Shure E2C

[Ukle]

Just thought would write about my New Headphones as bound to be a few people after some at some point given even school kids now have Ipod's

After my fifth pair of Sony EX61's / EX71's died a death finally decided to switch to different headphones. Thought it would be impossible to find any In-ear headphones as of good or better quality to the Sony's for a sub 100 quid price but was supprised by these Shure.

You can get them in the UK for around £60 online - £75/£80 in the shops, and they worth every penny. I am not an audiophile so dont know how to describe it, but the sound is 'clearer' and the Base is not over the top as it is with the Sony's. The build quality appears to be top notch but as I only had them a day cant guarantee they will hold up, but they got rid of the faults the sonys have - namely proper thick cable joiner where the headphone cables join and really thick cable that would take some serious force to stretch.

Linky -

Shure E2C

PS. If these are a bit cheap for you look at the Shure E5C - In ear headphones for £500 quid :eek2:

 

[Tom]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - long term use of inner ear headphones will cause permanent damage to your hearing.

I see the future......I see a lot of people with tinnitus in court...

 

[Clown]

So will normal headphones. What do you propose? Nobody to use portable music?

 

[Tom]

So will normal headphones. What do you propose? Nobody to use portable music?

Normal headphones won't cause quite so much damage over the years because people tend to listen at lower levels. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years it becomes compulsory to fit volume limiters on all portable devices and headphones.

 

[Alliandre]

You won't have to turn them up as much. Surely they'll cause less damage?

And afaik there are volume limits.

 

[tRoG]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - long term use of inner ear headphones will cause permanent damage to your hearing.

I see the future......I see a lot of people with tinnitus in court...

And tinnitus is the most annoying thing ever. Really.

Take care of your ears, kids

 

[Tom]

You won't have to turn them up as much. Surely they'll cause less damage?

And afaik there are volume limits.

People take advantage of the acoustic isolation offered from headphones by listening at higher levels. If you compare headphones with speakers, by the time the audio has got from the cone to your eardrum, much of the HF information has been lost. LF doesn't really get absorbed as easily, but a large proportion of the LF information is actually reaching your ears via bone conduction. Stick a pair of headphones on, and there is no loss of HF, and the LF gets fed straight into your eardrums. Hence more damage. The difference between inner ear headphones and normal rest on the ear headphones is less obvious, but the same principles apply.

Proper noise reduction systems take into consideration the length of time a person has been exposed to a certain level of noise. There are no limiters of this kind on any personal audio equipment. You're only limited by the power of the output on the headphone socket, and the input impedance of your headphones.

http://www.airsys.co.uk/sordin/noise.pdf

Now this is an educated guess, but I imagine any product which limited a person's exposure to music/noise in this way wouldn't really be flying off the shelves like hotcakes. Thats why I think legislation will be introduced at some point, in the same way that legislation was introduced to combat the problems of people being deafened by their work environment.

My mum used to work in a cotton mill when she was young. Now she suffers from tinnitus. If the regulations had been around 50 years ago, she would probably not have tinnitus now. Think about that the next time you pop your headphones 'in'.

 

[Clown]

I have Tinnitus. It's very annoying, but I don't care. Ear-phones for life!

 

[WPKenny]

I read an article on the history of the iPod a while back. It said that there was a delay on the European release of the iPod due to them having to put volume restrictions on them due to french laws on this sort of thing. So while I don't know about laws in the UK, there are certainly countries who recognise loud volumes can cause problems.

 

[Xavier]

I'm guessing the english iPod wasn't included in those modifications as we have both american and english iPods here and they're equally as poky with the volume cranked up.

 

[Alliandre]

Most of the ones in the UK do have the noise restriction on I think, though this is easily bypassed as it's all software based anyway.

And I see your point Tom. I'll take note next time I go to turn up my music while using headphones

 

[Xavier]

The firmwares are global, so HOW exactly would it be software based? There's no regional settings for the device itself. What pish.

Xav