Customer Rating: 
Summary: E3c or E5c should I pay more to get the E5c
Comment: I concur with everyone on this board that E5c is top notch and the best of all Shure E series earbuds. Question is, whereas the pricing of E5c is 2X of the E3c, should I pay that additional $200 to get the E5c ($400-) and do I get 2X the added value in the E5c relative to E3c ($190)?
I searched this board and could not find the answer so I decided to take one for the team and purchased the E5c (I already owned 2 pairs of E3c and have been using 3c over the last four years). After listening to E5c for over 10 hours (music: acoustic jazz, fusion jazz, rock, heavy rock and classical piano concerto) I concluded that the E5c indeed produces better sound quality than E3c but the added performance is slight, may be at best 15% better than the E3c - which is not much consider the additional $200 you spend. if you are careful with your budget, go with 3c. E3c is already good enough compared with almost every earbud in the marketplace. Below are a few key areas I observed.
1. Bass - 3c and 5c are really the same with slight advantage to 3c. The 3c allows you to tug the earbud deeper inside your ear canal thus creating a better bass effect. 5c is more rigid and does not allow you to insert the earbud deep into your ear thus the bass may come a tiny slight less.
2. mid range - slight advantage to 5c. As the Piano solo was going on, I can hear the string section more refined from the 5c than 3c.
3. high pitch - slight advantage to 5c. If you are a acoustic jazz fan, 5c allows you to hear that cymbal sound a little more defined and crisp.
4. consistency. 5c is more rigid to wear, once you put 'em into your ear, it stays there and hardly moved around. 3c is more relax but if you were running, the earbud may drop out from your ear or loosened up a little. This create inconsistency in listening experinece. E5c wins hands down on how rigid the earbud stay in your ear thus maintaining consistent sound throughout.
5. comfort to wear - 3c wins hands down. 5c is a bit bulky and rigid. You ear muscle get to become a little sore after wearing for a few years. 3c is softer, more comfortable to wear over long stretch of time.
I am glad I purchased the 5c however, if I could only purchase one pair of earbud, I will go with 3c, not 5c. 3c offers a lot more sound per dollar than 5c.
Hope this helps.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Combat Tested!
Comment: Have to be the most amazing pair of earphones that I have ever purchased in my life! A few years back I was in a band and had the Shure E2's (another amazing set) and loved them. However, we broke up when I joined the Army, and I since sold the E2. Now, Stationed in Iraq, I needed a set of phones that would block out all the background noise of passing by tanks, trucks, and aircraft. The Shure E5c's were there to answer the call! Cant hear a thing at all with these things on, except for, of course, the finest quality sounding music ever. A little difficult to get in the ears at first, but after the first 2 days it was very natural. I use these things for everything now, from listening to radio tranx, to my ipod, they have stood up to the Combat Test!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just buy the e500 already
Comment: I'll spare you a breakdown of the sound signature of these headphones. They sound great for IEM's, and pretty good for the price. My beef with them is that they are hard to drive out of any of the portable devices I own. I have a 4th gen iPod, a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 and Zen Vision:M. Out of the headphone out, they sound muffled and receded in the high end. The bass is also very muddy and uncontrolled. The mid-range doesn't suffer as nearly as much but is the headphones over all week point. When amped with a good portable amp they sound amazing (again for an IEM). The E500pth don't suffer nearly as bad from unamped sources although do with out a doubt also benefit from amping. It's just with the e5c really suffer. Just a heads up to people trying to decide between the e5c and the e5oo
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth the $? Thats up to you - but man o man do they sound great!
Comment: The Shure E5c Sound Isolating Earphones are the finest earphones money can buy. At first they are a bit awkward to get in your ear - but once you've used them a few times you get the hang of it. Sound quality is amazing depending on the quality of the recording your listening to. When the earphone is in the ear you can't hear a thing other than the music you are listening to. As my main man Mr. Sagdiyev would say: "very nice!"
Customer Rating:
Summary: As good as ER4P, but much more expensive
Comment: The E5C used to be the flagship product of Shure for years, and I was allured just by its fame. After several months' use and comparison with Etymotic ER4P, I have to say the E5C is not worth its price, although it is still a good pair of IEMs itself.
It is strong bass and wide soundstage that E5C boasts and it really does well in these two aspects. However, the bass is sometimes annoying to me, causing a headache if I listen to it for a little longer time. Perhaps I am kind of sensitive to excessive bass, but I think the bass of E5C is so exagerated that it even covers up some details on higher frequencies. As for the soundstage, I did not see its significant advantage over ER4P when plugging them to portable players such as portable CD players and iPods. The E5C even has some tiny problems in locating the singers or some instruments - it is hard for it to image those locations very accurately.
In contrast with ER4P, E5C is way inferior in treble and resolution. Ther ER4P has very bright treble and as clear as crystal, but I can only remark E5C as "dim" in this way. Listening to E5C is analogical to viewing some landscape under a cloudy sky - I cannot feel the shinning sun. As I mentioned above, the lack of details in E5C is maybe attributed to its bass, anyway, you can almost never hear as much detail as with ER4P. For example, some instruments played at quite low volume are hard to discern with E5C and I cannot distinguish the background chorus from the main singer in some cases.
Another bug of design is in its cable which is too renitent and will generate great noise when wearing over a coat with zippers, but E5C is easier to wear with only one hand - it is difficult to do the same thing with ER4P.
I am not so satisfied with this E5C, especially comparing with my ER4P, but I admit that it is good at performing those energetic and finger-popping songs.
The ER4P is sold at merely $160, which is about 1/3 of the price of E5C or E500. I think the earphones from Shure are always exclusive even if I purchased my E5C for $360. According to the comments from a bunch of experienced Hi-Fi enthusiasts, the E5C is at the same level of potential with ER4P, but consider the price......
Summary: E3c or E5c should I pay more to get the E5c
Comment: I concur with everyone on this board that E5c is top notch and the best of all Shure E series earbuds. Question is, whereas the pricing of E5c is 2X of the E3c, should I pay that additional $200 to get the E5c ($400-) and do I get 2X the added value in the E5c relative to E3c ($190)?
I searched this board and could not find the answer so I decided to take one for the team and purchased the E5c (I already owned 2 pairs of E3c and have been using 3c over the last four years). After listening to E5c for over 10 hours (music: acoustic jazz, fusion jazz, rock, heavy rock and classical piano concerto) I concluded that the E5c indeed produces better sound quality than E3c but the added performance is slight, may be at best 15% better than the E3c - which is not much consider the additional $200 you spend. if you are careful with your budget, go with 3c. E3c is already good enough compared with almost every earbud in the marketplace. Below are a few key areas I observed.
1. Bass - 3c and 5c are really the same with slight advantage to 3c. The 3c allows you to tug the earbud deeper inside your ear canal thus creating a better bass effect. 5c is more rigid and does not allow you to insert the earbud deep into your ear thus the bass may come a tiny slight less.
2. mid range - slight advantage to 5c. As the Piano solo was going on, I can hear the string section more refined from the 5c than 3c.
3. high pitch - slight advantage to 5c. If you are a acoustic jazz fan, 5c allows you to hear that cymbal sound a little more defined and crisp.
4. consistency. 5c is more rigid to wear, once you put 'em into your ear, it stays there and hardly moved around. 3c is more relax but if you were running, the earbud may drop out from your ear or loosened up a little. This create inconsistency in listening experinece. E5c wins hands down on how rigid the earbud stay in your ear thus maintaining consistent sound throughout.
5. comfort to wear - 3c wins hands down. 5c is a bit bulky and rigid. You ear muscle get to become a little sore after wearing for a few years. 3c is softer, more comfortable to wear over long stretch of time.
I am glad I purchased the 5c however, if I could only purchase one pair of earbud, I will go with 3c, not 5c. 3c offers a lot more sound per dollar than 5c.
Hope this helps.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Combat Tested!
Comment: Have to be the most amazing pair of earphones that I have ever purchased in my life! A few years back I was in a band and had the Shure E2's (another amazing set) and loved them. However, we broke up when I joined the Army, and I since sold the E2. Now, Stationed in Iraq, I needed a set of phones that would block out all the background noise of passing by tanks, trucks, and aircraft. The Shure E5c's were there to answer the call! Cant hear a thing at all with these things on, except for, of course, the finest quality sounding music ever. A little difficult to get in the ears at first, but after the first 2 days it was very natural. I use these things for everything now, from listening to radio tranx, to my ipod, they have stood up to the Combat Test!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just buy the e500 already
Comment: I'll spare you a breakdown of the sound signature of these headphones. They sound great for IEM's, and pretty good for the price. My beef with them is that they are hard to drive out of any of the portable devices I own. I have a 4th gen iPod, a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 and Zen Vision:M. Out of the headphone out, they sound muffled and receded in the high end. The bass is also very muddy and uncontrolled. The mid-range doesn't suffer as nearly as much but is the headphones over all week point. When amped with a good portable amp they sound amazing (again for an IEM). The E500pth don't suffer nearly as bad from unamped sources although do with out a doubt also benefit from amping. It's just with the e5c really suffer. Just a heads up to people trying to decide between the e5c and the e5oo
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth the $? Thats up to you - but man o man do they sound great!
Comment: The Shure E5c Sound Isolating Earphones are the finest earphones money can buy. At first they are a bit awkward to get in your ear - but once you've used them a few times you get the hang of it. Sound quality is amazing depending on the quality of the recording your listening to. When the earphone is in the ear you can't hear a thing other than the music you are listening to. As my main man Mr. Sagdiyev would say: "very nice!"
Customer Rating:
Summary: As good as ER4P, but much more expensive
Comment: The E5C used to be the flagship product of Shure for years, and I was allured just by its fame. After several months' use and comparison with Etymotic ER4P, I have to say the E5C is not worth its price, although it is still a good pair of IEMs itself.
It is strong bass and wide soundstage that E5C boasts and it really does well in these two aspects. However, the bass is sometimes annoying to me, causing a headache if I listen to it for a little longer time. Perhaps I am kind of sensitive to excessive bass, but I think the bass of E5C is so exagerated that it even covers up some details on higher frequencies. As for the soundstage, I did not see its significant advantage over ER4P when plugging them to portable players such as portable CD players and iPods. The E5C even has some tiny problems in locating the singers or some instruments - it is hard for it to image those locations very accurately.
In contrast with ER4P, E5C is way inferior in treble and resolution. Ther ER4P has very bright treble and as clear as crystal, but I can only remark E5C as "dim" in this way. Listening to E5C is analogical to viewing some landscape under a cloudy sky - I cannot feel the shinning sun. As I mentioned above, the lack of details in E5C is maybe attributed to its bass, anyway, you can almost never hear as much detail as with ER4P. For example, some instruments played at quite low volume are hard to discern with E5C and I cannot distinguish the background chorus from the main singer in some cases.
Another bug of design is in its cable which is too renitent and will generate great noise when wearing over a coat with zippers, but E5C is easier to wear with only one hand - it is difficult to do the same thing with ER4P.
I am not so satisfied with this E5C, especially comparing with my ER4P, but I admit that it is good at performing those energetic and finger-popping songs.
The ER4P is sold at merely $160, which is about 1/3 of the price of E5C or E500. I think the earphones from Shure are always exclusive even if I purchased my E5C for $360. According to the comments from a bunch of experienced Hi-Fi enthusiasts, the E5C is at the same level of potential with ER4P, but consider the price......