Review: Shure E2c

[Image: E2c]I’ve been using the Shure E2c headphones with my iPod for the past several weeks. Here’s the bottom line: They’re good, but not for everything.

The E2c is at the bottom of Shure’s “E…” line of headphones, but clocking in at $99, they’re still a solid piece of audio equipment. What lured me to these headphones in the first place was the idea of Shure’s “sound isolating technology” - which it turns out is a really fancy phrase for “earplugs.”

The idea is simple - the earphones come with a variety of tip options that work to seal off your ear from everything else aroudn you. This actually works really well, and after using the headphones on a plane, in a bus, and in the park, I’m really impressed with how much it cuts down on external noise. They do a wonderful job of letting me listen to my music in public, noisy places at a reasonably low volume, which I think my ears will thank me for in about thirty years.
However

The sound quality isn’t (to me) noticeable different than the ‘phones that came with my iPod. If anything, the bass is a little more stale. This is probably partly due to the fact that the earphones work in entirely different ways, and the properties of piping sounds directly into your ear canal is probably different than just putting speakers close to your head. But regardless, the headphones weren’t a real step up in sound quality.

Also, they’re no good for moving. Thanks to whatever law of phsyics, if the earphone cords rub practically anything, it sounds like someone’s filing metal in your ears. So if you like to jog, walk, or otherwise do anything active while listening to your music - these are probably not the best choice.

On the other hand, if you ride the subway or the bus to work, or if you do a lot of sitting still, these are probably a pretty good choice.

So the expanded bottom line is: At the low end of the spectrum, the E-series headphones aren’t a significantly better sounding headphone that what comes with the iPod (what level those are at—I have no idea), but the Shure headphones do noise cancelling, and do it well.

If you find yourself in a place where you need a lightweight, battery-less solution to external noise, these are a good choice. But the in-ear phones make it awkward to put them on, and the tube-noise makes them impractical for jogging, so if those are in your routine, you’d probably do better to find a different headphone.