PSP World

Shure E4g Earphones

As games have gotten more complex, so have the instruments used to recreate the scores and sound effects in the games. Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, expensive receivers and speaker setups, and even dedicated gaming rooms have become more and more normal, and as all of this happened on the console side of things, the portable gaming community has been left with cheap $10-$20 headphones as the only options marketed to them — until now.

As the PSP opened a new market of high-end portable gaming, with a price point to match, companies have begun to notice long-existing holes in the market for upscale accessories for these high-tech beasts. One such company is Shure, who just recently announced their E series of earphones designed especially for — you guessed it — gamers.

The pair we’re reviewing sits at the top of Shure’s E series gaming line. The E4gs pack some advanced technology in their tiny bodies. They feature high-definition speakers, and utilize a technique known as Tuned Port technology to create ultra-wide frequency audio and extended bass response, a combination we found perfect for gaming. Before you can begin listening to them, you have to go through a brief trial-and-error period with the included sleeves, that are differing sizes and softness. This step really is key, because finding the right sleeve is essential to comfortable listening and maximum sound isolation — but that shouldn’t be a problem given the range of different sizes and softness of the included sleeves.

Now all of that tech-talk is out of the way, we can talk about what really matters: the sound. For their nearly three-hundred dollar price tag you expect a mind-blowing auditory experience, and the E4gs deliver just that. From the moment you find the correct sleeve, insert the tiny ‘phones, drape the cords over the back of your ears, and hit play, you’ll never want to go back. The amount of clarity, depth of stage, separation, and overall fullness of sound is excellent.

We tested our review units with the PSP while playing games, watching a movie, listening to music, and watching MPEG-4 video. Never did the E4gs disappoint. While playing SOCOM, we managed to miss five phone calls, with the phone sitting right next to us. The immersive capabilities of the rich audio coming from today’s advanced game soundtracks coupled with the excellent sound isolation of the E4gs cannot be overstated. This could be a possible problem for those that ride the bus or subway while playing your PSP — we imagine it could be pretty easy to miss your stop if you’re not paying attention. The same can be said for UMD movies, while some of our MPEG-4 videos were actually problematic due to overly-compressed audio. Of course, these were problems that we didn’t hear when listening with cheaper earphones — thus is the only downside to the E4gs. If your audio and video on your Memory Stick isn’t of high quality, you will notice.

Listening to music on the E4gs was possibly the most enlightening test we ran. The majority of music we have on our test PSP is in 128Kbps AAC — the same standard that Apple uses for songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. We listened to several recordings multiple times, in several different genres. The results were consistently great. A tiny reverb here, a spatter of piano perfectly placed on stage, playing during a chorus crowded with instruments and electronic beats — if it’s in the recording, you will hear it. As we mentioned before, compression artifacting is a problem with low bit-rate recordings.

While the price tag unfortunately won’t be right for everyone, we strongly suggest that anyone with the means and the need for a set of quality earphones check these out. They provide excellent sound in a nice-looking package, and are worth every penny of their price.