[cellophane]

I have the e3's, and love them so much I feel an urge to upgrade! Of course the price jump is more than I can afford right now, so I want to know if they are worth saving for. I see some potential issues I might have with them (size/bulk), so a trial would be nice . . . I heard there was some kind fo program where a trial pair is shipped to someone, who pays for the shipping, then keeps it until the next trial-er, who pays for the shipping, and so on. Any info on this? Thanks!

 

[RunsWithScissors]

Call Todd Green who is one of our forum vendor sponsors and request an audition. He keeps some phones just for demos and will send the phones when they are available. He just charged me the price of shipping for the audition which amounted to about $5 each way and let me try them for 2 weeks. I also auditioned the ER4P with P to S cable at the same time when I auditioned the E5 to see what all the fuss was about so it was a nice chance to A/B the two phones.

I also owned the E3 when I did this audition. Suffice it to say that I sold my E3 and bought the E5 - ymmv.

Todd only sells the consumer version of Shure phones (ie E5C) so you might be able to get the E5 version for a few dollars less somewhere else. I found that the price difference did not warrant me screwing Todd after he provided the audition and such great service and decided that this service was worth a few dollars extra so I bought from Todd.

If you have no intention of buying from Todd and just want to get the absolute lowest price available anywhere, go somewhere else. I think good service should be supported and rewarded and the price difference was very small.

BTW - calling Todd works better than emailing.

Good luck

 

[CodeGuy]

I own the E3 and the E5. In my opinion it was a worthy upgrade, though I still use the E3 for certain situations. Be prepared for skull rattling bass with the E5. If that isn't your thing, you probably won't like them. I think if I were looking at this upgrade today, I would also be considering the UE5c, as they seem to be a very interesting option. I haven't heard them, so I can't really comment, but those on the board who have purchased them seem to dig 'em.

 

[RunsWithScissors]

If you like the E3, I think that it is worthwhile for you to audition BOTH the ER4 and the E5. The E5 is quite different from the E3 and ER4 since it has dual drivers and gives you a full size headphone sound inside your head and the bass can be overwhelming, at least at first.

I found that the E3 and ER4 can be more easily compared though I liked the certain aspects of both, the ER4 were better in my opinion sonically. The ergonomics are a different story and this is highly subjective - I like the Shure 'fit'.

If you're going to go to the trouble to audition phones, audition them both and see what you like.

I strongly recommend that you listen to just one phone, and no others, for several days straight - don't switch back and forth. This is the only way to acclimate yourself to the sound of that particular phone and allow you brain to pick out all the phone presents. This is an absolute MUST with the E5. When I first listened to the E5 I thought they sounded horrible. After 2 days straight listening, my brain acclimated to the sound and I could pick out all of the detail without thinking about it any longer and they sounded great. Etys have an immediate WOW effect and take less time to acclimate to but this is a good approach and with 2 weeks audition time, you will have plenty of time to spend with each phone. You can switch back and forth at the end of the audition period once you are acclimated to each phone - it's like riding a bike - once you learn it is not unlearned and you can hop back on anytime.

 

[cellophane]

Thanks for the replies!
The reason I am interested in the e5's is, when I am listening to rock/pop or trance I have to switch to my (now dead) Koss 50's . .. even the px200 had more "low bass" than the e3's. The detail of the e3's with vocals and the bass of the Koss's? Count me in!
Hmm, unfortunately Todd sells the e5c's for $500, while I was planning to get the e5 here on head-fi for around $300 . . . still looking for a way to demo, then.