Customer Reviews

Shure E2c Sound Isolating Earphones

5 star:		(328)
4 star:		(229)
3 star:		(95)
2 star:		(82)
1 star:		(83)

 

 

Like many people, I was tempted by the good reviews but reluctant to pay so much for a pair of tiny earphones. Finally, almost 2 years ago, I bought a pair.

Like all of the other reviews here state, the Shure E2c's sound GREAT. They are very balanced, and let you hear the subtle details of your music, making the music almost come alive in your head. They turn your MP3 player or Discman into an audiophile-quality stereo system.

The E2c blocks outside noise by forming a very tight seal in your ear. In contrast, "noise canceling" earphones, such as the popular ones by Bose, do not block outside noise from reaching your ear, rather they add their own electronically generated noise which is supposed to cancel out the outside noise. I've never had good results with the various noise canceling headphones I've tried; plus, they require batteries to generate the noise-canceling noise. The E2c's block noise without batteries, and without adding any artificial noise or discoloration to your music. It works very well. I especially appreciate it at gym, on the bus or subway, and on a plane. (Warning - PLEASE don't wear the E2c's while driving or bicycling or any other time that safety requires your full attention!)

The build quality of the E2c's is very good - the cord and plug are thicker and sturdier than competing earphones. For 2 years, I heavily used and abused my E2c's, especially at the gym. Literally hundreds and hundreds of times, I've plugged and unplugged them into my various MP3 players, hastily wound and unwound the cord, and tossed them into my gym bag, usually without using the protective case that comes with the E2c's. Despite the very good build quality, my heavy use led finally to a short: when the cord was wiggled in a certain way, the sound on the left side would briefly go out.

I went to Shure's website and saw that they have a 2-year warranty. I sent my E2c's to Shure for repair, hoping it would be covered by warranty, but prepared to pay if Shure felt the problem was due to wear and tear (because, in fact, it was). Two weeks later, I received from Shure a BRAND-NEW PAIR of E2c's - they decided the problem WAS covered by the warranty, and wanted me to have a new pair rather than repairing my old ones!!!

This is more than I expected, and will make me a repeat buyer of Shure products! I especially appreciate this level of service given the lackluster support I've received from so many other companies.

I am totally into these noise-cancelling earphones and they perfectly complement my iRiver mp3 player/recorder in sound and color. Once you've gotten over their higher price point, have followed the enclosed instructions exactly and begun to use them, there is no going back to the normal, flat sounding buds. They isolate exterior noise and that is a boon if you live in a noisy environment, like NYC infamously is.

Experiment with using the foam vs. the flex sleeves to your taste. I've stuck with the smallest of the three sized flex sleeves and after two days testing my ears were used to the slight increase in pressure.

A warning: be careful not to turn the volume up too high in public as one needs to be able to know when her/his attention is required, among other things. Be extra aware of traffic when on the street. Also, high volume just is not necessary as ALL exterior racket (subways, curse-laden conversations and car horns) is rendered mutedly surreal.

Also, be mindful of its carrying case. I've had my pair for almost a year now and the case's cable spool has bent the cord's wire covering to such an extent that it is now exposed. Far be it from me to walk around town like a super-geek w/ electrical tape on mine; I plan to replace them with one from amazon's marketplace sellers for cheaper when Santa comes around this December. But be advised to remove the interior cable spool completely and keep the headphones rolled up manually before placing them inside the case. The case is very durable, zips up securely, is nonbreakable, has a soft protective interior and is lightweight.

One other observation -- use q-tips and rubbing alcohol to regularly clean the flex sleeves if you decide to use those. The foam probably would just wear out completely. Shure's website does sell replacment sleeves (both foam and flex) for $10-$12 each w/ 5 pair included, which is nice.

I honestly would have given the product five stars if it wasn't for the breaking of the wire cover coupled with their already high price. The warnings above should keep yours in good working shape for years though and this is a great investment for all digital audiophiles. :-)

I bought these earphones for a combination of uses - travel, exercise, casual listening, etc. They are great. The noticeable background noise attenuation is perfect for flights, busy airports, mowing the lawn or anywhere you want to tune out the outside world. Bass response is very good, I'd call it neutral (which is the best thing a serious music fan can ask for.)

These earphones are very low profile and unobtrusive to wear. They do not create the fatigue I get while wearing regular headphones for a long period and the sound blows away the numerous earbuds I have tried. I use the flex fit sleeves which are very comfortable. By cinching up the sleeve on the cord, they stay in place with minimal fuss even while exercising.

I strongly recommend these earbuds to anyone who wants immersive, comfortable and excellent sound.

Hello All,

I've owned the Shure E2C Sound Isolating Earphones for almost a year now.
I'm not an audiophile, but I can appreciate good sound reproduction. These earphones are amazing interms of clarity of highs and mid level sounds. The base is more than passible but not deep and ear-bleeding like some Sony or Bose models. I'm not into those models at all, since the music I listen to are often instrumentals with very little base, also supplemented with Podcasts and the occasional audio book.

I was immediately and pleasantly surprised to hear sounds I've never heard before in music I've listened to a thousand times from my car and computer speakers. I was very impressed and happy with my purchase. But, as with most things, it does come at a price. I'll get to that in a bit.

These earphones comes with 3 styles of earbuds. One is the round soft rubber kind (which come in large, med, small to suit your ear canal), the other is the soft squishy yellow foam, which molds to the shape of your ear (also comes in large, med and small), and the hard plastic kind (also in large, med and small).

The hard plastic kind works the best in terms of blocking outside sound but because its hard plastic, my ears start to ache after a few hours of continuous use. The foam feels the best in terms of comfort but doesn't block out sound as well as the hard plastic and the soft rubber ones. I finally settled on the soft rubber ones, a nice compromise between the hard plastic and the foam. It's soft, fits comfortably and blocks out most of the outside noise.

Now, it's important to NOTE that people have been tossing around the term NOISE CANCELING freely without any regard to its meaning. In terms of earphones and headphones, NOISE CANCELING refers to the mechanism within the headphones or earphones that actually emit a noise canceling signal that actually cancels out the frequency of most of the outside sound coming in.

I've tried the ones from Bose, Sony, and even Shure, which all have a seperate switch to turn on this function. The feeling is really weird and needs some getting used to. It feels like being stuffed up with a head-cold, or your ears on the verge of popping. But, it does do what it claims, which is actively canceling out a large percentage of outside noise coming in.

THESE earphones are NOT NOISE CANCELING earphones. They are sound isolating earphones. This means that they just block out the sound by forming a tight fit into your ear canal to prevent any other sound from getting in. That's all. Its the same as someone doing constuction across the street from your house and you close all the windows and doors to block out that sound. These earphones DO NOT emit a noise canceling signal to actively cancel out outside sound.

I hope this was helpful and makes sense to you.

Anyhow, back to the review.

You need to practice putting these things on your ear. What the hell does that mean? Well, if you've never used these type of earphones before, you will see that its more than just popping in these earbuds like the standard ones do.

The earphones comes with instructions and pictures to show you how to put them on, so don't worry. But, to give you an idea, first the darker colored earbud is ALWAYS the right side earbud. The clear colored one is the left. You first take the earbud cord, loop it around the back of your ear and then insert the earbud into your ear. Don't worry, if this doesn't make any sense, you'll understand when you own your own pair. These earphone won't fit into your ear in any other way AND will always pop out if you don't do it this way.

Is it comfortable? Yes, but over an extended period of time, my left ear starts to ache, but this is after 3 hours of continuous use.

Again, the sound reproduction is great. And it blocks out a large percentage of outside noise. I commute by bus and train and these guys are perfect to keep out all that excess noise.

Now, here are some drawbacks:

1) These are not good for exercising, or anything that involves active movement and sweating. REASON: as you sweat the earbuds will always slip out. If you are just lifting weights, they're fine. If you are on an exercise bike, most of the time, its ok. For jogging, no good.

2) This reason is also in tandem with the first one. If you are motionless, i.e. lying down or sitting or just standing in line waiting for the train or bus, these earphones will produce great sound. However, because your ear canal is almost completely sealed by the earphones, internal sounds will be amplified. What does this mean?

Here is the easiest and most accurate example:

Please try the following: Plug your ears with your fingers, (not put the palms of your hands over your ears). Please becareful when you do this. Take whatever finger fits, completely plug up your ear canal and eat some potatoe chips. The sound of you crunching on those chips are incredibly loud. Walk around a room that has hard wood or concrete floors. Your footsteps are also annoyingly audible.

This is almost the exact sensation you will experience when you have these buds in your ear.

So please take note of this. I commute to work by bus and train, and the only thing that bothers me is the noise that I hear when i'm eating, walking and the buds slipping out when I'm sweating on a hot day.

3) In addition to 1 and 2, the cord itself, if its free and dangling, you will hear the sound of the cord hitting your chest if its not taught or secure in some way. And that sound is quite loud and distracting.


That's it in terms of drawbacks. The earphones come in a nice looking zippered case for easy storage and travel. So, I'm pretty happy with my purchase, because the sound is great and my commute is mostly sitting down or waiting, but hearing my loud footsteps as I rush from my bus stop to the nearest subway train is still very annoying, something I haven't gotten used to yet, probably never will.

I hope this review has been helpful. Buyers beware, as always, try to get as much info on a product before purchasing. Be safe.

I just got these earphones and they are very different than I thought they would be. Don't get me wrong - I love them. I live in Manhattan and was not ready for the change that would happen when I put these guys in my ears. Basically I can't hear anything but the music. I'm missing subway stops, almost getting hit by cars. People talk to me and all I see is lip flap. I'm in my own little music world walking around scared that something is going to happen that I can't hear. Like: "Hey look out, watch your head!" Or "Hey look out for the taxi it's gonna hit you!" But when it's a good song I don't seem to care... Unless the subway decides to go express and I end up on Delancy street. Anyway - the sound is awesome. It does take some time getting used to the them in your ear - but so far, so good.

I was looking for headphones to serve me in the following conditions:

- Working out (jogging and weights);
- Airplane travel;
- Work

I have gone through several $10-20 headphones (usually the "sport" types that have a plastic hook that go over your ears) as well as the ear buds that came with my IPod Nano. The cord on the $10-20 versions typically wear out on me after 6-9 months of use. The ear buds from Apple were inadequate b/c they slip out when working out, and also they fail to cancel out any background noise when traveling. I am not an audiophile by any means, I just want a reliable set of headphones that work well for different situations. After reading reviews I decided to "go up a notch" and try a more expensive set, and purchased the Shure E2c's online for $59. Below are my impressions so far:

Positives:
1. They stay securely in my ear and do not slip out;
2. Do a good job of "isolating" the sound when listening on an airplane, where the engine caused me to have to increase the volume quite high when using the standard Apple earbuds just to hear (obviously not good for my ears). With the Shure's I am able to set at a normal volume level and hear OK).
3. Solid, thick cord that does not appear they will wear out if taken care of properly (i.e. storing them in the small, compact case that came with it).

Negatives:
1. Inadequate for office use do the the challenge of putting on and securing. It is difficult to describe with words, but from each earbud a cord comes out and wraps around the front and then over your ear, with both cords coming to the back of your head. This is then tightened behind your head with a sliding tube to prevent them from coming off, and the main cord leading to the MP3 device is now behind you.

I have become more adept at putting these on, but it does take some adjusting, wrapping cords around your ears, and fitting things just right each and every time. You can't just easily slip them on and off like other sets.

For working out or for extended wear on a plane this is great, they just aren't going to slip out. For the office though they are pretty much unusable for me. If someone comes into my office with a quick question I have to take them out, then spend another couple of minutes putting them back in. If I need to get up to go down the hall to the printer or the restroom, same thing. So I find myself just using the Apple earbuds in the office as it is much, much simpler to get on and off quickly.

2. Design. This is the only set of earphones I've ever seen in my life that doesn't have an "L" and an "R" to designate which is the left and right earbud. Instead the designer decided to get cute and make one side a solid color and the other side a split color. Don't ask me which is which because I forget each time. To me this is just brainless on the part of the designers.

3. Sound quality. It's OK, but I guess I just expected a little more when buying something from a company that purports to be "the best" and "the choice of professional musicians". Again I'm not an audiophile by any means, but the tones just don't sound that deep or rich. I understand that these represent their "low end" version, but for a company asking for $99 (I paid $59 online) again I just expected more, because frankly the sound isn't that much better than the cheap pairs I've owned.

Summary
These are a great set to use when working out. For the office they are simply impractical. For air travel (where there is a need to block out the noise from the jet engines) they are certainly adequate, however if this is all you were looking for then I'd consider one of the Bose models (not the earbuds but the full headset that goes over the ears; I have tried my brother-in-laws and they are actually noise "canceling" and not just "isolating", and are infinitely more comfortable than any earbud model).

For now though, my system of using the Shure's for the gym and the airplane and the Apple earbuds for the office will be adequate for my needs.

I got these as a present and was initially unhappy with the quality of the output - until I read the manual and realize the special position of the headphones (wiring curled over the ear and behind the head). The tighter the seal with the sponges/earbuds, the more the isolation factor and the better the quality sound. But this puts the speaker tunnel deeper in your ear canal.

Pretty good on the train and helps the 2 hour daily commute - blocks out most conversations. But certain voice pitch will permeate (bad) and the conductor annoucements are heard clearly (not a bad thing).

Excellent in the work place but it is a pain to take the buds out then put them back in.

Overall good for a city person/commuter warrior who is a minimalist and wants to block out the world.

This is a stream of consciousness review written as I adjusted to my new Shure E2's. If you want to know what to expect when you get these, read this and you'll know.

First impression, 'these are difficult to put on'.

As soon as I put them on and turned on my iPod I could hear a hissing sound. I gather this was always there but just drowned out by ambient noise before.

The clear sleeves at first seemed to slip right out of my ears as did the black sleeves.

Using the small orange sleeves the sound was VERY tinny, in one case it completely removed the bass guitar from a song I was listening to, and in another the lower notes of a 'rockin' piano were hard to hear. If I pressed in on my ears/the earphones I could hear these instruments much better. If I turned it up I could hear the bass, but the highs were way too loud. The problem then was of balancing across the frequency range, even with these things lodged in my ears. I really wanted to just return these pieces of crap, but decided to stick with it since I read they take some getting used to.

After 1 hour of use:
Within an hour of casual listening and taking them off/on a few times it got much easier to put them on, and as my proficiency in 'installation' grew, so it seemed did the sound quality. The orange squishy sleeves felt a little odd, but I got used to them pretty soon and after about an hour they gave me no discomfort.

I realized it was easier to drape the cord behind the ear, then twist in the bud so that you could do it with one hand. Instead of bud then cord. I can put one on with each hand using this method.

After I got used to putting the buds on with the orange sleeves, the clear sleeves worked out better and stayed in place. The sound was pretty good, but still was missing quote a bit of the low freq's, although the volume level can be set low and the sound is still quite loud enough to hear.

Then I tried the medium black sleeves, and I twisted a little to get them jammed in my ears. The sound seemed immediately much more balanced than with the other sleeves. I noticed with these I got a good plug effect in my ears, which is prolly why they sounded better right away. It felt odd, but I could hear the music, so I knew - **this was the way the E2's were supposed to fit.** You should feel like your ears are plugged up when there is no noise. It's odd that when you start the music your ears kind of have a slight popping feeling like when you change elevations in a plane. That's the right feeling for good sound. The bass response is not exaggerated, and the highs and lows blend exactly as they should. Combined with the fact they produce very good clarity I can't imagine how these could sound any better.

After about 20 mins with this 'good fit' and waking up a littler more I LOVE THESE EARBUDS. They sound damn good with the right sleeves on them. The black ones are soft and flexible so you can get them in there and they don't look silly like the orange ones.

Even with a decent head shake the properly fit buds stay in place. I'm not sure how they'd hold up under sweaty running conditions though. It likely depends upon which sleeve you use.

So then I went home on day 1 of having these and cut my grass. I used the same black sleeves and once I got them jammed into my sweaty ears I could barely hear the lawnmower even with low volume music! I literally could not tell when the mower was stalling because the sound was so blocked by these earbuds. The right one stayed in for the hour, but I had to re-seat the left one every 10 mins or so, perhaps my ear is bigger on that side :) I was EXTREMELY impressed that these things could block the sound from a lawn mower and allow me to enjoy my music.

Bottom line: I'm glad I bought these, even for $70. They work very well and produce great sound under office conditions and louder activities once you get them fitted. The only drawback I have? I wish they had a white cord to match the iPod, and the clear tube that you can slide up and down on the cords could use a slit in it like the iPod earbuds, but these are minor things.

I have used the Etymotic ER6 and also the Shure E2c's for a couple years now (since January 2002 I think). I use them extensively - probably averaging 2-3 hours daily. In my opinion they are both the best in-ear and isolating earphones in existence. I started with the Etymotic ER6's and then bought the Shure E2's as soon as I saw them advertised. I use them mostly while working out in the gym and yes--don't tell anyone-- while riding a bicycle. I know it's not the safest, but I'm addicted. As far as comparing the sound quality, I am not an expert and cannot tell much of a difference between the two. The main difference I have noticed is that the Shure E2c's have significantly better amplification than the Etymotics at the same volume settings on my MP3 player. Otherwise they are both so far above any of the dozens of other earphones, earbuds and headphones I have used that there is really no comparison. I could never go back. I use the Shure E2c's more now because they stay in my ears better as a result of their design which allows the cables to wrap around my ears. Also the cables have heavier shielding which decreases noise from wind and from the cables brushing against my clothes. The other advantage is that the Shure offers a 2 year warranty, whereas with the Etymotic's I could find no published warranty and they charged me $60 for a replacement after owning them for a few months.
Unfortunately both earphones take quite a beating with all the physical activity. I'm on my second pair of Etymotic ER6 and my 3rd pair of Shure E2c's. The problem seems to be broken wires from motion and pressure associated with weightlifting. This is unfortunate, but I have not found any way to avoid it nor have I found any better in-ear earphones (with similar noise-blocking) to replace them.

The Shure e2 earphones are, in a word, clear. The frequency response is relatively flat, and the sound is fairly neutral. The treble is a bit recessed, but the overall sound is very clear and uncolored. The actual design is quite good, but people will need to get used to having something inside the ear canal, which block a good portion of outside sound. This passive noise reduction is excellent; the music doesn't have to be turned up as much as on my Sony Fontopias. Hands down, the e2's were the best earphones I had heard before listening to the new e3 that just came out.

I have a few gripes, with the first being about the price. People will pay anywhere between $70 on ebay to $100+ on Shure's website, and I think this is a bit excessive. The sound is not THAT great; sure it's clear, but it's certainly not as detailed or musical as the e3 or e5. The e2's were made with the performing musician's desire to hear him/herself without the need for bulky monitors, and they certainly do that job very well. The e2's are not, however, a substitute for higher-end headphones such as the Etymotics or Sennheiser HD-280/600s.

The wiring in my e2's failed on me after barely two months, and on several of my friends' e2's as well. Shure has apparently modified the cable to prevent this from happening as much in the future. You should be aware of this, although Shure's customer service is excellent. The two year warranty is excellent; just keep your receipt and box.