For two and a half years, I've been living in a weird audio world. In fact, an Apple-dominated audio world. Not only are all three of my portable music players stalwarts of Cupertino's impeccable taste, but I've forever been too cheap to move to any headphones that are a little more high-end. Enter the Shure E2Cs.

Of course, the first thing that was needed was a suite of music files to test the headphones with. So, I combed my library for a variety of tracks. If you're wondering what they were, it consisted of the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 soundtrack, some Fratellis, Jools Holland a recording of John Adam's Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and a couple of assorted classical works (Rite of Spring and Beethoven 9). It should also be noted that a variety of formats too were used for the test: MP3s, MP4s and iTunes purchased tracks. iTunes purchases were at 128kbps, MP3s and MP4s at 128kbps and 256kbps. Each track does have an Equaliser setting attached to it in iTunes. The results, unsurprisingly are that the E2Cs are a fantastic piece of kit. The details they bring out (once you've fitted them to your ear with one of the dozen included fits) are truly awesome. In fact, it brings out details that to this day I'd simply never heard. Bass frequencies are heard (finally!!) and the soundstage was impressive, with a real sense of depth. The one track that really noticed the difference was a certain track from POTC:3 which just sounded so much crisper.

So. To summarise:

Pros:
1. Brilliant sound
2. Reasonable price (particularly on Amazon - half what you'd pay at the Apple store)
3. Plenty of cable to run it down the back of your top
4. It creeps people out to see a Secret Service-like ear-piece like earphone. In each ear.

Cons:
1. You will become an audio snob. If you hear the difference between 128kbps and 256kbps tracks, it'll make you cringe.
2. The expense. Not in buying the headphones. But the fact that you'll want to ensure you have 256kbps tracks. And seriously, you'll want them. Badly.
3. You will look like a dazed moron as they're noise isolating, and you'll appear arrogant and rude when people you're on a train, with your back to the carriage (you're about to get off) and after 4 attempts of "May I see your ticket please, Sir", the guard decides to grab your attention by some kind of hit / punch / attention grabber.

Tags: Audio, iPod