I really enjoy both earphones, but they are sonically worlds apart. The Sony earphones are a bit easier to insert and sit more comfortably in the ear than the Shures (whose cables have to be looped up and over each ear, newscaster-style). When it comes to ease of use and physical comfort, the Sonys are simply better. Sonically, it is hard to say one set of earphones is objectively better than the other. The Sonys feature a very prominent bottom end while the Shures have tighter bass response and much more mid-range clarity. I would say the Sonys have been engineered to sound "hot" (lots of bass and treble) while the Shures were designed to sound more neutral. In places where a sense of energy is more important than nuance (e.g., at the gym or out jogging) I'd recommend the Sony earphones. For longer periods of more introspective listening, the Shures can't be beat.


Unbelievably Amazing. What an honest, awesome product.   August 20, 2005
 23 out of 23 found this review helpful

First and foremost, I don't care what headphones you have or get, you need to research an MP3 Player that has good sound quality and features like an EQ, good bass (since earphones generally need help in the bass department). After a lot of research from user reviews/blogs, I went with the iAudio U2 1GB. One hell of a player, and with these headphones it is an audiophile marriage. My ears are in heaven as I'm writing this.

Ok. So like any other person with an MP3 player that wants a good earphone upgrade (we all know stock ones that come with players are really preventing us from enjoying the music, and my mp3 players earphones were no exception. They sucked.), I decided to do some research, from PEOPLE, ofcourse. Reviews like here on amazon, and other peoples blogs. After being the owner of $50'ish sonys, which also yielded great reviews for <$100, I said to myself "Alright, I like listening to music on my MP3 player, I want something really good". About 2 days later, after a lot of research, I end up narrowing it down to the Shure E-series earphones. The E5's, those are going to run you at least $350 if you're lucky. I'm sure those sound great, but more than double the price of the E3's wasn't it for me. The E2's were a no-go. They have a wax-guard that you have to replace, so you'll be ordering more stuff. The E3c's and E5c's come with a wax-removal tool that works great (you should keep your ears clean anyway :) ). Plus, the E3c and E5c use a different type of foam-plug from the e2c's. After a lot of review, the E3c and the E5c are incredibly similar, while the E2c is noticably lower-quality, but will still tear up any <$100 sony/bose whatever.

So, with that said, SOUND QUALITY: This is why we all are buying Shure. They have been in the professional sound business for so long, many reputable bands/groups/singers use them. Must be good right? Yep. They sure are. These come with 3 different size pairs of grey reusable plastic earplugs that fit on the end. 3 more pairs of the same, only these are clear. And 1 pair of the yellow e3c/e5c Disposable yellow foam earplugs. Now, if you keep you're ears clean, and are gentle, you can get quite a lot of listening hours out of the foam ones. I've been using my foam plugs that came with them for a week now. You squeeze them, hold them in your ear canal for 3-5 minutes, and they expand to contour your ear canal, providing an AMAZING sounding seal/fit, and they won't fall out like other cheap plastic earphones. You take them out, put the earphones with the foam in the protective case that comes with these (which is great), and the foam will re-expand in no-time, and it's just like when you first used them. When you're ready to use them again, squeeze the foam, put it in your ears, wait for it to expand/feel tight, and you're good to go again. Replace em when they get waxy that's it. The foam is really where it's at, and you can buy bags of the same Shure yellow foam earplugs for the E3c at a lot of places on the web cheap. I've seen bags of 10 pairs, bags of 30 pairs, I've heard of bags of 500 pairs. Since these foam plugs are sounding great after a week for me, I went with a bag of 30 pairs. Should last quite a while.

The plastic re-usable/cleanable plugs that come with these are no slouch though. The sound quality is ALMOST as good as the foam. It's the same earphones obviously, but it's all about the tightness of the seal, and foam will do that better. You will notice they don't provide a seal as good as the foam. You will probably notice they will feel like they are about to fall out of your ear OCCASIONALLY if you are moving around a lot. But I'm being really picky here, because in all honesty the plastic plugs included are just fine. I wouldn't reccommend jogging with these anyway since sweat can mess up these babies. Use these for casual sitting/walking/whatever is not sweat-generating intense.

With these earphones, I can honestly say that from my previous year of listening through a $50 pair of sony earphones, I can hear the difference, and in a big, big way. I listen to rock/pop/alternative/adult mostly. Not much on the rap. If you listen to a lot of rap and plan to use ANY type of canalphone like these, you better make sure you're player has great bass on it like the iAudio U2 does. The bass is good, but it's not going to compete with a huge set of studio earmuffs. That's probably the only negative on the list for these, and that's being picky. The bass is way more than awesome for anything but rap problably, but don't take my word for it since I don't listen to rap. My playlist right now is stuff like Coldplay / ACDC / Audioslave / Third Eye Blind / The Killers / Phoenix / Cake / Simple Plan / Stroke 9 / The Matches / Papa Roach blah blah. So much space to fill on a gig mp3 player when you only pick out great songs that you won't skip. I love it. And these earphones make me love it even more.

If I were to only get a few months use out of these (which I'm sure i'll get more since these are a quality product), I'd buy them again, without question. These are awesome, and they'll really make you appreciate your music and enjoy it like you never have. Shure made a great, solid, honest product and didn't skimp in any areas in terms of quality. It's really hard to say that about most companies products these days. You get what you pay for and these are worth it. Hi-5 to Shure.


enhance your iPod   June 12, 2004
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

These little earplugs make a world of difference for your portable music device. I use them with my iPod and have tried them on the noisiest planes, in airports and on the subway. They cancel out huge amounts of the surrounding noise, and you don't have to crank up your device as much, resulting in saved battery power. The sound is outstanding and really enhance the experiennce with a digital music device. With the iPod the difference was absolutely stunning. They are very well made and the addition of a fit kit allows you to find the perfect plug configuration for your ear. Mine came with a great little case to keep them in, and I also like that they have a really long cord, which is useful for gym users who puut their device down on the exercise machine.


A great choice!   May 1, 2004
 14 out of 15 found this review helpful

Where to start...

I have received these headphones a few days ago and since then have been spending much time comparing them to my past headphones. I purchased these from MicrophoneSolutions.com for $135.

I'll address the bass problem first - there are many out there who complain about the lack of bass. First off, it is very important with these headphones to get the proper fit - a complete seal in your air. This allows the trapped air in your ear to act as the medium for the sound, rather than the environment around you. I noticed that when walking around (not wearing them properly) the headphones would slip a little, the seal would break, and all of a sudden the bass would disappear. (This was using the silicon ear pieces.)

If you want the most out of the headphones you defiantly have to wear them correctly...check the pictures in the book and on the box. Make sure that you have the cable go up and over your ears, behind your neck, down your back and under your arm. There's a slip on the cable that allows you to slightly tighten the cable on the back of your head so the buds don't move when you walk around. Once this is done, the bass is pretty decent - it's more defined than boom-like, so if you're into bass-driven music, you may want to think twice about these headphones.

As for the sound I must say that I am completely impressed with these headphones - my expectations have been met. I listen primarily to instrumental rock (such as Godspeed You Black Emperor) which (I suppose) closely resembles classical music. These headphones (as compared with my street Sony MDR-G56 headphones) have a much higher definition when it comes to the mids and highs. Cymbal crashes, bells, and anything of that sort seem so much more alive rather the drowned-out-by-bass sound my other headphones have.

The sound isolation is beautiful! I'm able to walk through crowded environments (such as food courts) while listening to softer music without being bombarded by outside conversation and noise. The foam plugs seem to have the best noise isolation (and provide the best comfort).

Another great feature I like about these buds is its dynamic range. You get nearly the same amount of detail when the volume is turned down low as you do when you have it turned up - you won't have to turn up the volume to hear different voices in the music. Also, I noticed that when crescendoing, the headphones don't really bottom out at all so you end up having a full sound throughout a song.

What it comes down to is if you're willing to pay the extra few bucks for these headphones. If you're just looking for headphones with high output and not necessarily the best of quality output, then perhaps these headphones aren't for you. It's disappointing seeing low ratings for these headphones based purely on "lack of bass" and "too expensive". I really think if you need the isolation (subway, crowded areas, etc) and also for a better defined sound, these headphones are for you.

Keep in mind that these headphones come with a 30 day guarantee, so if you are not pleased with them, you can always return them.


Would Be Great if They Cost $40   April 29, 2004
 11 out of 24 found this review helpful

I bought these headphones after reading all the reviews here on this site. I had high expectations, especially since they cost $180. However, I am somewhat disappointed with their performance.

First, they are not comfortable, if this is the fist time using earphones that you jam into you ear canals, they will hurt for the first few days of using them. Jogging or doing any movements will case the earphones to shift in your ear. When that happens the air pressure is constantly changing and it feels like you're in an airplane. While your ears are readjusting to the pressure the sound gets muddled.

Do not try to eat while listening to these headphones either, the sound of yourself just biting on a french fry will seem very loud and drown out the music.

Second, the base is not only poor, it down right sucks. If you enjoy music with base, like most people, do not buy these headphones they will be a huge disappointment. After listening to these earphones for a day, the base on my crappy desktop speakers sounded great.

On the positive side however, the detail of the sound is impressive. You can hear almost every detail. For example in live recordings you can hear the breathing and the shuffling of papers in the background.

The sound isolation is nice. With the headphones on you can't hear anything. However, you can get the same experience from a $2 pair of earplugs.

In conclusion, if you are the type of person who usually uses the headphones that come with your audio devices then you'll probably like these. However if you use decent headphones with nice base, these headphones are just not impressive at all and definitely not worth $180. I would say they would be nice if they where $40.