What Pair Better Suits Your Ear?
Shure E2c In-Ear Headphones
VS.
Etymotic Research In-Ear Headphones

Earphones that give you superb sound quality and block out background noise, so even low quality recordings sound great, are becoming very popular today. In this review I will be comparing two products from both Shure and Ditdo. The first pair are the E2c Sound Isolating In Ear Headphones by Shure (http://www.shure.com/earphones/index.asp) and the other are Etymotic Research?s ER 6 Isolator Earphones (http://ditdo.com). In this review I will be covering: sound quality, ease of use, package contents and price.

Sound Quality:

Shure (E2c): 5/5
Etymotic (ER6): 4/5

When compared to any other headphones, for example the Apple headphones included with the iPod, both of these headphones win without competition and without question. These headphones deliver such rich sound into your ears you will hear instruments and sounds in your music you never heard before. The words coming out of the artists? mouth will be a lot clearer then ever and you can actually hear and recognize each individual instrument as it plays. The base response on these headphones is excellent. The deeper they go into your ear canal the better the sound. The sound out of these headphones will really get you moving to the beat of the music and after you experience the music you love like this, you won?t want to go back to the now old-fashion ear-buds.

Ease of Use:

Shure (E2c): 2/5
Etymotic (ER6): 4/5

It might seem weird to you to see an ease of use section when reading a headphone review. This is one of the main drawbacks of in-ear headphones; there are actual instructions on how to use them. You can?t just casually leave them in your ears like traditional ear-buds or throw them over your head like headphones. Both of these headphones come with instructions on how to insert the ear buds properly into your ears for the best result. As you can see by the rating, the Shure E2c headphones were a lot more complicated to use when compared to the Etymotic headphones. When I first opened the box to these headphones I thought to myself ?cool?. Unfortunately it wasn?t until about 10 minutes later that I finally got the music going and was listening to the music. The Shure headphones must go behind your head and over your ears in order to stay fit. You have to find an ear bud size that fits your ear so that you can even get them on. This whole process took about 10 minutes. You then have to lift up your ear and stick the headphones into your ear canal. With the Shure headphones this got very uncomfortable at times, even with the different size buds, but it was more than worth it once you got the music going. The Etymotic headphones, though they still required instructions and a little bit of pondering, were much easier to use than the Shure headphones. All you have to do is place the ear bud on the headphone, lift up your ear and stick them in your ear canal. This was a lot easier than the Shure headphones.

Another drawback to the Shure headphones was that they were not labeled left or right, instead you had to figure our which bud goes in which ear based on the coloured pattern of the actual ear bud, which can become confusing at times.

Package Contents:

Shure (E2c): 5/5
Etymotic (ER6): 5/5

Both of these headphones come fully equipped with extra ear buds, filters, cleaners, filter removers and cases.

The Shure headphones come with a circular hard case, with an easy to use system for putting the headphones in the case.

The Etymotic Research headphones come with a rectangular, Velcro-sealed soft case. Like the Shure case, it is easy to insert your headphones back into this case. They also come with two small re-sealable Ziploc cases for carrying the extra filters tools and ear buds.

Pricing:

Shure (E2c) $99.00 4/5
Etymotic (ER6) $129.00 5/5

The Shure headphones are nicely priced at $99.00 (USD) and are a good substitution for the iPod or other headphones that you might be unhappy with right now. I think Shure could lower the price on these headphones since they are their lower model while Etymotic charges only $129.00 for their high end model. Overall we were happier with the feel, sound, quality and user experience of the ER6 headphones and they are definitely worth the extra thirty dollars.

Pros and Cons

Etymotic ER6

Pros
- Great Sound Quality
- Long cord
- Reasonable price vs. quality
- Extra filters and ear buds included
- Soft Case included (also included is a clear hard case which fits inside the soft case)

Cons
- Earwax build-up means cleaning your headphones
- You have to purchase more filters once you have used both pairs

Shure (E2c)

Pros
- Best sounding headphones I have ever heard
- Fairly priced
- Long cord
- Blocks out background noises

Cons
-Often feel uncomfortable
-Very hard to learn to use at first
-Must be cleaned regularly

One problem I found that affects both of the headphones is that if you are the type of person who is constantly removing an ear bud or taking off your headphones for whatever reason (talking with someone or in class of example) you will find these headphones an inconvenience. Especially with the Shure (E2c) Headphones since they require more effort to put on and generally need both headphones in to stay in your ears.

Final Thought

Shure E2c 3.5/5
Etymotic ER6 4/5

In-ear headphones are a relatively new type of headphone technology. They are very costly headphones, but don?t be intimidated by the price. If you make a good decision and finally decide on the headphones that are right for you, I guarantee that if sound quality is important to you, you will not regret this investment. If you really cannot afford to spend over a hundred dollars on a pair of headphones, Etymotic offers a pair of in-ear headphones for as little as $12. Visit their website at www.etymotic.com for more information.

Canadian users can purchase Shure headphones by visiting http://www.sfm.ca/ears

Candians users can purchase Etymotic ER-6 headphones by calling (416) 621-9063 or visiting http://www.ditdo.com






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