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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Expensive, but worth it., August 16, 2006
First, I'm not an audiophile. And my tastes in music are limited to hip hop, jazz and R&B. That being said, I think these earphones are well-suited for listeners looking for an above-average experience.
Cons:
1. These earphones aren't suited for use on the treadmill or any other activity that requires you to be in motion. They must be seated fairly deeply in your ear canal to take advantage of the sound. And motion tends to yank them out.
2. They're kinda expensive. But if high quality sound is important to you, this won't matter too much
Pros:
1. Deeper, fuller bass. The difference between these and the E3c's (which I bought and returned) is pronounced. But the bass isn't so heavy that the lowest range overshadow the higher frequencies with the sloppy, boomy sound that you hear from cars that blast hip hop music. Hip Hop fons and dissatisfied E3c owners will really appreciate this, and should spend the extra cash for the E4c model if powerful, bouncy bass is important to you.
2. Crisp sound at mid and higher freqs. The detail in the mid-range is what blew me away with these. The first day I had these, I spent hours discovering new sonic details in MP3s that I overlooked prior. It was truly like getting a new music collection in addition to new earphones.
3. Sound Isolation. Prior to purchasing the E4cs, I used the white earbuds that came with my Apple iPod. I probably turned them up higher than I should have in order to compensate for ambient noise. The design of these earphones prevents almost all ambient noise from entering the ear canal. So you don't need to crank the volumne to hear your music.
Yeah, they're expensive. But they're worth it. Most of my music collection was ripped at 128Kbps. I thinking about re-ripping all my jazz everything at 256 Variable to see what else I'm missing.
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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shure E4 vs. Bose QC2, December 8, 2006
Shure E4 vs. Bose QC2
After reading many reviews about E4 vs. QC2 I bought the E4. A friend at my office had the QC2 so I borrowed them so I could write this review. I only used the QC2 for about 15 minutes but I think I found out what I need to know.
The first and foremost item that should make you choose between the two is whether or not you can stand to have earplugs in your ears. I sleep with them almost every night so I'm VERY used to them and as such was not worried about this. Before you buy the E4's (or any in ear type) go buy some soft foam ear plugs and use them for a few weeks. If you are ok with this then you will love the Shures. If not, you will hate them. The QC2's have gel soft ear pads and the insides are actually scooped out to accommodate the shape of your ear. They are very comfortable, but for me in ear models won out for these reasons. My office mate who let me borrow the QC2s for comparison said they hurt his ears after a couple of hours. This may be because he has big ears. I have felt this with many other types of over ear headphones as well so I'm glad I chose the Shures.
I have used foam ear plugs on planes for years so I know how well they worked. The E4's essentially act like ear plugs and so attenuate outside noise about the same. I never tried the QC2 on a plane, but I did try them here in my office and this is what I found. With the QC2 as long as the volume of the music was low enough I could here everyone around me fine. With the E4's I could here nothing even when off. This means you can listen to whatever at a lower level and still have the outside noise completely blocked.
While on planes the one thing I like to do most is sleep. With the in ear design you can toss and turn any way you like and they don't get in the way. I used my E4s on a trip to Australia from the US and they were great. I would put them in, plug them into the airline socket, tune some Jazz or Classical, adjust the volume to an almost imperceptible level and fall asleep. With the QC2, they would always be in the way. This small form factor also means they spool up into a very small case. The E4's have a small round case about two inches in diameter and 1 inch think. The QC2's is about 6 inches by 8 inches by 3 inches thick. This is important to me since every bit of stuff I have to haul around adds up. Additionally the QC2's require batteries to operate under any condition. If the batteries die you can't even listen to music so you must carry extra batteries or risk failure mid flight. No batteries in the E4's. All this leads to a smaller and lighter form factor.
This small form factor has one additional added benefit to me. Discreteness. When you are wearing the Bose, you are basically advertising that you spent $300 on a pair of headphones. Everyone knows what they are. With the Shure you get all the benefits and no one has to know what you have. You just look like another walkman junkie. I bought the ones in black because I didn't even want the iPodish bling. That's just me, but since I travel internationally to many smaller countries, discreteness is important.
When it comes to sound though they are very close. The E4's seem better at mids and highs while the QC2s are slightly better at lows. They are very close though. Maybe to an audiophile there is a big difference, but I can hardly tell. I compared DJ Magic Mike, Romeo and Juliet sound track, and Beethoven's 9th with the same results. I wouldn't say one is hugely better at any one. If you are looking for big bass, these are not for you, but if you are looking for clean crisp sound they both will do well. If you want that clean crisp sound at whisper levels the E4s are the winner in my book due to the better sound blocking.
One thing to note about volume. The E4s seem to be much louder at the same volume setting as the QC2s. The E4s come with an inline volume control so you will probably find you need it all the time. They seem to take much less to amplify them to an almost dangerous level.
Now all that said the E4s do have a down side. Since they are in ear they amplify any movements you make. You get used to this quickly, but it's there. Also, since they block sound so well you really can not hear anyone while you have them in unless they talk right in your ear. This means you have to take them out to talk to the stewardess. Not that this is hard, but you have to do it.
Lastly I can say if I had to do it over again I would buy the E3s. I don't think I could tell the difference and I could have used to save $100. Not that I am disappointed in my E4s, but $300 is a lot of money.
I provided all this detail for those who are data collectors like myself, but when it comes down to it you can't go wrong with either. If you can stand having something in your ear then I think the Shures are the right choice. If you can't, then the Bose are for you.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty darn good..., May 1, 2006
Before I start I feel I should mention that, while i don't consider myself an audiophile, I am a professional recording/mixing engineer. I take audio fidelity pretty seriously, but I'm not critical to a ridiculous extent.
I use these IEMs playing live with my band through an Aviom monitor mixer. The aviom samples everything down to 16-bit so i've never really gotten a chance to hear them at their best until today.
In the green room i hooked them up to my iPod between shows, and I was blown away. The sensitivity was amazing; i heard minute details that get lost on other systems. Anyone worried about bass output (or ahem, "base", as some call it) need not worry. While its not gonna thump (not many microdrivers do), its got tight and controlled bass to very low registers. My only complaint is that the midrange seemed slightly veiled to me...but the ipod isn't really known for its stunning audio fidelity, so it might not be the earpieces. The upper range reproduction is excellent, and I was very pleased with their performance.
Reguardless of frequency quibbles, I find these well worth the asking price. They are comfortable, accurate, and sound great.
-Matt McGrath
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