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Shure's E2c: Best bargain right now?
Date of Review: Jan 9, 2005
The Bottom Line: Get it if you want to spend less than $80 and want portable, excellent earphones!
Introduction
I bought the E2c as replacements for my Sony EX71s which just stopped working in one ear... time for a sound upgrade anyhow.
The Earphones I was looking for were to be used whilst travelling to and from school on a noisy bus as well as for air travel for better sleeping. The E2c fit this neatly.
Both the Sony EX71s and the Shure E2cs are known as "canalphones" which are basicly earphones that sit IN the ear canal at various depths depending on the model. This has the advantage of allowing the earphones to block out most higher and mid-range frequency noises such as that annoying baby crying in front of you on your 15 hour transatlantic flight or the annoying engine whine from a old bus.
Appearence
The E2cs would be considered as weird by most people, as they fit in the ear canal, with the earphone part neatly fitting just outside. The wires go over and around the ear to meet the other and join together via a strong connection which ends in a standard 3.5mm stereo plug.
The housing of the earphone is translucent, showing some of the quite fascinating wiring inside. With the body of the earphone being the size of a Canadian dime, this is quite a compact earphone.
The wires of the earphones are rather thick by today's standards, although this is a good thing. I can yank them out of my ear should the need to do so arise without worring about the wiring like I did with my old EX71s.
Performance
Excellent for the price! Believe me, you will notice a difference when you move from the EX71s or the iPod earbuds to these. While I won't exactly say it's a day-and-night difference, it is there and very noticable.
I won't go into very much detail here as I really don't know... but the earphones have somewhat of a rolled-off high and a boosted bass, maybe too heavy for some... to remedy this, I used a "Latin" EQ on my iPod.
