pth

Hands-on with Shure's audiophile-friendly E500PTH

by 

Chris Ziegler

08.28.2006

If you happen to bump into us on the street in the next few days and we can't make out a word you're saying, well, here's why -- we recently had the opportunity to spend plenty of quality time with Shure's latest pride and joy, their flagship E500PTH earphones. Shure's been talking up the E500 for the better part of this year as a "new paradigm" in personal sound, but audioheads (with the prerequisite $500 to burn, that is) have only been able to find 'em in the retail channel for a few weeks now. Much like the E5c before it, Shure bills the E500 as the be-all, end-all solution to portable reference-quality sound reproduction, thanks in no small part to the three -- count 'em, three drivers in each bud. But unlike the E5c, the E500 has an arguably more compelling trick up its sleeve: its unique push-to-hear (PTH) module, which allows the wearer to switch between audio input and ambient sound at the flick of a switch. While our poor, buzzing ears are recovering from the constant barrage of sweet sounds they received in the name of conducting a proper writeup, we figure we'd hunker down and actually get this thing written, so read on for our full pictorial review.