Crush my mojo, man….

[Nick]

So there I am, on way into London for a whole string of meetings. First I was popping into one place to just show my face, say hello and shoot the breeze (plus it killed a bit of time whilst making sure I got to my next meeting in plenty of time).

I’ve been given a pair of Shure’s E2G gaming headphones to test out and this was an ideal opportunity. These things are supposed to give excellent sound quality at the same time as provide such a snug fit in your ear as to block out pretty much all external sounds. Other than the fact that, once you’ve got them on, you can’t understand a damn thing anyone says to you, even when you’re not playing any music. So they passed the tube test with flying colours. My Shuffle was probably only at half volume at most but I could hear every note crystal clear and I even picked up some orchestral stuff in the background of Achilles Heel that I’d never heard before… expect an in-depth review on these babies soon!

So anyway, I’m strolling across Covent Garden, doing my damndest NOT to walk in time with Faithless and this lady comes up to me, pointing at my shoulder. At first I think a pigeon has dropped a ‘gift’ on me, but there’s nothing there. This woman, who wasn;t bad looking, is laughing at my bemused look and points some more, then starts miming like she’s shoving her thumb in her ear… I look again, nope, nothing there and no big bloke behind me with an earwax fetish about to brutally humiliate me.

So I flick off the Shuffle and prise an earpiece out of my lughole, just in time to hear her yell “YOUR PHONE’S RINGING!!!...YOUR PHONE!!!” whilst pointing at my mobile which is ringing itself stupid in my jacket top pocket… oh the shame of being cool and a total tit and the same time… I say cheers, and standing there like a pillock, I pull my phone out to see that whoever was calling had masked their number, so there was no chance of calling them back.

By now the woman has walked off, so I a shout a “cheers” in her direction, to which she turns around, walks back and just as I thought I was going to get a slap, she pulls HER earphones out and asks me what I said. For some reason she seemed less than happy when I told her I said thanks and we go our separate ways with me thinking that perhaps noise excluding headphones are all well and good, except when you have to stay contactable or if you forget to leave your phone on silent ring…

[Michael]

Vibrate

Know what you mean though, the ear buds that came with my W800i tend to drown out about 80% of noise... can't hear someone in the same room talking to me if I have music playing.

[Funkstar]

The problem for me with the in-ear-canal headphones is that i can hear myself walking as the wires bounce about and move the buds in my ears

[[GSV]Trig]

Did you get her number?

[noah]

just don't eat crisps with them inyour ears, you'll not hear anything else!

oh and i learnt the hard way not to use headphones like that when commuting on my bike, silent cars are trouble! back to the normal 'phones for that job i think.