SHURE HEADPHONES question.?

Question

I just got a pair of SHURE E2C headphones and I thought they sounded great at first. I then started to notice that on the right side speaker I could hear the vocals louder than on the left side. Is this normal? I know that the Shure's are supposed to be good at seperating sounds and let you listen to what the artist truly intendo, so im not sure. I use a 30 gig Ipod with apple lossless with either no EQ or on Rock EQ. I use my Bose IE headphones and the sound is equal on both sounds but then again they have a muddier sound than the shures. Plaese Help, thanks.

I dont think it sounds louder on the right
side but more like the vocals seem to lean to the right side more and the bass as well.

Answer 1

I don't think the headphones are at fault. Stereo is recorded with different signals for left and right. It is common enough for voals and instruments to be recorded on different channels with some blending. Is this with everything? Or just some labels, or artists? If on all the drivers are not balanced. If with just some recordingsI would say theffect is from the producer/engineer.

Answer 2

I have a set of Shure E2c headphones and have not experienced similar problems.

Here are some things to do to determine the headphones are at fault.

Make sure the headphones are fully plugged into the player. Try them with other players if possible. Also try using an extension between the headphones and player.

Reverse the headphones (i.e. put each piece in the wrong ear). Does the attenuated level follow the switch.

Make sure the headphones are clean (no ear wax or anything else blocking the sound ports).
Make sure the headphones are properly inserted in your ear canal. Perhaps your ears are slightly different and you need to use two different sized "sleeves" to properly fit your ears.

If you have access to a sound pressure level meter, measure the headphone output. Use a mono encoded source (ideally, special test tones would be better than a song).