Hey! Now I can save my ear-drums!

I had bought the Sennheiser PX 200 Headphones and was really pleased with them. I use them with my RCA Lyra MP3 player ML 1028.

The problem with headphones is that they let in a lot of outside noise.

I tried to listen to my MP3 player when I was cutting the grass. Now if I was using a push mower that is human powered (circa 1950's) and there was no engine noise, it would be great. Unfortunately, the lawn mower I have is gas powered, and it makes a lot of noise. So I was turning the MP3 player up to full volume, and still all I could hear (above the ringing in my ears) was the sound of the lawn mower engine.

We had booked a trip to Italy, and from past experience flying anywhere, it seems that everyone who is traveling with a crying baby is on our plane and surrounding us.

My wife bought the new Bose noise canceling headphones thinking that these would be helpful. Unfortunately for her, while they do excellently cancel the low rumblings (wind noise, and certain spectrum of sound) of engine noise, they do not cancel human noise, or loud mechanical noises.

I decided that I wanted sound Isolating ear buds/phones. I know of Shure's reputation as a choice of microphones of professionals, so I decided to investigate them for their ear buds/phones.

The Shure website took me through some examples of the difference of what I would hear using sound isolating ear buds/phones and noise canceling headphones.

The difference was astounding.

To give you a clear picture, imagine that you can create some noise that cancels certain noises, so all you hear is quiet. But the human voice comes through clearly, and loud noises come through clearly, and other noises come through. This would be **Noise Canceling**

Now imagine that you poured wax in your ears and the ear hole was completely covered. You can not hear very much. Only muffled sounds, even if someone next to you screams in your wax filled ear.

This would be **Sound Isolating**

So, let's see...

Air Plane trip
Surrounded by Crying Babies

Choice A **Noise Canceling** gets rid of the airplane noise, but NOT human noise.
Choice B ** Sound Isolating** gets rid of ALL noise.

I'll go with Choice B.

Now what's really neat about these Shure E4 earbuds, is that they come with a bunch of different pieces they call "Sleeves". These "Sleeves" go over the part that sends the sound into your ears, and they insure your comfort and sound blocking.

So if one type of sleeve is not comfortable, simply switch the sleeves to a different size or material.

I Love This!

The day I got my Shure E4 earbuds, I put them through a major test. I went out to cut the grass and tested them. Not only was the previously roaring lawnmower engine reduced to a very faint rumble, I was able to lower the volume of my MP3 player to previously unused levels... even when using headphones! Talk about saving my already damaged ear drums.

So I had total bliss. Just the sound of music. And a very, very, very faint almost inaudible rumble from the mower.

And talk about comfort!

The ear buds fit perfectly. The cord loops over the ear, and the earbud is on a slight angle to there is virtually no pressure on your ears.

Now I was ready for that long flight to Europe!

We got on the plane. And Shure thought of a great ear saving concept. There is a little device that plugs in - in between the headphone jack on the plane and the earbud jack. This device (not battery powered) works as a volume control. So I set the volume full on the airplane jack, and set it to 2 on the lets call it ear protector. The pilots voice was really easy to hear. And the sound of the music and movies was crystal clear. The only drawback was when the flight attendant was asking if I wanted anything to drink etc. I had to remove one earbud to hear her. And I was completely amazed at the high level of decibels that a supposedly quiet jet plane makes. It was really loud.

I kept the earbuds in the entire trip which I think was 10 hours.They were really comfortable. After we landed, I removed them and I could hear everything much clearer than I could before using sound isolating earbuds when flying.

There is one complaint I do have about these earbuds. The complaint is that the earbuds sound a bit tinny. The sound quality is below what I expected from Shure. The bass is not really there. You can hear the highs really good. But the bass is not good. So it kind of sounds like using a pair of really cheap low grade speakers.

It's fine for listening to someone talking, or a movie, and a lot of music. But not all. If Shure would boost the bass in the earbuds, they would be 100%.