Shure E4C Earbud Review
The package from Headroom
arrived right on time. Sometimes
international shipping can be dicey, but clearly these folks know exactly what
they are doing! In the package I found a
sample of the Shure
E4c headphones, a Gigabag
and Headroom’s own Total
Airhead in the clear finish. First
to the headphones, the sound of which I’ve been waiting to audition since I
first heard that Shure was going to challenge
reigning ear canal headphone party leader Etymotic.
Shure has a long and lustrous history in the A/V industry. Founded in April,1925 by Sidney N. Shure, it began life as a one-man company selling radio parts kits in the days before factory-built radios. By 1932 Shure was creating a legacy in microphone design and manufacturing. Shure’s microphones are now as much industry standards as JBL monitors are on the other end of the production chain.
In the 1980’s Shure went so far as to create its own answer to Dolby’s surround sound technology. It was called the HTS 5000 and was a truly unique and inspired implementation of movie sound reproduction (I owned one). The Shure system caught on for a while as a broadcast encryption product, but their complete home theater system didn’t last long. That’s too bad, because it was a marvel of modern technology that reflected a very concise understanding of theater sound.
Of course no one with more than a few years in the consumer electronics industry can think of Shure Brothers, Inc without also bringing to mind the classic Shure V15 phono cartridge. To this very day there are few moving-magnet phono cartridges that can compete in terms of sonics or build quality with that iconoclastic product. I think I still have a couple V15 cartridges in the drawers of my music room!
It was 1997 before Shure introduced a headphone product. The PSM 600 was Shure's first entry into personal monitoring and continues to be recognized as an industry benchmark for wired and wireless In-Ear systems for professional broadcast, recording, touring and installed sound applications. It took until 2004 for Shure to focus its formidable prowess on the consumer electronics industry with its E Series Earphones. And that brings us to the product under scrutiny today, the E4c.
The E4c is a small package for such a larger performer. Billed as sound isolating earphones, the E4c uses a tiny high-definition speaker and Shure’s Tuned Port Technology to improve airflow around the speaker for “enhanced bass.” The E4c is designed for use with personal portable electronics and, as such, it is both highly efficient and very detailed. In fact, the qualitative difference between this $319 (MSRP)set of cans and the “earbuds” included with the iPod was nothing short of amazing.
The E4c comes with seven sets of ear canal
adaptors. There are disposable foam
sleeves that appear to be made of the same material as disposable hearing
protectors, three pairs (small, medium, large) of Flex Sleeves, and three pairs
of Soft Flex Sleeves (small, medium, large).
The experience you get for your effort is entirely dependent on the
sleeves you use and the quality of the fit.
Unfortunately there isn’t much in the way of a detailed explanation
pointing you towards sonic nirvana included with the product.
The disposable adaptors gave a quality experience immediately. Like the hearing protection product from which they are undoubtedly drawn, one simply ‘rolls’ them into small cylinders between the finger and thumb and inserts the compressed foam into the ear canal. The foam regenerates itself and, in doing so, creates a tight fit that blocks external sounds and loads the Shure’s drivers for best response. A leaky or improper fit will render the E4c as indescribably harsh and unmusical. This tendency is a result of the in-ear design and anything that inhibits proper fit will destroy the performance of these little gems.
The sound with the foam disposable plugs was fine, but the comfort level was a bit lower than I like. They weren’t uncomfortable, mind you. If you wear foam hearing protection when you run the lawnmower then you know what I mean. You can never seem to forget these things are stuck in your ears and that, in itself, is the distraction.
After my first impression was formed, I started playing around with the other adaptors. The Flex Sleeves are clear plastic and looked like a step in the right direction. Looks can be deceiving. The clear plastic Flex Sleeves are hard enough to push the meter to the “uncomfortable” level in short order for me. Beyond this, the stiffer nature of this material made the fit temporary at best. As soon as I got the ear canal adaptors properly seated they would begin the slow slide back out of my ear, breaking the seal and destroying the tonal unity of the presentation. The result was a very grainy and harsh sound, which was reminiscent of an early transistor radio. This inevitable slide into mediocrity was hastened by any kind of physical activity. Thirty minutes on the exercise bike in the Hilton’s “fitness spa” resulted in an almost constant need to push the earplugs back in. A bit of duct tape may have helped, but I believe that if that’s the solution then the tape should be included with the ‘phones!
Finally I tried the Soft Flex Sleeves. These are a handsome charcoal gray and are very supple. They insert into the ear easily and conform to the contours of the ear canal of their own volition. They are, by far, the most comfortable of the three. And they produce the best sound, too. The bass was very deep and detailed. Tuneful, even. Unlike loudspeakers, however, there is no physical sensation of the lowest octaves. This can be misleading for the uninitiated. Headphones produce prodigious bass but it is hard to notice without the tactile input of the rest of your body.
One thing of which you must take note; both ears are seldom the same size. For the absolute best performance with in-ear canal ‘phones you have to have a good fit and a quality seal as discussed above. I started using the supplied sleeves in pairs, but quickly noticed that when my left ear was properly sealed my right ear was not. At first I suspected a problem with one of the soft sleeves, so I swapped sides. The problem remained, indicating it wasn’t in the sleeve itself. Further experimentation with the other sizes demonstrated that I needed a small ear sleeve in my right ear and a medium in my left. Further, the size of the ear canal isn’t proportional to body size. I stand 6’1” and weigh 225lbs. This is the first time in my life that a small size was the one that fit me! (no off-color jokes, please)
The Shure website offers this slice of wisdom: “Although the E4c comes with an assortment of sleeves to ensure a comfortable fit, some users may want something even more personalized. In this case, we recommend contacting a hearing professional, such as an audiologist, to make custom-fit ear molds for your E4c.” This is quite likely the best solution of all. I only wish I’d had the time and opportunity to have custom molded sleeves made. At some point in the not-so-distant future I’ll decide on permanent travel phones and I’ll have custom inserts made just to test this theory. Stay tuned…
The midrange of the Shure E4c, when using the Soft Flex Sleeves, is among the best I’ve ever heard in terms of their ability to unearth subtle details and paint the sonic signature of the recording venue. With the E4c I could really hear into the recording in a way that even the amazing Stax SR007 system would be hard-pressed to better. And trust me, that’s saying a LOT. The Stax are one of the five or six best audio products I’ve ever lived with.
One podcast I enjoy and frequently listen to was exemplary in demonstrating this effect. While vocal articulation is always good, the ability to hear the ice cubes in the glass of the host’s drink and the slight squeak of the office chair as he moved about was almost uncanny. I didn’t realize this low level detail could even be captured in the primitive, minimalist recording techniques used for amateur talk radio, but there you go. Hidden details unearthed – and no, I didn’t notice those details during playback on my office system.
The highest registers of the E4c were smooth, if somewhat truncated. This might be an artifact of my iPod, I need to do more comparisons of uncompressed source material (read compact discs and uncompressed analog recordings) with the playback from the iPod to confirm this, but I believe the shortcoming, if it can even be called a shortcoming, comes from the ‘phones. The very highest frequencies such as the shimmer of a ride cymbal or the string overtone of an acoustic guitar or piano were slightly truncated in a “non digital” way. That is to say there wasn’t any grain structure associated with this departure from complete transparency, but instead a polite roll-off that was both consonant with the music and appreciated in the context of music played on-the-go.
Understand that in-ear reproducers like ear buds, ear canal ‘phones and other devices cannot exhibit a flat frequency response or they would sound terribly distorted. There isn’t room to go into detail in this article and we’ll tackle the concept of head-related transfer function in a future installment, one that focuses on binaural listening. That said, listening on headphones is a fundamentally different experience than listening to natural sounds or reproduced sounds via a hifi rig. This should seem painfully self-evident but it’s often an overlooked component of the listener’s paradigm. The headphone experience, unless you’re listening to a binaural recording of the kumpstkuff variety, places the soundstage and attendant spatial cues inside the head. Your auditory point-of-view is very close to that of the recording capsule. This perceived close proximity, coupled with the decreased frequency-dependent attenuation of sound associated with the pinneae and head-shadow causes gross nonlinearities in both frequency and phase response. Any attempt to counter this for the average listener will, of necessity, be wrong to some degree for all listeners. Shure’s decision to shape the frequency response of the E4c the way they did is a fine compromise and I applaud their success.
In comparison the stock ear buds supplied with an iPod are quite grainy in the midrange presentation, totally lack real deep bass information, and are wickedly peaked in the lower treble (near the 5KHz “sensitivity” zone) while simultaneously being rolled off in the upper treble. If you listen to compressed, synthesized artificial pop you might never notice. If you’ve ever actually listened to a human voice or an acoustic instrument you’ll never be able to get the “cupped hands” coloration and grainy presentation out of your thoughts.
The Shure E4c is an awesome bit of technology. While they were connected to my iPod I was never less than impressed. The performance is so far beyond the quality of the included ear buds that it’s almost not worth discussing. Of course when the headphones cost more than the iPod, great things should be expected. Great things are delivered here. And the best part – the E4c’s are now on sale for about half the retail price point! For a Hamilton and a Grant you simply can’t do better than this. Get yours before they’re gone and you’re back to paying full boat retail – they’re that good!
