When I have music playing, I can hear a lot of stuff, like the train moving across the tracks, people talking and cars.

With the music off, I can hear EVERYTHING!

It is just muffled really. When I take the earphones out completely, I do get the sudden rush of sound when I am outdoors. But still, the isolation doesn't sound as good as I have heard it can be.

I am mostly limited to listening to just rock music when out, because of these limitations. Quite annoying.

I was using the plastic sleeves, but not only was the isolation bad, they were very irritating and would leave my ears blocked up afterwards. The foam sleeves are a lot more comfortable and offer slightly better isolation. However, I can still hear a lot of outside noise with them in.

Maybe I could get tips on how to use them (and how not to use them).

I just squeeze them, put them in my ears, hold them for a while and then let go. Usually move them around a bit until they feel secure.

It's possible that you're simply expecting more isolation than is feasible. I use e2c's, and would say that the amount of isolation is about what you get from a pair of standard foam earplugs - maybe a bit less. Yes, you can hear a bit of background noise, but it should be reduced a fair amount. I'll say this: when there is music playing, the amount of isolation is sufficient to make crossing the road quite risky.

On the other hand, it could be that you're using the wrong sleeves. Like you, I found the rubber tips uncomfortable, and settled on the medium size foam sleeves after trying them all out. Make sure you try all the sizes to find the ones that fit your ears best.

And one final tip. The e2c's have a sort of "pointed egg" shape body, and the point goes towards the rear of the ear (as you no doubt realise). Initially, it seems natural to orient them so that the "egg" shape is horizontal. But personally I get a better fit by angling them upwards slightly (by about 30 degrees, I'd guess).

I also have the E2C's and I actually make my own sleeves. The problem was that the foamies gave me the best isolation and fit, but they don't really last that long. So I did some experimenting and now I DIY my own dispensible foamies which give me excellent isolation and fit.

DIY steps :

• Cut away the tips of the smallest rubber sleeves (or any size that you know you won't be using in the future) that come with the E2C's so that you're left with a rubber pipe that you can put on the E2C's. This will give some grip for the DIY foamies.
• Then use the classic cheap (I can get them for free actually) "EAR Classic Plugs", yep the classic yellow foamies, and punch holes in them with a standard paperperforator. Let them come back to their original form after this.
• Now just put on the perforated foamies and let them settle for a while. In my case it's normal that the foamies now cover the entire shaft of the E2C. And there you have it : your own dispensable foamies.

A little offtopic maybe but are there any E2C owners that use them with a Cowon D2? I'm wondering at what volume most of us are listening as I find the E2C's "very" sensitive. For example when I use them on my laptop or PC I'm blown away by the sound (and noise ) at even the lowest volume. Because of this (and because I'm quite conservative about my hearing) I only listen to "replaygained" MP3's at a maximum volume of 5 or 6 on the Cowon D2 (which actually goes to volume 50).

* I'm sorry that I'm not able to include some pictures but I hope the explanation is good enough.
* Edited a lot of spelling.

I second the suggestion that expectation is the only problem here. I’ve used ear plugs in various situations for many years. They are very helpful but far from absolute. I don’t know what is actually achieved, but about 30dB of attenuation is claimed on the packaging. This is quite a bit, but subtract 30 from most background noise and you still have a easily hearable level. I can adequately understand people speaking to me most of the time. Attenuation is also quite frequency dependent; lower frequencies get through much better. I suggest trying some foam earplugs in a few venues to get a better idea of what is possible.

I can second that, I've been to many concerts wearing earplugs and I actually sometimes still think it's loud. After awhile you just get used to the lower volume but man are you in for a shock when you remove them, it's like auditoryoverdrive.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I suppose you are right about the expectation. Maybe I am expecting too much. I just didn't want to be able to hear people talking at pretty much normal volume while I am actually playing the music kinda loud, let alone people shouting, cars and trains.

I will try the different foam sleeves. I didn't really notice they were even different sizes.

Thanks again.

I don't know anything about the Shure devices, and most that I've looked at don't provide any information, but there do appear to be some major differences in products.

I have a set manufactured by Hearing Components
http://www.complyintheear.com/
that claim passive attenuation = or > 42dB. This is considerably more than I've ever seen for any earplugs. This company claims its products are standard issue for US Army helicopter crews. They don't say much about audio performance, except for the 20Hz to 20kHz frequency response, but they seem fine to me.

I've never actually used them as instructed, which is similar to ear plugs: compress the tip, pull up on the back of the ear to straighten the ear canal, etc. I just insert the tip without any compression or fiddling and this works great.

Another pair I say on the rack at the store that did provide a figure, don't recall the brand, claimed only 16dB attenuation. There is a major difference between 16dB and 42dB. Perhaps the Shure's are nearer the 16dB end of the scale in this regard.

If you look at the Hearing Components site, you will see that they sell replacement foam tips for the Shure e2c. Since the literature with my set seems to indicate it is the particular design and material of the tip that makes them so effective, this might be worth looking into.

my senn cx300 iem's are definitely isolating noise. i even use them INSTEAD of earplugs a lot when i ride my motorcycle.

i'd say they work ABOUT as well as the foam earplugs that i use otherwise while the player is off (and obviously better/more exciting while listening to something )

you'll still be aware of what is going on, tho...