your ears so that you can get the perfect comfort for your ears. There are four sizes of soft gray silicone 'cones,' three clear 'harder' rubber like cones and a set of yellow foam earplug style cones. My favorite cones are the gray versions for they create a nice 'seal' in the ear as to block out most outside ambient sounds while still allowing you, if you're walking down the street, to hear a car horn, a phone ring and the like. In a quiet home they eliminate any sounds which leave the listener blissfully enveloped in their music.
Technical Information:
The E3c's contain a "Wideband Micro Driver" speaker and have a sensitivity rating (at 1kHz) of 115db/SPL/mW and an impedance rating (at 1kHz) of 26 Ohm. The cable length is 56 inches (1.45 meters) and the Input Connector is the standard 3.5 mm (1/8") gold-plated stereo plug.
Test Results:
To test the E3c's I played a bunch of favorite tracks. A few of these tracks include Coldplay's "Clocks," Gnarles Barkley's "Crazy," Rascal Flatts' "I'm Movin' On," Andrea Bocelli's version of "Can't Help Falling In Love" and Mary J. Blige's "Enough Cryin'."
As you can see from the list, I have tested the E3c's with a pretty wide variety of genres of music. The bass notes on "Cryin'" were crisp, deep and just right for my ears while the piano notes from "Clocks" was absolutely atmospheric. I heard things in the song that I never knew were there before. The Rascal Flatts song was particularly interesting for it's one I know by heart both lyrically and melodically and again, with the E3c's I could hear individual instrumental performances whereas when I listened to general stereo speakers or my Audio-Technica ATH-CK5 (which I bought while in Asia) the sound was mixed together. My favorite pop song from 2006, "Crazy," also sounded new and fresh while being broadcast through the E3c's, something that makes the song even better than it was before.
Suggestions:
The manual that comes with the Shure E3c's suggests that you try many different configurations of the various 'cones' in order to find the perfect fit for your ears. They are right. While technically one could be happy to 'plug and play' with the E3c, you really should read the manual and find which cone fits your ears best. You should also try which way you want the earphones to set in your ears. There's three basic ways that are shown in the manual, over the ear and back, traditional 'iPod' style or over the ear in the front. I've found that the best sound comes from wrapping the wire (resting really) over the ear with the wire in front of my body. This method gives me the best 'seal,' which is the key to hearing all the true notes and getting the natural bass notes that some have complained about. If you're really into these earphones, you can get customized made 'cones' which actually are 'ear monitors' like the big stars wear. I haven't checked the supplied website to see how much such a thing costs but it's pretty cool to have that option.
Conclusions:
The Shure E3c's may be a bit on the expensive side for some at 180 bucks (retail price), but for those who love music, they're worth every little penny. I have fallen in love with this set of earphones and I will forever be glad that I purchased them. While these won't kick out 'bass' the way many fans of Sony's 'bass-boosting' type of earphones, they certainly give out enough bass to make most hip-hop fans happy. Besides, if one wants to have mega bass, they can buy studio monitor 'headphones.' Fans of all music will love the audio output that these earphones put out.
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