e4c Review (ipod 4thgen and shuffle as source)

Jul 13, 2005 at 3:54 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 15

thebrain

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I received these today
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I recieved them in a package I had not seen here before, it was like a cross between the plastic e4 packaging and the e4c box. I will post pics in a day or two
I am not an audiophile, sorry. And as such I cannot review certain qualities of these headphones as my ears are not that highly trained.
That being said, these sound f
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cking awesome!!! I carefully compared them to my previous favorite 'phone--the e2c. THey have a vary similar sound, but the e4c's just sound better. I tried to pinpoint what caused this and I have come up with this.
-the e4c's have amazing sounding drums, instead of just getting a bass sound, you get a drum sound, they really sound like drums, not just a thump. They sound more airy, like you can actually here the skin, I dont know, it jsut sounds better.
-I have started to notice some little extra sounds that I have never heard before, and I listened for them in the e2c's and they were there were I strained to listen for them, but they [e2c] just didnt pick them up enough to matter
-Instrument separation is better
-I think cymbals sound quite a bit better
-I was listening to What I'd Say Parts 1&2 by Ray Charles, and the backup singers in the second part harmonized together really well and overall sounded really great
-Like the e2c's, these are not harsh. My test song for this is It's a Long Way to the Top by ACDC, the highs in this were harsh on my ex71's, but the shure's are not harsh
I have found only one downside to these new earphones: at quite parts in a song you can here just a little hiss, not bad, but just a little, and certain not enough to not forget about when you how good these sound.
Okay, now I need to talk about the 'phones themselves, they are tiny. I mean I new they were small, but I was floored when I saw them in the box. They're probably half of the size of my e2c's. The cords are slightly thinner too. I dont know if that is good or bad yet. They feel like nothing in my ears, due not to their weight ( I think they are actually slightly heavier than the e2c's according to shure) but because they are sooo small.
I havent really chosen a prefered sleeve yet. On my e2c's I always used the small clear sleeves. The small clear sleeves of the e4c's are smaller than those of the e2's. They work for me if I shove them in pretty far. That leads me to another difference with the e4's, you have more choice as to how far you let the sleeves go in. Since the earphone itself is so small, if you point the sleeve upward, you go in pretty far, especially with the triflanges. I put those in the first time and they just kept going in and in. I pulled it out and there was some earwax from fairly deep in my ear ( I had just Qtiped my ears and they were clean). The triflanges arent really 'public' sleeves, they are Extremely good at removing wax from your ears. They also kinda itchy to me, but that good be because my ears dont have very much wax in them.

I have been using my e4c's on both my ipod 20gig 4th gen B & W screen ipod and my ipod shuffle. They sound great on both (no discernable difference to me). Bass and mids are nice and punchy.
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I think overall the mids sounded very similar between the two models, the e4c's just clean up the bass, separate the instruments better, and reveal subties better.

I am very happy with these.

I will post pics soon ( say, anyone know an easy way to make 4mp camera pictures smaller? I accidentally took some at full quality before I put it in VGA mode)

Questions, comments, etc are welcomed.
 
Jul 13, 2005 at 4:56 AM Post #3 of 15
re: the hiss during quiet parts.. i think i know why you're hearing this. what bitrate are your mp3/aac's? with lower quality phones (not to say that the e3c's suck or anything) you don't notice the compression that much. with good phones, you pick up on the detail lost from compression. you hear all the flaws from compression. the hiss during quiets parts drove me nuts, so i reripped everything into apple lossless and things sound sooooo much better. i'd try reripping your library (if you own the actual cd's). it sucks having to do this, but you only have to do it once. now i can actually listen to wilco's "at least that's what you said" without getting pissed at my ipod.
 
Jul 13, 2005 at 6:20 AM Post #4 of 15
I'm also looking into upgrade from my e2c's. How do you think they compare? I love the bass on my e2c's but I want to keep the bass but have a cleaner, smoother sound. The treble isn't just right on the e2c's.
 
Jul 13, 2005 at 6:34 PM Post #5 of 15
IMO the mids of the e2s and the e4s sound very similar. I had no problem with the bass in the e4c's. I have heard of some people who have complained about it, but found it just fine and Preferable. I think the most major difference was the tonality of the bass. YOu really hear someone hitting on a drum, you get a whole drum sound, not just a drum. I am letting my e4c's burn in and will probably add more to the review when I am done. The e4c's arent just better in sound, they are sooo much smaller and feel soooo much smaller when theyre in your ear.
pics coming soon.
 
Jul 13, 2005 at 6:37 PM Post #6 of 15
I am not going to rerip my library because the hiss only occurs on some songs and it is very quiet and I buy songs from itunes which arent anywhere near apple lossless so it really isnt worth it to me. Oh, and I dont have all of the CD's
 
Jul 13, 2005 at 7:26 PM Post #7 of 15
Brain,
Nice review. I have the E4's and you mentioned some things that I too am experiencing with mine. I don't have any other IEM's to compare them to, but I'm totally satisfied. I think the next stop will be some headphones for home.

By the way, from your posts in other threads, I know you are high-school age. I have to say that it's nice and refreshing to see a kid that can put a sentence together
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Jul 13, 2005 at 9:23 PM Post #8 of 15
yah, I am in High school (good sleuthing), I am about to go into my junior year. Thanks for the complement, But I guess I should be able to put a sentence together since I am in Honors English
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Jul 14, 2005 at 12:08 AM Post #12 of 15
I was unf
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cking believe how hard it was to open. I was also trying to open it as cleanly as possible (no cutting) because I wanted to preserve the package as much as I could in case I needed to return them. Needless to say it took me at least 10 minutes and a pocket knife to open it.
 
Jul 14, 2005 at 1:36 AM Post #13 of 15
Quote:

Originally Posted by Caboose
Brain,
Nice review. I have the E4's and you mentioned some things that I too am experiencing with mine. I don't have any other IEM's to compare them to, but I'm totally satisfied. I think the next stop will be some headphones for home.

By the way, from your posts in other threads, I know you are high-school age. I have to say that it's nice and refreshing to see a kid that can put a sentence together
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It's going to take some pretty damn nice headphones to top the E4. They smoke my HD555, HD280 Pro, K240s, and SR60...
 
Jul 14, 2005 at 2:41 AM Post #14 of 15
It took me about five minutes to get my e4s out of their plastic box. I ended up stabbing it with a knife, and I accidentally nicked the hard case the phones came with.
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But I still couldn't get it open. Imagine how irritated I was when the whole thing popped open after I stuck a screwdriver in and pried.

But I love them anyway.
 

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