Best ear buds I've owned

I once heard something on a commercial that really sticks in my mind: "You'll remember the quality long after forgetting about the price". Yes, I saved the $299 and it hurt spending it on these my Shure e4c's, but they're well worth it. I chose not to save money by buying online because I wanted to be able to return the ear buds if I didn't like them, and the Apple store has a great 14 day return policy.

I had it in my mind to buy the e4c's when I went to the store. I had the cash. They had the e3c's and e4c's next to each other. Then the question came to mind, should I save the hundred dollars, and get the cheaper ones? Then I remember reading one of the reviews on this site that said the person had bought the e3c's and upgraded to e4c's, so that's what I based my decision on. I'm glad I did.

The different ear attachments are nice. You receive L, M,and S soft rubber, and harder rubber ear attachments, yellow foam attachments, (like the roll up ear plugs) and the flange type attachments, like the earplugs they issued me in the military.

I haven't used the yellow attachments, as you have to roll them up to insert them in your ear, and will get dirty very fast, especially if you don't wash your hands before inserting them. I tried the flange style attachments, and they worked ok, but I needed two hands to insert them, one to pull open my ear, and the other to insert the ear bud. I haven't tried the harder rubber inserts, because the soft rubber inserts are sooo comfortable! The medium size fits well in my ear, however, I noticed I have to push them fairly deeply into my ear to get the desired bass. You must have a very good fit with these ear buds to enjoy the bass, but the bass response IS there.

On to the sound: These ear buds sound spectacular! In fact, they are limited by my mp3 player. The music on my mp3 player is crunched at 160 kps. The reason for this is that's the compression Rhapsody To Go makes available for their music. Too bad it isn't higher, but I love paying $15 a month for unlimited, legal downloads. The highs are great, as well as the mids and I mentioned the bass before. I don't have a great stereo at home, but a friend has a Sirius radio at work. I plugged in my ear buds to see how they sounded, and I was floored at how good they sounded! I can only say this about the sound of the Shure e4c's: If you're not happy with the sound quality of these ear buds, it's the quality of the source of the music, not the ear buds!

The cord is great also. I slammed my Sony Fontopia ear buds on a previous review because of the cord issues. They could learn a lesson from Shure, for sure! (sorry for the pun!) The cord is extremely high quality. The ear buds can be worn hanging from the ears with the cord in front, or with the cord over the back of the ears hanging in front, or as I like to wear them at work, with the cord over the back of the ear with the cord hanging down my back, (under my smock). This way, they don't dangle or get caught up in anything. The plug is very high quality as well, and the set also comes with an adapter so you can plug them into your home stereo if you wish.

The Shure e4c's are sound isolating as well, so they're good at blocking out most of the ambient sound of your environment. This is good and bad. I work in a lab, so I can enjoy my music while I work, but anytime someone talks to me, I really have to remove them so I can hear the person. Turning off my music isn't enough, it's really better to remove them to hear others speak. Now a couple words about safety: I really don't recommend wearing these outside where being sound isolated could prove dangerous, as you can't really hear anything going on around you. I walk my dog in the park daily, and was very startled when a runner or a biker passed me on the path and I didn't hear them coming. Someone could very easily sneak up on you and you'd never know it. I wear different ear buds in the park, ones where I can hear outside noise. The other thing is volume. These ear buds could very easily damage your hearing if you're not cautious about the volume you listen to. I rarely turn up my music player past 25%. Please be careful with these ear buds!

The Shures also come with a nice case to store the earbuds, and a fantastic 2 year warranty! (Unlike Sony's sorry 90 day warranty) You know, if a manufacturer can't warrant a product for at least a year, do you suppose they have any faith in the quality of their product? Forgive the rant. I really don't mind paying extra if I know I'm buying a quality product.

I almost forgot: You can also have custom ear fittings made for these earbuds if you go to someone who specializes in such matters. I'm not sure what other people you could go to, but I know a dentist who specializes in maxillo-facial, and he can take impressions of ears, and have the lab make the fittings. I'm sure there is a cheaper route if you're not connected to a maxillo-facial dentist!