[widds2v]

I've had my Shure E5's since.. march 2004 or so & they've been with me in all kinds of environments around the world in my travels in the military... from Dubai to China and everywhere in between. They are defiantly worn out now, the cables at the buds themselves are starting to fray out, wire is starting to protrude from the same area, so it seems like it's a good time to upgrade.

As much as I would like a pair of custom IEM's those will have to wait a few more years. I've really been away from the headphone 'scene' for the good part of a year now as I have been pretty happy with what I own (AT-A900s, & E5's). Done a bit of reading up on those new v-moda Vibes and they sound pretty interesting, and the isolation issue really doesn't bother me. E500s are a good 2-2.5x as expensive as the Vibes, but if they build upon the E5's (which I love), then it might be worth it. Ety & UE havn't come out with anything new (E4's sound amazing but I needed a bit more bass, and the UE's I hate the design).

So I guess, if you had a choice of the vibes, the E500s, or... something I havn't considered, what would be the smart choice?

 

[Julien]

E500's would be the most logical choice. I went from E3's to E4's to E500's.

 

[jonnywolfet]

there is also the triple-fi and the upcoming westome um3 to consider. i personally would go for the latter, purely from a form factor point of view, it will fit very much like the e5c (probably better if the um2 is anything to go by).

 

[Hermitt]

heh.. I am also from the camp that went from e3 to e4 to e500 and very glad I did.

 

[widds2v]

Has there been a more static date set on the UM3s? Earphonesolutions just says March 2007.

 

[mirumu]

I went from the E5s to the E500s and I'm very happy with the upgrade. There's a very tiny bit less bass but E500 bass is overall better and they improve on the E5s in every other way too in my opinion. I've never heard the Vibes but AFAIK they aren't really at the same level.

 

[Assorted]

E500's exceed the Vibes in every aspect. Get the Shure's, unless you want to save your money for something else.