Shure E2C

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I bought my Shure e2c headphones after a recommendation from a friend. Her partner has a pair, and is a technogeek so I felt confident in their technologic capabilities even though it's not my area of expertise. I also found some positive recommendations of them on the internet. I bought e2cs rather than other Shure headphones because they are the entry level for this time of headphone and I wasn't convinced that paying the extra £20 for ...
...manual). Other models of the Shure in-ear headphones do not have wax guards, but come with a wax cleaning tool. If I have to buy another pair in the future I might be tempted to trade up for this reason as I have found that the wax guard is very fiddly. It is a small piece of sticky plastic that needs to be applied to the end of the nozzle, and the bud then pushed down on top. I found that the waxguard kept slipping off and needed replacing after ... more

I live and work in London and spend approximately 3 hours a day travelling on buses. This is really the only time I have to listen to my CDs (all 600 of them!) so it is very important to me that I can hear my music well. I listen to a variety of music: classical, indie, rock, jazz and techno (and many in between). However I had found with the background noise of the bus engine, as well as all the noise of people talking and listening to their own headphones, that I could only clearly hear to the loudest of my CDs on the buses - and that is not the kind of music I want first thing in the morning! So I knew I needed to invest in headphones with some degree of noise blocking/noise cancelling or give up on listening to music on the bus.

I considered Sennheisers as we have Sennheiser headphones at home, and they have an excellent reputation for sound quality. However that pair are too bulky for taking out and about, and their fold-up headphones looked like they would probably snap after travelling in my handbag after a few months. I also read a few negative reviews of their noise-cancelling capabilities on the internet.

I bought my Shure e2c headphones after a recommendation from a friend. Her partner has a pair, and is a technogeek so I felt confident in their technologic capabilities even though it's not my area of expertise. I also found some positive recommendations of them on the internet. I bought e2cs rather than other Shure headphones because they are the entry level for this time of headphone and I wasn't convinced that paying the extra £20 for the next level up would really make a dramatic difference for a 40% price increase. I also don't trust myself not to break technology!

The headphones come with a solid case (very handy, and I'm religious about using it so the wire doesn't get tangled in with my keys in my handbag) and a 'fit kit' of different sets of buds. I have never had much luck with in-ear headphones before - I have very small earholes and they always fell out. However the e2cs come with 3 different kinds of buds, in 3 different sizes. You can choose between hard plastic, soft plastic and foam. I wear the soft plastic ones, in the smallest size.

Before you can put the buds onto the headphones, you need to attach a waxguard to the headphone nozzles (have no fear, there are diagrams in the manual). Other models of the Shure in-ear headphones do not have wax guards, but come with a wax cleaning tool. If I have to buy another pair in the future I might be tempted to trade up for this reason as I have found that the wax guard is very fiddly. It is a small piece of sticky plastic that needs to be applied to the end of the nozzle, and the bud then pushed down on top. I found that the waxguard kept slipping off and needed replacing after only a couple of weeks. I looked into the price of a replacement set of guards and they would be £20! So I e-mail Shure and said that I was going through them very quickly, was this right, and they said that the glue wasn't strong enough on mine and have sent me a couple of spare fit kits in replacement (next day post!); so full marks to them for customer service, and the problem does now seem to be resolved.

The first time you put the headphones on, they WILL feel
uncomfortable. You need to play around with them until you get them in the right place in your ear (again, there is a diagram but it's difficult to relate it to your own head as obviously you can't see your ear) and then they'll feel decidedly less uncomfortable but you'll still be very aware that you are wearing them. However after a month or so, they will start to feel really normal. You will also wonder how you ever lived without them.

These headphones are magic. My personal stereo has a volume range between 1 and 20 and I never have it above 6 for classical music and 4 for rock/jazz/techno (classical CDs are always much quieter, for some reason). At these volumes I can hear all the intricacies of the music above the background noise, and of course the sound quality is excellent. I have read complaints by some reviewers that the bass isn't as good as the Sony equivalent of these headphones but that isn't a concern for me - I'm more interested in the detail of the music I listen to.

They do not block out everything. If someone sits next to you and has a loud mobile phone conversation you'll still hear every word (aaargh!) but they block out conversations further down the bus and all the noise of the engine. It's a shock when I take them off and hear how loud the outside world is!

There are two happy side effects to this. Firstly, no one else on the bus can hear my music. I never used to turn it up too loud for fear of annoying others with a tinny chk-chk-chk coming out of my headphones but I needn't worry about that now (and yes I have checked at home that no sound leaks out!). Secondly I am also saving my hearing by being able to keep the sound much quieter because I don't have to try to mask the background noise. It's a win-win situation.

For those with loud commutes on noisy public transport, and a serious love of music, I can wholeheartedly recommend these. 

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