Shure E2 Earbuds Product Review

Shure E2 High Energy In-Ear Earphones Pros Good sound Cons Uncomfortable, poorly manufactured The Bottom Line If these were more comfortable and better made, I might recommend them. But as it stands, I don't think they're worth the aggravation.

Full Review

I bought these because they received good reviews from the industry press and because, as a performing musician, I used Shure microphones for years and loved them. First thing I noticed when unpacking them is that they came with a little case. You are supposed to roll them up and store them in the case when they're not in-use. It's a good idea, but I wonder how many people will do this in practice. I keep my headphones attached to my MP3 player and at-the-ready. I suspect others will, too. Next thing I found was three sets of foam and three sets of plastic ear pieces. Each set is larger than the next and the idea is that one of them will fit your ear relatively well. One ear piece goes on each speaker and they are inserted into your ears. It took me a LONG time to finally settle on the large plastic ear pieces. They weren't the most comfortable, but at least they didn't come off in my ear like some of the others did. Comfort Wearing these things definitely takes some getting used-to. I found myself fiddling with them a lot to try and get them to sit in my ear canal tightly. They always seemed to want to fall out unless I really crammed them in there. I found them to be uncomfortable and annoying. Sound But, when they were nestled in my ear correctly and I had the tunes cranking, they sounded really good. The low end was better than any other earbuds that I've had and I've had a few. It isn't like listening through a set of big studio monitors, but the response in the low range is pretty impressive. The rest of the spectrum is also nicely covered. Isolation Another plus is that other people can't seem to hear the music, no matter how loud it's cranked. You can be wailing to Van Halen's 'Eruption' turned up to 11 and the people next to you won't hear a thing. Another side effect of using them is that you can't hear a lot of what's going on around you either. These are no open-air style headphones -they seal you off nicely. Bottom Line But alas, I'm giving them up. Yesterday, after only about 8 months of use, one of the plastic driver casings broke for no apparent reason. I'll probably glue it back together and use these as a backup, but they just aren't worth the annoyance factor to me.

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