Best Sounding, Best Looking, Most Expensive Earphones Ever!
Pros:
Exceptionally clear mids, and highs. Extended bass response. VERY comfortable.
Cons:
Expensive, Bass could be better for price range.
The Bottom Line:
If you have extra cash, then buy them. You won't regret it. If you have to finance them to afford them, forget about it.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Let me first start off by saying that I am not the type of person that would normally pay $300 for a set of headphones. As it turned out I had a large store credit burning a hole in my pocket, so I ended up paying $269 for these babies at Ultimate Electronics. All I can say is that these are EXCELLENT headphones, and I am very happy with them. I currently am using them with my 60gb 5G “video” iPod.
I first started off with the Shure E3c’s. I never thought I could spend more than $180 for headphones, so I figured the E3’s were going to have to work. I brought them home, tried them out and returned them the next day. They had very unacceptable bass. I had a great seal in my ear canal, but it made no difference. They were exceptionally clean and balanced, but I listen to music with a good amount of bass and they don’t put out enough of what I needed. They were BARELY superior to the stock iPod earbuds.
So I returned the over priced E3’s, and got the even more expensive E4’s. I figured at $300 a pair, they had better have some great sound. And guess what? They did! I was extremely surprised at the large difference between these two levels of earphones.
Sound Quality: The detail is really incredible. I can now make out hard to hear lyrics with relative ease. The instruments sound VERY true to life. I think this has to do with Shures background in professional microphone and monitoring equipment. The main difference that I could distinguish between the E3’s and the E4’s was the bass response. The bass is NOT perfect, however it is very good for an in ear earphone. You can actually hear sounds that come in at 20htz. I have a 12” sub in my car, and can hear all of the same bass lines from my sub that I can through these tiny earphones. It is really quite impressive. However, it does not have the same “hit” that you would expect from a home or car system. In a prefect world, they would have more bass.
Appearance: They look great. Nice finish. They feel like they are high quality. The aluminum is a nice touch. The 3.5” stereo mini connector is a bit cheesy. It is your average Chinese made molded plug with a “gold” tip. By gold they mean .00001 micron of gold. It is totally meaningless. The cord is longer than my arm…I guess that is all that I care about. 3.5ft long?
Accessories: They give you a nice variety of in ear “adaptors” to give you the right fit and are very comfortable. I will save all of you a lot of time, and suggest you use the foam tips. They are like ear plugs, and work great for sealing off the ear. The better the seal, the better the sound. The carrying case is also nice. It is small enough to fit in your pocket, and protects the earphones nicely. They also give you an attenuator, but this is waste. Mechanically degrading the signal is seldom a good idea. If you travel on an airplane, you may need it. But why would you use these high precision headphones to listen to airplane music/pilot messages? They also give you an adaptor to go from 3.5” mini to ¼” connector. I have not used this adaptor, but you will get a signal loss from adapting any signal, so again I would not recommend using it.
Value: I would think these probably cost about $80 to make in China. They are nice, but $300? You have to assume that Shure makes a VERY nice margin on this product. I have found these online for as low as $179. Any authorized retailer must charge the MSRP or $300. So you have a choice between a warranty from an authorized retailer at $300, or potentially throwing away an entire $179 from an online retailer if they break. You make the choice. iPod - $399 iSkin - $39 Shure E4 - $299. = $740! OUCH!
Final Thoughts: I didn’t have to actually shell out cash for these, so speaking on just sound quality I LOVE THEM. If I had to pay $300, I would only be luke warm about them. It is really great though to sit around and hear things in your music you have been missing for many years. The sound is VERY balanced, which is all you can really ask from earphones. I give them thumbs up if you got the cash to spend.
