are Shure's meant to sound like this :O !

R B Customs

R B Customs

R B Customs

Soldato
Joined
22 Sep 2005
Posts
3,267
Location
Manchester
I bought a pair of Shure E2C's to replace my nackered sony EX 71's

they came today, and plugged em into a bit of infected mushroom, and prodigy
and... Eugh
no bass.

i have them inserted correctly, tried a few of the different caps that coem with them and theres just a complete lack of bass, the mids and highs are superb, the lows are there but they have no real edge around them like my sony's did and no real headshaking sound like my DT-770's do ( ye different thing i know )

im listening through a creative Zen vision:m, tried many different EQ's etc and had no luck.

My EX71#s did have boomy bass levels like everyone said and i loved that to be honest. id never get another pair because of their shoddy build quality but im stuck now :(

can anyone aggree with any of this? or have a got a duff pair or something ?
i know they're the entry level shures, out of about 5 models, but it hardly makes me want to entertain the next model up :(

Rick :(
 
:S

They are not amazingly bassy but what they are is more tonally neutral than the Sony's etc. so you are probably also notcing that there is a lot more information being reproduced higher up (as you say, it sounds superb).

I think Shure now make an E2-G model which is supposed to have a slightly "enhanced" bass response and be more specifically tuned to consumer devices, might be worth seeing if you could swap them for a set of those...

I would also suggest that you try plugging them into somthing other than the MP3 player, a decent quality Hi-Fi cd player with a good headphone output would be better to test them with as it is probably more capable of driving them then the Zen - I have found this with both my E5's and UE10's is that they sound amazing when I have them hooked up to an IEM pack/CD player or use a good headphone amp, but out of my iPod the sound is deffinalty weaker.

As for EQ iirc when I have had bands using these as IEM's I normally do find that I just have to add a gentle shelve to everthing below about 100Hz to give it a bit of punch and notch out around 4-5KHz gently to even them out.

As for the other Shure's (E3/4) I have only used E5's with custom tips, although I've never had a problem getting a good ammount of bass out of them (more than likely due to the fact they are dual driver and I had mine custom fitted).

I am now using Ultimate Ears UE10 Pro's though, and would also say they blow my E5s away totally :)
 
wij said:
:S

They are not amazingly bassy but what they are is more tonally neutral than the Sony's etc. so you are probably also notcing that there is a lot more information being reproduced higher up (as you say, it sounds superb).

I think Shure now make an E2-G model which is supposed to have a slightly "enhanced" bass response and be more specifically tuned to consumer devices, might be worth seeing if you could swap them for a set of those...

I would also suggest that you try plugging them into somthing other than the MP3 player, a decent quality Hi-Fi cd player with a good headphone output would be better to test them with as it is probably more capable of driving them then the Zen - I have found this with both my E5's and UE10's is that they sound amazing when I have them hooked up to an IEM pack/CD player or use a good headphone amp, but out of my iPod the sound is deffinalty weaker.

As for EQ iirc when I have had bands using these as IEM's I normally do find that I just have to add a gentle shelve to everthing below about 100Hz to give it a bit of punch and notch out around 4-5KHz gently to even them out.

As for the other Shure's (E3/4) I have only used E5's with custom tips, although I've never had a problem getting a good amount of bass out of them (more than likely due to the fact they are dual driver and I had mine custom fitted).

I am now using Ultimate Ears UE10 Pro's though, and would also say they blow my E5s away totally :)
Click to expand...

cheers for that.

ive tried them hooked up to my amp, and direct to my sound card.
now i normaly listen to my beyer's thru my Zen when im apintign or what not, and the volume, and sound is MORE than enough.

its weird and hard to explain without knowing the right jargon but it sounds like they're not in my ears properly... even though im pretty certain they are !

i think maybe these earphones were intended for musicians, rather than people who want to listen to music. i can hear that they DO represent the sound better and more as it is intended. but they just lack that punch i desire :(

also it has to be said that the isolation is pretty good. im using the foam tips at the moment and im well impressed with that aspect.

i did look at the ultimate ears range but have never heard of them before so decided to go with a name i knew.
i bought them froma well known online book store so maybe i cans end them back / exchange them.

im finding this whole thing very hard to explain... can you tell ?
cheers
Rick
 
okay, so ive just hooked them up to my amp, and it has indeed given them that outer coating of bass that i find so hard to descirbe ! they still cant match my beyer dynamics, which i will always use when at my PC.
but the bottom line is i bought them for use on the move :( so i think im stuffed.

would building a pocked amp perhaps let me yeild more munch from them ?

if not i may just return them and go for something else... any suggestions for around £50 ?
i bought my lass some sennheisers, they were cheap enough and have that nice bass i describe but the mids and highs are not a scratch on these :(


Rb
 
they arent known for their bass its true but they are accurate. not to my taste though. if you really cant get on with them, then £50? sony ex90's. all the bass of the ex71's with the control and neutrality of the e2c's. bit of DIY on them and the hang with IEM's costing 3 times as much:) they are capable of an impressive level of detail:)
 
The Shure E2c's are not great - they do lack bass compaired with the best out there. Also the highs are recessed!

I think the problem with OcUK forums is that people jump on bandwagens and all start raving over something - the e2c's is one... also the iRiver H10 - both are poor products that only on these boards are praised.

A Clingfilm modded Sony EX90 will sound almost as good as IEMs like Shure e500 UM2's etc. Get them!
 
there's nothing wrong with the h10's. i said all along that the fireware was the only thing holding them back and thats long been addressed. these days there are smaller players with bigger drives but they still sound very good for such a cheap dap. its the reason i keep going back to my h10. show me another dap with a 5 band parametric eq.
 
james.miller said:
there's nothing wrong with the h10's. i said all along that the fireware was the only thing holding them back and thats long been addressed. these days there are smaller players with bigger drives but they still sound very good for such a cheap dap. its the reason i keep going back to my h10. show me another dap with a 5 band parametric eq.
Click to expand...

Rio Karma! Which also has gapless, lossless playback etc Unlike H10. iPod with rockbox the same....


Main problem with H10.... sound quality - its not subpar iRiver!
 
my h10 plays lossless. gapless i'm not sure if support is done yet. i told you the firmware sorted all that. a h10 on rockbox is virtually it's bigger brother minus the video support. well it does play video but its worthless. sound quality is also sorted, no muddy bass, extension virtually flat down to 10hz......its a fine sounding cheap dap.
 
Vegetarian said:
I think the problem with OcUK forums is that people jump on bandwagens and all start raving over something - the e2c's is one... also the iRiver H10 - both are poor products that only on these boards are praised.
Click to expand...

ice mat siberias too :rolleyes: lol

well, i was well put off buying another sony product in my life. i have had about 5 replacememnt pairs of my last sony earphones as the wires just ate them selves alive :O

ex90's look promising though, and aslong as the wires are coated properly ill be happy :)

gonna use the harder plastic tips on my shures today and see if that makes any difference to the foam tips.
if not what position do i stand in terms of sending these back? is that even possible.
i dont like being petty but tbh im not happy with the product :(

thanks for the input lads... the clingfilm thing sounds interestiong btw - is it practical?
Rick
 
Are you serious? Clingfilmed EX90 sounds as good as E500 or UM2, have you actually ever owned any of these IEMs? That's just plain bad advice. You will never get head-shaking bass with these and if you just want bass then look somewhere else. Try UE Super.fi 5EB these are designed with loads of bass in mind. Should have done a bit more research before you buy anything as IEM can be a minefield.

Vegetarian said:
The Shure E2c's are not great - they do lack bass compaired with the best out there. Also the highs are recessed!

I think the problem with OcUK forums is that people jump on bandwagens and all start raving over something - the e2c's is one... also the iRiver H10 - both are poor products that only on these boards are praised.

A Clingfilm modded Sony EX90 will sound almost as good as IEMs like Shure e500 UM2's etc. Get them!
Click to expand...
 
silly question, but u have left them to burn in? (burn in meaning on and playing music for at least 20 hours)

whenever u buy any new decent headphones/iems etc, what you hear when u first open them isnt neccessarily their final sonic signature. pretty much all headphones need to be burnt in for at least 10 hours for the bass to come through. i was as dissappointed as you when i spent 130 quid on a pair of headphones to find they had less bass than my old 20 quid jvcs. after leaving them playing pretty loud music overnight, the bass appeared and i couldnt be happier :)
 
Last edited:
Boz said:
silly question, but u have left them to burn in? (burn in meaning on and playing music for at least 20 hours)

whenever u buy any new decent headphones/iems etc, what you hear when u first open them isnt neccessarily their final sonic signature. pretty much all headphones need to be burnt in for at least 10 hours for the bass to come through. i was as dissappointed as you when i spent 130 quid on a pair of headphones to find they had less bass than my old 20 quid jvcs. after leaving them playing pretty loud music overnight, the bass appeared and i couldnt be happier :)
Click to expand...

I do know about burning in, but i havnt doen it with these yet.
i didnt burn in my beyers, as i wanted to burn them in wih use, so i could hear the diffeence gradualy, and it did make a small difference.

ill will give it a go, but i think i will start looking elsewhere in the man time.

cheers
Rick.
 
You have to burn in for pretty much most IEM type headphones. Whilst personally I would never leave them overnight, it's true to say you need to be in at least the double figures in hours for the sound to 'settle'.
 
R B CUSTOMS said:
I bought a pair of Shure E2C's to replace my nackered sony EX 71's

they came today, and plugged em into a bit of infected mushroom, and prodigy
and... Eugh
no bass.

My EX71#s did have boomy bass levels like everyone said and i loved that to be honest. id never get another pair because of their shoddy build quality but im stuck now :(
Click to expand...
Get yourself a pair of the Sony MDR-EX90's and either do the cling-film mod or cut a small hole in a pair of foam-covers for your standard iPod-esque headphones and put these over them.

I've gone from the EX71's which reproduced the sound of the music I listen to and produce exactly as I wanted them to, through various Shure models (horrible fit, horrible sound), XtremeMac FS1's (horrible fit, nice enough sound) and have finally settled on the Sony's.

1. They fit my ears better than any other ear/canal phones I've tried and are actually comfy.

2. They sound like I expect and want them to. Bass is rich, clean and crisp.

3. They're cheaper than a lot of other models and do a better job.

All subjective but if you loved your EX71's you'll love these EX90's.
 
R B CUSTOMS said:
and... Eugh
no bass.

i have them inserted correctly, tried a few of the different caps that coem with them and theres just a complete lack of bass, the mids and highs are superb, the lows are there but they have no real edge around them like my sony's did and no real headshaking sound like my DT-770's do ( ye different thing i know )
Click to expand...
EX71 do have overblown boomy bass and a shrill top end (both IMO), so if you're used to that sound then it could explain your observations on the Shures. Then again I haven't used the Shures myself.
 
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