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If you buy these, within a week you'll be muttering "what the heck were they thinking." And should you have the audacity to try to use Shure's accessory for turning these into a useful iPhone headset, your cord-length hassle will only get worse. I've owned these for a few years, and also use two sets of DJ cans and a set of studio monitor speakers. I switched to the black foams after I wore out or lost various pieces that came with these, and immediately found them better sounding AND more comfortable.Although this is a 3-star review, I should make clear that these are *excellent* sounding earbuds. You might not think that could possibly be a big deal, but trust me. I have no doubt that Shure had a legitimate technological advantage or investment that lead them to start charging what decided to (for these and other earbuds in the Shure family) but at this point you're paying for a Ferrari and getting a VW GTI. The bass can be a little thin (especially if, like me, you're into bass-heavy music styles) but when test-listening a production this can be a valuable feature.Sound isolation is also pretty good.
Value: Speaking as someone who has spent borderline-irresponsible amounts of money on audio gear, I have to say these are NOT worth the cost of admission. They ship with a variety of in-ear pieces (a "fitment kit"), none of which are as good as the black foam earpieces sold as replacements for a higher-end model (but which also fit the E3c perfectly). Your pocket will be like a clown car filled with Shure headphone cord. Nowhere near as good as some active noise cancelling cans, but an improvement over the crying child on the plane.My complaints are two: ergonomics and value. Ergos: The cord for these is way, way too long. They were released back when your choices for in-ear headphones were relatively few, and (in particular) when none of Apple's iPod buds had any kind of seal to them.
Get some $75 earbuds and take your wife to a nice dinner (or two) instead.
No doubt about it: These head phones sound great. Forget about working out with them unless you want to spend your entire workout reinserting them. They're either too small which means they're constantly falling out or too big which means they hurt when wearing them.
Wearing them properly. I'm also not crazy about the vacuum that seems to be created when they are inserted. When properly worn they do cancel out all backround noise but that's the trick isn't it.
I find my self constantly readjusting them for the perfect seal. The trick is to select the correct sized earbud. Apparently I have weird ears.
It creates pressure in my ear canal and gives me a headache. Looks like I'm fated to use over the head models.
They were replaced. I paid 175.00 for these and when I first got them I thought they were MUCH better than the Bose. I have had these now for 13 months and they have done the same thing. After 7 months of using at the gym, one of the ears became very staticky. I had to hold the wire in a certain position in order to make the sound come out of both the ears.I sent them back to Shure as they have a 2 year warranty. The short seems to be in the wire itself, not by the ears.I would like to add that I only use these headphones about 45 minutes a day, 4 days a week for my work outs.I am very dissapointed in the quality and will not purchase again. Shame on Shure.
The sound is awesome on shure E3c's until this issue rears it's ugly head. They are great at isolating noises and you will not hear a thing, more or less, when you have these in. I want to throw this latest batch in the trash can but don't have the hear. Perhaps better shielding of the wires would prevent this problem from happening.
I've owned Shure E3c's for several years now. That said, let me explain why I will never buy another pair ever again. My first pair started breaking up on me after about a year of owning them. Basically, the wire near the headphone jack goes through a bit of abuse regularly.
Hopefully people will find this review and realize that it's not your player. Now, my major problem with Shure E3's is this. They were warranteed and I contacted Shure. They replaced them for me and informed me that if I had the same problem again it would cost me $$'s since this was a replacement. First off let me say that I love shure headphones.
Remember, you're basically throwing your mp3 player in your pants pocket, shirt pocket, coat pocket, etc. After awhile, about a year, the wiring close to the plug will become a frustation point for you as the sound starts to break up. It's the E3c's. I'm not sure what they could do to improve on this product. Fast forward exactly one year later and the same issue has cropped up again. The price point was right for me and they gave me exactly what I needed for the highs and lows of in your ear headphones. Still, i can't advocate spending money for these or the E3c-n's since the n's are the next generation.
I was ok with that. The wiring in these headphones leaves a bit to be desired. There's nothing about them that tells me shure has corrected this problem. Instead, I'll probably pay the $$'s that they ask to replace them but, after that, I will inform them that this is my last pair until they fix this wiring issue.
It's broken the same place twice on the part of the housing that holds the foam/rubber earpieces. I really like these earphones. I've gotten about 1 1/2 years of use out of both pairs before they broke. The dynamic range is excellent, and sound isolation is almost complete in noisy environments (cutting the grass, sitting in an airplane). The problem is they're somewhat fragile. Shure customer service was excellent on the first pair, and they replaced them at no charge. Let's see how they are on the 2nd pair.
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