I played out my pair of Shure E4c about a year ago when, ensconced in their circular case, they rolled out of my car into oncoming traffic. Realizing the driving public wasn't trained by years of reading signs on the back of 18-wheelers declaring "Where there's a rolling earphone case, there's a running audiophile," I erred on the side of caution. Bye-bye Shure.

The following day, I broke out my Etymotic ER*4 MicroPro earphones. Sure, I'd used them before, and sure, they sounded good. Better, in fact, than the Shure E4c. And by better, I mean more accurate. Both are musical, the Shure perhaps indulgingly so, but the lack of a little hype on the Etys make them more likely to attract audiophiles long term.

On my 2006 trip to Japan, I watched David Ranada, then still gainfully employed at Sound & Vision magazine, lick his ER*4 earphones and shove them in his ears. Sure, first you laugh, then you make a face of disgust. But later, oh yes, you try it yourself. And guess what? It really seals the deal!

But getting back to why the Etymotics are "better" than the Shures. They sound flatter, meaning, once you've gotten used to the Shure, you'll be tempted (more than tempted) to throw in a little EQ on your player. I'm an iPod fan, so for me, that means picking the "R&B" setting. I get a little more high end, a bit more low end, and boom-shaka-laka, I'm in business.

But my Bose system in the Audi is a bass braggart, so I'm always having to turn the EQ off when I'm driving. Eventually you figure out a way to get more bass out of the ER*4 without resorting to EQ. Just shove them in your ears more.

Thanks Mr. Ranada for that (Q)-tip.

Some other differences, as I recall, the Shure seem more sensitive, i.e. louder, but that could have just been their built in Fletcher-Munson-like loudness curve. Maybe they're just more Shure of themselves.

The Ety's cabling is more microphonic. As the Ety's wire rubs against your clothing, you can hear it more than you could with the Shures. Sitting and listening, of course, cable microphonics are rarely a problem. Working out on the elliptical, where the wire free floats, is also not a problem. But if you bunch up the wires under your work out shirt and Velcro your iPod to your upper arm before going for a jog, you're going to notice how your every movement gets picked up by the Ety's wires and sent, as mechanical energy, to your ears. There's a solution though, the same one you used when you didn't want to hear your parents. Just turn up the volume.

On the subject of durability, I only have my experience to go on, but the very first pair of Shures (the ones that didn't get thrown under the bus) lasted about a month before the wire failed, while the second pair were problem free right up to their unfortunate demise. I've gotten well over a year out of the Ety's and I'm sort of a brut.

Like Shure, Etymotic provides multiple sizes and styles of replaceable tips. I've gotten long life from mine by keeping them clean. Turn them inside out, sort of, and get rid of any wax buildup. Consider it a preventive maintenance program for audiophiles.

Sound-wise, I couldn't be happier though. Even at the lowly compressed files on my iPod (recorded at it's highest AAC rate of 320 kbps), music sounds wonderful. Isolation is the key to getting the most out of portable players, and the Ety's, like the Shure's, are the 25 cent solution to the 25 cent problem on an airplane. Not like those big clunky noise-canceling headphones that give me uncontrollable fits of laughter when I see someone wearing them on a plane. The Ety's just slide in and I'm instantly a million miles away from that flying cattle car in the skies.

Some things are simply commodities, while other things are singularly special. The Etymotic ER*4 MicroPro earphones fall into the latter category. They're $299, so, not cheap.

My kids are dying to try them too, but for some reason, they won't. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me either.