Well after a day of use and testing, I came to the conclusion that the Shure E2 headphones were not for me. Now don't get me wrong, the sound quality from these things is gorgeous and the isolation is magnificant, the design of these things just didn't work for me.

I like the in ear type with the isolation, I just didn't like the idea of it wrapping around the ear and such because I was constantly taking them out for things. I don't really need these for extreme sports/activities, more just walking around with my iPod is what I do and I don't need 80$ headphones for that. Another thing that I didn't like was the abnormally large "joiner" that joined together the two wires at the chest area, looked doofy to me. Another criticism is the length of the wire. I would have these headphones hooked up to a wire in my pocket and the amount of slack left over looked rediculous. Lastly, comfortability was another issue, but that wasn't too big of a problem.

Now don't get me wrong, these are one GREAT sounding pair of headphones, I guess they just weren't working for my taste. I do reccomend these to people looking for a great pair of headphones for highly active activities, but not exactly just for your everyday listening (i.e. - going out and wearing them around the mall or something, you can barely hear ANYTHING!). But hey that's just me, so don't exactly go 100% by my oppinion.

On the other hand, I was thinkin about switching over to the SONY MDR-EX71's in black. Now I know most of you dread these headphones, but are they really all that bad? I mean, does the sound quality even come close to the E2's? Are they good for all-around use? Are they really as muddy and bassy as people say they are? Overall, are they a good buy?

The only thing really preventing me from buying these are the user reviews I've read from boards about these. They caused me to back off and think that these were a total rip off.

Input about the EX71's would be greatly appreciated, especially if you have a pair. I'd like to know what you think about them.

Thanks!