Shure e3c

Earphones
Jeremy North

These phones are an in-ear design, often referred to as ‘noise-cancelling’ earphones due
to the way they fit in the ear canal. The idea is that there is a seal between the driver and
the outside world, so that the sound is channelled into the ear and nowhere else. They
come with a selection of flexible ‘grommets’ which can be fitted to the body of the ear-
piece. Depending upon the size of the ear canal, you select the one which provides the
most comfortable fit. It takes a bit of fiddling to get it right but the results are worthwhile.

Initially, this style of earphone takes some getting used to. They act like ear-plugs, blocking
out the outside world quite dramatically. You become aware of the sounds of your own
body. IT’s a little like when you put your head underwater. The other thing is that the ca-
bles act like microphones and transmit any vibrations right into your ears.

The e3c is the third one of this type that I’ve used, the other two being Sony, and Etymotic
(the latter being the E6) The Shure phones are very good. The way they can be worn has
a big effect. The cables are routed around the ear and can either go down behind the head
or come together at the front of the neck. There is a moveable sleeve on the cables to ad-
just the cables to fit snugly either way to stop them flapping loose. This prevents most of
the microphony which blighted the Etymotics. Also the cables have a ‘memory’ to an ex-
tent. This means that when in position they hold the shape pretty well and don’ t pull on the
earpieces. One more thing about the cables is that they are nice and smooth, so are far
less prone to getting caught in your clothing etc. The sound quality is good but not dra-
matic. Fairly good bass, an overall smooth sound with quite good detail. The Etymotics
had really good detail but were rather light in the bass, and not very comfortable, the ca-
bles were thin but a bit too stiff hence used to unseat the earpieces too easily. The Sonys
were comfortable however they are much cheaper and sonically inferior, the cables were
terrible though. They had an immense coefficient of friction and would stick to anything un-
less your life depended on it of course, the grommets were too easily dislodged and prone
to getting lost.

I bought mine from ipodbits. The service is really good. The Etymotcs i had stopped work-
ing after a few weeks and they offered me a replacement without hesitation. I opted to up-
grade to the Shures, but in black, which wasn’t currently available in the uk. Rekha the
lady at ipodbits ordered them specially for me at no extra cost. Superb!
Update by Mark....

I have to point out that there is a little mistake in Jeremy description of the E3c. The E3c
does not implement "noise cancelling". Noise cancelling is quite involved and implements
noise cancellation circuitry...which includes a mic on each earphone. The mic picks up
ambient noise...inverts the sound wave then plays it through the ears, thus cancelling the
ambient noise.

The E3c in fact only has "sound insulating" properties...simply because you ram the ear
type plugs into your ear canals and it blocks out a high percentage of ambient noise.

I have used Shure E2's for some time for in ear monitoring for live use whilst teching on
tour. I love the E2's but recently picked a set of Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro's. These are
dual driver and the bass end is extended a great deal. I will continue to use the E2's for
working...and use the UE's for my iPod.

I'm not trying to pull Jeremy up on his description...but would hate for someone to read
it...go buy a set of E3c's...and then be disappointed on the noise cancellation
feature...although in my honest opinion, noise cancellation actually decreases the quality
of the audio and should be avoided.