Travel Technology - E3c and On-board Announcments

Just got back from my first long haul with Shure E3c's and I'll never leave home without them again. Absolutely love them - wore and slept in them for 12 hours each way with no discomfort and arrived feeling much less fatigued than normal. The E3s block out so much of the background noise that you're easily able to listen to the IFE at the very lowest volume setting.

I have but one complaint . . . it seems that the on-board announcements override the individual volume settings and are made at a more "normal" volume level which is ear-splittingly (is that word?) loud through the E3s. I wasn't fast enough the volume control to turn it down; ending up having to jerk the things out every time I heard the mike being keyed.

Besides being a pretty abrupt and shocking way to wake up it's fairly painful - both the volume level and the rapid removal. There's got to be a better way.

Anybody else have this problem? Is there a solution?

Thanks for any help - MC

Shure makes a volume control "wheel" type adaptor which makes it slightly easier to adjust in a hurry - unless you are asleep...!

I am looking for an in-canal 'headphones', for use with a iPod that has filled with mostly AAC tunes encoded @128 bit. Where is the 'cost effectiveness' cutoff on Shure, Etymotics or Ultimate Ears? I know that there is a point where the capacity of higher end earphones far surpass the sound quality of the recording . . but where? not able to do any sort of side by side trials. .
Also - does a custom molded earpiece provide a 'noticeable' improvement on noise seal? ? I fear that the only real way to sort this out - to my ear - is actually find a way to test a bunch of them myself . . but that does not seem to likely. So I would appreciate opinions from actual users.

I am looking for an in-canal 'headphones', for use with a iPod that has filled with mostly AAC tunes encoded @128 bit. Where is the 'cost effectiveness' cutoff on Shure, Etymotics or Ultimate Ears? I know that there is a point where the capacity of higher end earphones far surpass the sound quality of the recording . . but where? not able to do any sort of side by side trials. .
Also - does a custom molded earpiece provide a 'noticeable' improvement on noise seal? ? I fear that the only real way to sort this out - to my ear - is actually find a way to test a bunch of them myself . . but that does not seem to likely. So I would appreciate opinions from actual users.

with my shure e5s, I can definitely hear the degradation of mp3s at encoded at 128 vs higher.

I never plug my e5's into their IFE, instead my own (i.e. DVD's) - so I never hear the in-flight announcements - this I suppose could be a bad thing sometime :eek:

I can tell 128kb v. higher in my e3c's.

The manual that came with my e4c set carries a warning against plugging in to the IFE on aircraft, for the very reason the OP talked about! I tend not to bother with IFE anyway, choosing to instead listen to my minidisc or various podcasts on my little Creative Muvo NX FM mp3 player.

I never plug my e5's into their IFE, instead my own (i.e. DVD's) - so I never hear the in-flight announcements - this I suppose could be a bad thing sometime :eek:I've found that the flight attendants are very good about being diplomatic and letting me know that it's time to put away my toys. For anything else, if I see my fellow passengers getting out their rosary beads, breaking into tears en masse, and generally panicking, I can always ask one of them what I missed.

Get an MP3 player. Problem then is you will never hear an abandon ship order.

The manual that came with my e4c set carries a warning against plugging in to the IFE on aircraft, for the very reason the OP talked about! I tend not to bother with IFE anyway, choosing to instead listen to my minidisc or various podcasts on my little Creative Muvo NX FM mp3 player.

I absolutely agree with this posting. Recently purchased a pair of EC3's for a trip to Asia. Downloaded a few books and cd's onto my Creative Micro - before I knew it, 18 hours passed and I was landing in Hong Kong!

On the way back, I flew in the "baby express" section because there were 3 seats empty. Put in my Shure's, turned on my relaxation music, and fell right to sleep. Didn't hear one wimper! Pure heaven!

Don't even think about it...a good set of headphones and a Creative player is the best investmet you will make (and I don't work for either company)!

I am looking for an in-canal 'headphones', for use with a iPod that has filled with mostly AAC tunes encoded @128 bit. Where is the 'cost effectiveness' cutoff on Shure, Etymotics or Ultimate Ears? I know that there is a point where the capacity of higher end earphones far surpass the sound quality of the recording . . but where? not able to do any sort of side by side trials.
If you are not able to trial, you'll never find out until you buy. It all depends on your ears, your sensitivity to digital compression artefacts and so on.

Can you try with a really good pair of circumaural headphones like Sennheiser HD580/590/600s or the better Grados? That would at least give you a clue as to whether you're sensitive.