In ear headphones- Shure or Sennheiser?

[blindswelledrat]

Bit of an odd one this.
Ive had Shure EC2 for the past couple of years and although I love them I vowed not to buy shure again as the cable fell to bits for no reason which is criminal for something of that price.
Anyway as a result of this I ordered myself some Sennheiser IE7 which in theory would be better- better reviews and cost half as much again.
To my excitement they arrived today but they sound just a bit.....well.....crap.
The clarity is nnot in the same league as the Shure ones and although some songs sound slightly better because of the increased bass, in general, for the type of music I listen to it almost sounds like listening to the Shure headhpones through a towel.
So here is my question: Are they faulty or are they just not to my taste?
Thanks

[thehawk]

The Sennheisers are not in the same league as the Shures IMO.

Have you tried sending the Shure ones back to Shure - they seem to get very good reports from people who've had their earphones replaced for free.

[blindswelledrat]

Too late. I smashed them up.
They were over 2 years old and I made the assumption if they were so easily destructible then there is no way they would replace them.
A colleague at work subsequently sent some of his back and got brand new ones sent to him instantly- so you are right.

I think these sennheiser ones are actually faulty/ (fake?) because they sound worse than standard ipod headphones.

[RizzoTheRat]

Apparently there are a lot of cheap copies of the senheisser CX series on the market, especially if you buy from e-bay or similar. Agree the E2c sound quality is better than anything else I've tried, but I do tend to find them uncomfortable after a while, though it's better if I use them regularly as my ears seem to get used to them.

[blindswelledrat]

RizzoTheRat said:

Apparently there are a lot of cheap copies of the senheisser CX series on the market, especially if you buy from e-bay or similar. Agree the E2c sound quality is better than anything else I've tried, but I do tend to find them uncomfortable after a while, though it's better if I use them regularly as my ears seem to get used to them.

Funny you should say that.
Although it is the IE series, I did buy them from ebay and we were wondering if people actually fake these type of things because the quality is so bad. This probably answers the question.
I tried them back to back with Shures of similar value this morning and the difference was so massive to render them either faulty or fake.

[Andy888]

Got a set of the Sennheisers in HMV in Heathrow one day and I think they are great. Far superior to the Apple originals and keep the noise of the plane out.

They have been banging about in my laptop for 2 years now without damage too. Can't compare to Shure but they were half the price.

[shakotan]

Sennheiser CX500 are £15 through PLay.com at the moment.

[blindswelledrat]

I couldnt buy a pair of earphones for £15. That would be exactly the same as pushing dogst into your ears.

[shakotan]

blindswelledrat said:

I couldnt buy a pair of earphones for £15. That would be exactly the same as pushing dogst into your ears.

Ah, but they normally retail at £70

Very good and well rated earphones.

[blindswelledrat]

Almost had me.
I just checked and I cant find them anywhere for more than £30 and they are as low as £11
If I told you I had a couple of dogsts for sale and that usually I would charge £400 for them but that you could have them for £15- you wouldn't buy them and put them in your ears would you?
See my point?

[blindswelledrat]

ON a serious note, I am that shallow.
Theres no point buying a £15 pair of earphones when I could buy a pair of £100 ones. That shallow.

[5pen]

I've got some Sennheiser CX300s you can have for £100.

[blindswelledrat]

5pen said:

I've got some Sennheiser CX300s you can have for £100.

They sound really good. *interested*

[shakotan]

blindswelledrat said:

Almost had me.
I just checked and I cant find them anywhere for more than £30 and they are as low as £11
If I told you I had a couple of dogsts for sale and that usually I would charge £400 for them but that you could have them for £15- you wouldn't buy them and put them in your ears would you?
See my point?

Sorry, I meant when they were first out they were around £70, and you can find them still for this if you look - not that you'd for the most expensive ones.

[RizzoTheRat]

If you're bothered about comfort rather than juts the sound quality, ultimateer can make you moulded earplug to fit pretty much any in ear type of headphone

[Toffer]

My son bought an iPod from John Lewis in a sealed carton. After a while the headphones went faulty and were duly returned to Apple. Apple looked at the headphones and said that they were not original Apple equipment. The headphones were replaced free of charge and without question. The replacement Apple headphones were not much good, but were far superior to the originals. I guess Apple must use a number of factories to build their products from parts from different approved suppliers...just some are better than others?

[Chairman LMAO]

Dead shure's:

[AE82GT]

BOSE in ear's ???

Get the MKII and the ear buds even stay on..........

[blindswelledrat]

Chairman- those resemble mine but the wire was perished in many more places than yours. To the extent that I got repeated tiny electric shocks from it.
I thought that was disgraceful. They do sound excellent though

[blindswelledrat]

AE82GT said:

BOSE in ear's ???

Get the MKII and the ear buds even stay on..........

I filled my house with bose stuff before realising its just not that great.
Plus I travel on public transport a lot and given those bose headphones appear to have a speaker on the OUTSIDE, I cant see themn containing the sound very well. And I fking hate s who make everyone else on the train listen to thier second hand music!