Review Date August 10, 2006

Shure E500PTH

  • Pros

    Best sound quality of any in-ear headphones I've tested. Very comfortable. Compact and lightweight. Push-To-Hear (PTH) module is very handy when you need to hear outside sounds briefly. Great accessory set. Very efficient.

  • Cons You pay through the nose for joy in your ears. Gain wheel on the PTH module is too recessed.
  • Bottom Line

    The Shure E500PTH are quite expensive headphones, but they sound absolutely fantastic, and the Push-To-Hear module is a brilliant idea. They're worth all of the 54,900 pennies.

By Mike Kobrin

Shure's new flagship in-ear headphone model, the E500PTH, simply sounds amazing. The company managed to squeeze three drivers into each compact noise-isolating earphone, and the included detachable Push-To-Hear module provides an innovative way to hear what's going on around you when you need to. They're also comfortable enough to leave in for an entire day—which I actually did, believe it or not—unlike nearly every other in-ear model I've tested. So what's the catch? They'll run you a cool $549 (list), but this is a price I'd be willing to pay for what I consider the best.

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The E500PTH earphones are somewhat teardrop-shaped, with a metallic brownish housing. Each earphone contains three balanced-armature drivers, including two midsize woofers and one tweeter. The earphones are surprisingly small, given the number of drivers; the Ultimate Ears 5Pro in-ear headphones are larger and house only two drivers per earphone. The headphones ship with a very versatile fit kit that includes three sizes of soft silicone tips, three sizes of rigid silicone tips, a pair of foam tips, and a pair of triple-flange silicone tips, as well as a cleaning tool and a quarter-inch to eighth-inch adapter plug.

The modular cabling system is extremely flexible and should suit any listener's needs. The two cables terminate where they join up in a single 3.5mm gold-plated plug, which you can then connect to a 9-inch cable or a 36-inch cable. There's also an inline attenuator module with a volume wheel, which is handy for using the earphones safely with high-output audio sources. The oblong, zippered hardshell case doesn't have a cable winder in it, and it's big enough to carry the whole setup; still, it would be nice if there was smaller pouch for carrying just the earphones and, say, the longer cable.

Finally, there's a Push-To-Hear (PTH) module that consists of a small brown-and-black plastic controller with a 22-inch input cable and 22-inch output cable both coming out of the top. At the end of the input cable (which is where you connect the terminus of the headphones), there's a small, fairly unobtrusive microphone that receives power from the controller's triple-A battery. There's a belt clip on the back of the controller, a switch and LED on the front, and a volume wheel that adjusts the gain of the microphone. Move the switch on the control and the microphone activates, cutting out your music and piping in the ambient sound from around you. You can also purchase the PTH module separately for $59, and it works with any headphones.

Is the PTH feature useful? Picture this: You're standing on line at the grocery store rocking out to your favorite Barry Manilow album. You get up to the counter, where the clerk asks you if you have a club card. But all you can hear is Barry crooning "at the Copa . . . Copacabaaaana," thanks to the silicone (or foam) tips on your earphones. So you reach down to your belt, move the switch on the PTH module; suddenly Barry is silenced, and you can hear the clerk repeating her question via the inline microphone hanging near your chest. You answer her, and maybe make a few seconds of small talk. Then as she gives you your change, you flip the switch again and Barry's voice returns, instantly excluding the register noises, crying babies, and baggers' snarky comments around you. All without removing your earphones.

If you can handle putting things in your ears, these are extremely comfortable headphones. It may take a few tries to figure out which texture and size tips are right for you, but given the extensive options, you'll find the right one. As noted earlier, I wore these for an entire workday (about 8.5 hours) without taking them out and felt no discomfort. I don't necessarily recommend doing this, but I just wanted to see if I could do it. I do wish the cables had a short flexible tube around the part that goes into the earphones, like the ones on Ultimate Ears' line. Since you're meant to wear the cables over the tops of your ears, tubes help them stay there more securely. And the cabling is thick but light, so it won't pull too much on your ears.

The switch on the PTH module is easy to move, but the gain wheel is a bit too recessed into the plastic housing. I was able to use my fingernail to turn it, but it can be a bit difficult to find quickly and easily. There's an included clip that you can put on the cable just under the mic and attach to your jacket or shirt so the mic doesn't flop around when you're walking and talking.— Continue Reading

Mike Kobrin
By Mike Kobrin


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