Sound quality... its, well... quality...
So how do the Shure E2g earphones actually sound in use? In the spirit of real world testing, I’ve tried these out in just about every environment where you might need them. I’ve worn them on the train, the tube, a plane, in the high street, all over London and also around the house and it has to be said that they do the job they’re designed for admirably.
If we disregard the Sound Isolation feature for a moment and focus just on sound quality, the Shure E2g earphones perform brilliantly. Base response is simply phenomenal, giving a range that I would’ve thought was unlikely from such small drivers. In a range of music covering everything from Elgar through to The Chemical Brothers, I could hear bass and a richness of sound that would put the E2g earphones on a par with my Sennheiser headphones. Even some of the deliberately low frequency stuff from Andy C and Illskillz & Calyx comes through with brain rattling responsiveness.
Click for larger imageIn order to try and ‘stress’ the E2g earphones, I whacked them through some early Prodigy which I reckon has the best mix of low frequency bass and mid and high range notes. Then, to the eternal detriment of my ears, I whacked the volume right up.
Now, of course the quality of the sound is going to be almost entirely dependant on the device supplying it, but testing on an iPod Shuffle and a PSP, devices the E2g is intended for, showed that these earphones can cope with anything you throw at them. However, plug them into a decent stereo system, something with a meaty amplifier, and, even though you risk deafening yourself in the process, you’ll find the E2g earphones distort at high volume. You might think it unfair to use an amp the E2g earphones weren’t intended for but frankly I was so impressed with their performance with mobile devices I just had to see how they’d cope with something that had a bit of real ‘oomph’ behind it.
Click for larger imageAnyone who has a PSP is in for a bit of treat as it’s well known how quiet the PSP’s supplied earphones are. I made the mistake of taking Sony's PSP earphones with me on a trip to use with both my PSP and Shuffle and found them next to useless. The E2g earphones far exceed Sony’s efforts and you can just plug them into the remote, still allowing you to use that to control the PSP itself.
So given the excellent performance of the E2g earphones, let’s factor in the sound isolation qualities as well. Sadly, you really do have to try these out for yourself to get a good idea of how well this works, but if you’ve tried the ‘finger in your ears’ test as I described earlier, and now try to imagine crystal clear sound coming in as well, that might give you some idea of how well this technology works. To give you an idea of how this sounds Shure have a handy little demo, which you can try out by going to www.shure.com/soundlab/VirtualSoundLab.html. I suggest you try it out and take it from me that they really do make a massive difference.
