Am I the only person who doesn't like the Shure e4c?

[perfmode]

I started my IEM hunt in July after hearing my father's e5c's. The first time I put them on, I was completely blown away. Before that I used the apple buds, ex-71 and some Sony BTE (behind-the-ear) headphones. None of them even came close. The sound coming from the e5c was nuts. Drums were crisp. I could feel the violin strings resonating in my head. It was "an experience". Those e5c's were his so I only got to use them for a day or so. I knew right then that I needed to upgrade to something better.


Fast forward to August. I went into the Apple store to check out their Shure IEM's after calling every other retailer in the city. Apple didn't carry the e5c so I settled on the e4. As soon as I walked out of the store I plugged them into my ipod to test em out. I wasn't amazed.

Maybe it was the placebo effect or something. I honestly don't know. I switched back and forth between my Sony BTE headphones and couldn't justify the $300 e4c's. They just didn't have the punch or oomph that I came to enjoy with the e5c.

For one, the e5c was a lot louder. I could set the volume to 50% and beats would be BANGIN in my head. With the e4c, I had to turn it up to 90% to get the desired effect. Is that how they normally are?

Anyways, I toyed around with them for a few more minutes, testing out a bunch of different genres, and decided to return them.

I went online and got the e5c's from amazon for just $40 more and went to sleep a happy man. I still don't regret the purchase.

Am I alone on this one or did anyone else notice the difference between the 4 and 5?

edit:

Another thing I didn't like about the e4c was the thin cord around the earpieces. The e5c has a nice thick cable-like cord and feels durable.

[bond007]

Interesting, I don't own a set of E5C but i'm a happy owner of the E4C. When I first got mine, I was upset about the lack of thumping bass. However, now after about 3 weeks I am as happy as larry. The bass is there, the highs are good and even the lows sound great. I personally like using the white 3 flange tips myself. But I expect the E5C are in a totally different league to the E4C. I'd love a set of E5C but can't justify buying them even though I could easily afford them. BTW, in the UK the E5C sell for a really crazy high price......

[perfmode]

Originally posted by bond007
Interesting, I don't own a set of E5C but i'm a happy owner of the E4C. When I first got mine, I was upset about the lack of thumping bass. However, now after about 3 weeks I am as happy as larry. The bass is there, the highs are good and even the lows sound great. I personally like using the white 3 flange tips myself. But I expect the E5C are in a totally different league to the E4C. I'd love a set of E5C but can't justify buying them even though I could easily afford them. BTW, in the UK the E5C sell for a really crazy high price......

How high do you have to turn up the volume on the e4c? How much did you pay for them?

[solvexyz]

e4c is known for having a very bad synergy with iPod. That is why I got my Westone UM2 for bass heavy music.

Well, I still like e4c for certain types of music - Jazz, classics, and etc. I am listening to all kinds of genres, so UM2 will not be enough for me.

[chiefmcbeef]

I've had my e4cs for a month or two now and they, along with my ipod, haven't had much use, maybe once every 2-3 weeks due to the poor synergy between the two.

I knew there was more to come from the e4cs after having plugged them into various audio kit around the house. I took the earphones down to my local Apple store the other day to try them out with the Nano and the e4cs sound how I expected they should have sounded with the 4th gen ipods. I was impressed and was standing there almost smiling as it sounded so good. The closest I got to this fidelity was by using higher quality encodings on the iPod but this was no match for the Nano which already sounded good with the e4cs.

As a result my 20gb is going up on ebay and a Nano will follow soon :D

[solvexyz]

Originally posted by chiefmcbeef
I've had my e4cs for a month or two now and they, along with my ipod, haven't had much use, maybe once every 2-3 weeks due to the poor synergy between the two.

I knew there was more to come from the e4cs after having plugged them into various audio kit around the house. I took the earphones down to my local Apple store the other day to try them out with the Nano and the e4cs sound how I expected they should have sounded with the 4th gen ipods. I was impressed and was standing there almost smiling as it sounded so good. The closest I got to this fidelity was by using higher quality encodings on the iPod but this was no match for the Nano which already sounded good with the e4cs.

As a result my 20gb is going up on ebay and a Nano will follow soon :D

So can you explain more in what way did iPod Nano sound superior than an regular iPod? Is the bass stronger or what?

[chiefmcbeef]

Aah yes, sorry I wasn't more detailed with that :)

I'll explain my experiences.

With the regular iPod there is the serious lack of bass making the e4cs sound too high on the mids and highs, almost like a bad pair of earbud phones. Unlike a bad pair of earbud phones, the mids and highs that did remain were crystal clear but the whole listening experience lacked any body. Plugging a pair of E4Cs into a source that it works well with and then not creating a perfect seal in the ear is pretty much the effect you get, an empty hollow sound.

I found that applying an EQ preset such as Hip Hop or Electronic were a minor compensation for the lack of bass. Increasing the lower frequencies with these earphones on the iPod only seems to add more of a muffling effect to the music, again, like a cheap pair of earphones where bass is increased and there is no effect other than to distort the sound. Hip Hop and Electronic EQ presets compensated slightly by also boosting some of the mid and high range frequencies.

Mp3gain was used to lower the overall gain on tracks down to a safe 85db. Using the EQ presets again reduced clipping that was occuring on some tracks.

A final boost to audio quality was brought about by encoding music at 320kbps MP3. This had a slight effect on producing a bit more bass but nothing as significant as changing the source.

Plugging the E4Cs into the Nano, there was already more body in the music that was streaming through, I thought I was listening to the music with the EQ on but when i checked, the EQ was off. All of the characteristics exhibited by the regular iPod and E4Cs such as high treble and mids were no longer there. These frequencies were balanced out by the presence of the lower bassier notes which actually had some thump to them. With the regular iPod you would be hard pushed to find a track where the bass would thud and you would feel it when using the E4Cs. The Nano with E4Cs allowed the E4Cs to represent the music..how shall I say this..more faithfully. I wanted to test the earphones out more so I put the Hip Hop EQ preset on and the amount of bass coming from the E4Cs was incredible, considering I had had these earphones for two months and had hardly had any bass from them with the iPod.

In short, before, the sound was hollow, with a faint hum for bass here and there. Bass was present but not in a way that it is felt or noticed when the vocals and other elements of the music are introduced. With the E4Cs coupled with the Nano (and probably any previous iPod), the bass becomes a part of the music and fills the much noticed gap in the music.

With the Nano, the E4Cs carry a bass as noticable as the Sony MDR-EX71 but without producing a muffled mid and high range.

Phew, hope that wasnt too much hehe, the thoughts were rolling off my head :)

[solvexyz]

man, you got me really interested in getting an iPod Nano now. It sounds it will make me to use shure e4c more.

[chiefmcbeef]

Hehe, its the reason I am getting one and I dont care to carry around a full sized iPod :(

A dude in the Apple store did recommend getting an older 1st, 2nd or 3rd gen iPod as they are supposed to sound better than the current 4th with the Shures but I can't be certain of this as I haven't heard them.

I would recommend popping down to a store with the Nano available for demo and try it out with ur earphones which, sound great it seems on any device that can drive them other than the current iPod 20gb. They even sounded good on my brother's HP ipaq :)

[rx7_fan]

I love the E4c, but I wouldn't use it would the iPod. Bad combo. They are great phones they aren't the best w/ the iPod.