Reviews by ffdpmaggot

ffdpmaggot

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Comfortable, Clear Sound, Good Value, Attractive
Cons: Slightly rolled off
Design - The headphones seem a bit flimsy, but they look nice, and i like the wire only on one earcup. This wire is very sturdy, if a bit stiffer than I'd like, and is excessively long for around the house. I dont like the fact that it has a 1/4 termination, as a mini plug is, IMO, more practical to adapt to a 1/4 than vice versa.
 
Comfort - The velour pads are extremely comfortable and never get hot, the headband is a bit flimsy and doesnt have very much clamping force at all, I'd say they dont clamp enough.
 
Audio Quality - A flat sonic signature with clean, impactful bass. The bass is the slightest bit muddy, but it is on par with the clarity I'd expect for the price. Some bass notes, primarily faster ones, are felt but not heard. Mids are warm and largely uncolored, if not the slightest bit on the dark side. Clarity and separation in the mids is very good. Highs are somewhat grainy, but have a nice, warm tone to them and seem to be well defined. Sound stage is large and open, depicting great accuracy in my tests with my xbox. Transient action on these headphones seems to be somewhat slow, keeping up with faster recordings in itunes, but not completely wowing me. Volume is appropriate. Detail throughout mids is good. These did a good job of handling the EP "Unaminity and the Cessation of Hostility" which I use as my testing album for separation and clarity, as well as the ability to handle a lot of "stuff". It wasn't well recorded, and theres so much noise and intentional distortion that none of the IEMs ive owned have been able to handle it (not surprising). The 595 handle the EP gracefully without really letting things "mix" too much.
 
Value - Headphones over 50 dollars, in my opinion, are a terrible value, gaining less sound quality for more money, buy these when they are under 150 USD, but not over.
 
Overall - I personally really like the sound on these for the price, but die hard audiophiles will have problems with the coloration, and would most likely prefer to spend more money to get a clearer pair with better resolution and less coloration; typical listeners will probably have issues with the lack of bass.  

ffdpmaggot

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Sound Quality, Looks
Cons: Minor Comfort Issues
Packaging - 
The E2C Come in a rather frustrating box, made of that terrifying packaging that just about everything comes in these days. Inside of the box, you will find a pair of earphones, 8 extra sets of ear-tips, and a wonderful, solid, case for transport. To address the question of whether the number 8 was a typo, no, I couldn't believe what I got when it showed up, personal fit "kit" was by no means an overstatement. 
Design - 
I pretty quickly learned why shure included so many tips, these earphones are designed in the worst manner possible for a beginner to use, I've been using earphones for about a year now, and this was completely new to me, there is a 5 or so step process which one must go through to get the earphones into one's ear, so instead of going about precisely twisting, pushing, and wiggling the 'buds into my ears, I hung them over my ear and jammed them in as I would my other sets. I kept this up for a few days until I figured the process out, by which point in time, I had irritated my ear, and it hurt to insert and extract the bud. Once the earphones are in though, I barely notice them, I've carefully pushed through the opening, twisted into the first stop, decompressed, tilted, and furthered inserted, and I forget about the headphones, except from time to time when I have to play with the piece to correct a fitting difference between my right and left side. Correlating to the fit is the isolation, which is pretty good, I'd estimate 20 - 22 Db, which is better than my klipsch, but doesn't isolate like a pair of full fledged shooting range earplugs. 
Sound - I have had a very limited experience with earphones, and never own more than one set, so anything I say should be taken with a teaspoon of salt, which is why I cropped the rating that I wanted to give these earphones by once star. 
 
The E2C have a fairly normal sound to them, they sound "aggressive" and moderately loud. The bass isn't muddy, but there are some artifacts that may or may not be attributed to the recording that I hear with these earphones. Separation is above average, beating the image S4 which is regarded quite highly by many (according to my memory) in the clarity category, the S4 beat the E2C with a slightly more clear, "shining" sound, which may just be coloration towards the highs which I experienced quite frequently on the S4. I appreciated the sound of the E2C for being slightly bassy, but generally balanced relative to the S4, although it wasn't quite as flat as the superfi 4. The sound coming from my E2C seems to be pretty neutral in the way of coloring, not as dark as my vmodas or superfi, not as bright as my image, which is a great sound for metal. Highs on my E2C seem to be higher than me superfi, and once again, lower than my image (noticing a trend?) the one area where the E2C turned out completely different from either earphones was in distortion, I heard very little distortion at higher volumes with these earphones.
 
Overall - The E2C are a good pair of earphones to look into if you are alright with the minor fitting issues and are lloking for a good all around pair of earphones.

ffdpmaggot

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: attractive, metal housing, stable cord, nice case
Cons: Comfort, Sound Quality, Comfort, Price
I was trying to be generous with this review, I had these for fewer than two hours because of the comfort, They ACTUALLY cut up my ear canals, there is no exaggeration, my ears bled, and I've never been a fan of foam tips. Foam tips get ripped up, and really feel insecure in my ears, plus the plastic tube can become exposed and creates a level of discomfort greater than that of the silicon tips, AND they don't seem to block pout any noise for me. When I was using the silicon tips, after I found the best fitting but still ungodly uncomfortable fit, i found that the isolation was rather disappointing, when the music was on I could hear people talking around me, and I keep my volume pretty high, usually around 40. Now some people may be frustrated by my poor review of sound quality, but to be honest, with comfort this bad, I was actually taking stars out of the other categories to compensate for the low limit of 1/10. These headphones produce little, thin bass which turns out muddy and lacks clarity. Mids are also fairly low on clarity, these 'buds smoothed over notes that were not supposed to be smooth, things like the opening section of "trail of insects" by bloodbath was noticeably smoother than the artist intended, I get the cracking sound with every other pair of headphone I own, not with Auvio though. And finally, highs. Rolled off, sloppy, unclear. Do you follow the pattern? On a brighter note, the construction was fairly rugged, and would have gotten a four if not for the ear tips. And the case that comes with these IEM is the nicest I've seen. Overall bad in the ears, great out of them. If your looking for a pair of earbuds to sit around, collect dust, look nice, and last a long time, these are for you. If you plan on listening to your music, these are not for you.
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