I was looking for a good pair of earphones for about £100 for my ipod Nano. Saw reviews that Shure E2c's were good, so when I found Micro Anvik selling the E3c's at 1/2 price (£75), I bought them immediately, thinking I had a bargain. However the sound was absolute trash and so harsh that they hurt my ears. Took them back to the shop thinking that there must be a problem, but a second pair sounded just the same - awful. I thought I would have trouble getting a refund but the manager also thought they were dreadful and apologised for purchasing such rubbish.

I urge you not to buy the Shure E3c earphones!
I feel terrible for what I'm about to say but I think the public should know?... after months of trawling threw countless reviews on what ear/headphones to buy I decided to buy a set of Shure E3c's... what a huge mistake.
How people can say they are "just superb" I'll never know, I paid £80 for mine but in my opinion they weren't even worth £5 and I'm being deadly serious.
I was absolutely gutted to point I had to advertise them on a certain well known auction website (after 1 week)... to be perfectly honest I felt like telling the bidders PLEASE DONT BUY THEM but I really needed the money to buy another pair.
BE WARNED unless your going to use them for purely accoustic stuff without any form of bass then yeah go ahead and buy them IF NOT then go for a cheapo set off the market they'll be just as good... Soz!

I bought the Shure E3c headphones, and only had them for three days before I sold them. I was very disappointed indeed. There was no bass at all and they caused pain in my ears.

Hi all. These Shure E3c are my first ear canal headphones and I must say that I will not go back to any other headphones. I've had numerous headphones like seinheissers, Bose noise cancellation and other regular earphones. This certainly takes the cake. For certain, this beats Bose Quiet comfort hands down first in terms of portability. Next, is the rugged design. Bose's ear cup padding wears off easily and is US$30 a pair to replace!
When it comes down to isolating noise, there is pros and cons. For Bose, at least you can still hear someone talking to you (it does not cancel out noise that is 'dynamic', i.e. it cancels out say an aircon humming in the background but not a person talking to you. So you'll still be disturbed but you'll be somewhat aware of your surroundings. As for the E3c, once you find the right fit, man does it block out noise. It can almost completely block off ambient noise like a pair of ear defenders or ear plugs.
Here's what I did. I am in the military and bought this baby recently. I tried this on while riding in a Chinook and man, if you have not been in a Chinook, it is NOISY in it. Yet, once I put in the E3c, I was still able to enjoy my music and actually fall asleep. The volume is set at just slightly above my usual listening level. All my friends around were highly impressed with it.
Oh, one more thing about portability. If you're the type that needs to block out noise and yet want to listen to music before sleeping, you MUST not buy the Bose. With the bulk, you cannot possibly lay down on your bed. However, with E3, you sure can! Like I said, I'm in the military so at times I have 100 others around me. Throw this baby on and they are all isolated. I can easily lay on my cot and let my IPOD mini take me far from that nasty place and into dreamland. And since it stays on, my IPOD alarm also wakes me up. The E3c remained in my ear throughout the night.
It's worth the money. The 2 years gurantee is by far the best. I had some issues with high end freq reproduction and also a slight crack because of rough handling. Sent it back and it was replaced with a entirely new set, no questions asked, no shipping charges. Man am I impressed.
Shure certainly have my business from now on and I will willingly recommend this to anyone.

Am I missing something here? Let me see. If Apple ipod standard earbuds sound so much better when physically held closely in the ear canal, why don't they design it in such a way that they will stay snug all by themselves? Hey, I think the standard iPod buds are pretty darn good, I don't care what anyone says, although they are no match sonically for the E3c's by Shure. The Shure's are more balanced and open with better sound-staging. If you're an audiophile, the E3c's are for you. The Shure's are a 9, but the Apple buds are in the 7 range.

I purchased these Shure E3c Headphones from the Apple Shop to use on my iPod and was a bit worried about the cost of these as they were £119, but I need not have been.

The only advice I would say is that these earphones do not come to their best until burned in, what I mean by this is that they need to be run for around 36+ hours at mid volume you can leave them running plugged into your mp3/cd player for this time, doing this will bring the best sound out of these however it does not mention this in the instruction book its just what I have read from others on reviews of these earphones, because I tried them when I first got them and good they were they now sound much better after being burn in, now the sound is more natural and the bass is stronger than before, so bear this in mind if you purchase these as burning them in will make them all the better.


The earphones come with small, medium, large ultra soft flex pads and foam pads, to ensure a good fit/seal in the ear canal they also come with a little case to keep the E3C in and a little tool that you use if the nozzle of the earphones gets clogged with ear wax as this will affect the sound quality greatly, read the enclosed instruction manual to make sure they are fitted correctly and for tips.


The earphones in use are very comfortable and do a good job of sealing you off from the outside world so be aware! The sound from these is amazing, with them going into your ear canal and because of the quality or the E3C you can hear every detail, instrument etc the quality is excellent, don't get me wrong these won't blow you away with the bass but for the size they are amazing, the bass is not over powering like a lot are now a days. But it is enough and it sounds natural. If you are wanting a comfortable very high quality earphones for your IPOD or similar then buy these you will not be disappointed.

Tried all sorts of phones with all sorts of results. The Shure E3c are the best ever, although long periods of use can be wearing, but as I work a 12 hour night shift, I'm getting used to it.