An (almost) dead Shure

Curse this world and my bad luck. My Shure e2c is halfway through its deathbed, just ten months after I bought it. While walking to the Tube station on Saturday evening, I found that my MuVo was outputting crackling songs. I thought that I was walking too fast and tracks are skipping (it shouldn't happen since it is flashed based). But it the music kept on crackling. While waiting for the Piccadilly Line train to arrive I took my chance to check if there was anything wrong with the Shure.


Which do you prefer? I hate white.

Sweet jesus. How the fuck did it get there? A large tear just below the right earbud. As you can see in the pictures above, the e2c cable is quite a bit thicker than your average buds, but I guess one its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. You see, Shure sound isolating earphones are meant to be worn wrapped through the top and down the back of the ear. I guess all those wrapping gave the part of the cable some pressure. Sure it may thick and durable, but its thickness made it less flexible.

The e2c still works but I need to pull the cable down from time to time for it to work. It works well if I am stationary, so I may yet keep it for those time when I need to chill. But right now I am stuck with the generic Creative buds that came with the MuVo. The sound fidelity is no where near the e2c but at least it is much more comfortable than the cheap throwaway Sony earphones I have (about ten of them). The problem with wearing the Creative buds are they are white. Now I look like a generic iPod wanabee clone.

Right now I am looking for a possible replacement, unless someone here can suggest how I can repair the tear. The Shure e2g looks nice. This is basically a Shure e2c with a black casing (and apparently optimised for gaming). I find the e2c's transparent case wicked, but if I am going to spend more money, might as well get something different right?

Sennheiser recently introduced its first in-ear canal earphone called the CX 300. Unfortunately there aren't any reviews of this unit (which looks awfully similar to the EX71) so I will hold out on getting it.