Excellent quality sound. Not sure about the design.
The shure earphones have a really crisp quality to them. In their price range, I think they definitely beat their competition on sound quality alone. However the in-ear design is not for everyone, and it does take some getting used to. I strongly recommend trying the different foams and buds that come with it until you are most comfortable first. It usually takes a bit of time after that to get completely used to them, but eventually you get there within a week or so at most. My only complaint is perhaps the build of the wires. Unfortunately I lost sound in one of the earphones after a few months and it was due to the wires being damaged (not externally however) I strongly recommend using the spool when not using the phones lest you have the same problem. Otherwise definitely a good deal, and at the current discounted price of [...], its a steal!

Excellent sound quality, isolation, and comfort!
I love these earphones! They have excellent sound quality and isolate me from other noises and distractions. They are an essential upgrade to the headphones that came with my Zune.

The only drawback for me is that the cord is a little stiff, causing it to get tangled and be slightly less manageable than I would like.

Overall though, I certainly recommend these headphones anyone interested in better sound quality and who enjoy isolating earphones.

Great sound, but wires are a problem
I have had these headphones for over a year and they are by far the best sounding headphones I have ever had (granted, almost anything is a step up from the included iPod earbuds). I am no audiophile, but the sound quality of these in-ears allows me to hear sounds and nuances I have never heard before in music I've been listening to for years and I love them. On the downside, just like many reviewers here, the chords on both sides have broken in exactly the same place (just where they curve over the ear). It hasn't affected the sound quality as far as I can tell, so I'm reluctant to give them up to have them replaced since I use them pretty much non-stop. In short, they are great, but the chord will most definitely break with even the slightest back-and-forth bending (meaning straightening and re-curving over the ear). I think if I would not have tried to straighten them out all the time, they may have held up a little better.

Great quality for a great price
It comes with multiple size and texture ear bud covers to give the best fit for your ears. Sound quality is crisp and clear.

Poor Quality, Horrible Support
My brother and I each received a pair of E3Gs (close slightly more expensive relatives of the E2Cs) the december before last. After five or six months, my brother's headphones began having a problem where the sound would cut in and out of the left earbud. The problem progressed to the point where whenever the cord was moved, even by the wind the sound would cut in and out wildly. About a month later, the sound started cutting in and out of the right ear bud...

I figured it was bad luck because mine were still working. About three months after that, mine began having exactly the same problem. Eventually it got bad enough that I decided to send mine in. After a quick call and three weeks, I received a brand new pair of e3gs. About a month after receiving the new set of headphones, shockingly, the sound started cutting in and out again.

After talking with Shure's customer service I was told that it might be possible to get a different model of headphones the next time I returned my defective ones, but first I had to talk to a supervisor in the service and repair department. I spent two weeks, leaving four messages with three different people, before I finally got in contact with a supervisor ("Julie"). After listening to my problem, she claimed that she couldn't do anything other than pay for the shipping the next time I sent the headphones in. When I tried to explain why I wanted to trade in the headphones for some other model that might not have this problem, she transferred me (without asking) to someone in a different department who had no idea what to do with me or what I was talking about.

I am never going to purchase another shure product again. Its bad enough having three different sets of headphones from shure have exactly the same problem well before their two year warrenty expired, but the customer service is really what got me. When I had a problem, it took me two weeks to get in contact with them, they returned none of my four messages, and even when I finally did get to speak with a supervisor, she didn't respond to my requests and instead of telling me she couldn't do anything, she transferred me randomly to another person.

What you all do is up to you, but companies owe their customers better. If they can't help me, the least they can do is tell me to my face, rather than randomly transfer me to another department. Think carefully before you buy, if you're lucky you might never have a problem. If you're unlucky, well, I hope you have a better time than I did.