|
| 
 enlarge
| Brand: Ultimate
Category: CE
List Price: $249.99
Buy Used: $150.00
You Save: $99.99 (40%)
New (16) from $169.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  242 reviews
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 7 x 2.4
MPN: 5 Pro Black
Model: 5 Pro Black
UPC: 811965010191
EAN: 0850613001587
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 AMAZING!!! November 1, 2005
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
I have been in love with headphones and headphones for a very long time. I've had Grado, Sennheiser, AKG, Beyer, Sonny, Koss, etc....... Also I've had Headroom amps, and I curently have an Emmeline Xp7.
In addition to that I'm big on portable electronics, first I tried several discmans, then I moved to and Ipod and finally I stick with an Iriver flash player, which I found awesome in terms of sound, portability and battery life. I usually listen to progressive rock, electric jazz and hard rock so I wanted good bass. First I tried the Sonys 71 ans 81 which I found sounded good with some music but congested with others, specially in complex passages. I addition to that , vocals usually tended to be in a little distant, unless they were recorded up front in the mix, and in this cases sibilance was an issue. Therefore, I tried the Etys 4P an to my ears there was no bass....., then I moved to the 6is, and they suffered from the same problem, a hint of bass plus the highs were very rolled off to my taste. Finally I tried the Shures E2cs (horrible, muddy sounding, plus they were so uncomfortable), the E3C (too bright with only a hint of bass), the E4C (Not that bright, but the bass still was not enough...) and the E5c( excellent bass, with very rolled off highs and a little uncomfortable). Obviously, I sticked with my sonys, knowing that even though they were not the best sounding headphones, at least I was familiar with them, sonically and in the comfort department.
Being target of the claims of brands like UE, I thought in giving one more chance and got the UE Superfi 5pro and since the moment I sticked them into my ear channels I knew they were a different beast. The comfort was great, incredible isolation and the sound was absolutely spectacular. The bass was there, the mids as liquid with any top of the line regular headphones and the refined high were there. No sibilance was detected. A factor that really amazed me was the intimacy of the music since the isolation is one of the best I've heard and I've just used the medium silicone tips, I still have to try the double flanged ( are they designed for more isolation or just comfort??) and the foamies. Comparing the sound of the Sonys 81s to the UEs I could say the UEs sound way louder at the same volume, just think about it, with the Sonys I usually listen at 20 (volume) in my Iriver for a pleasant sound not too loud sound. With the UEs I usually listen at 14 and sometimes I have to turn it down. The bass on the Ues is as noticeable as on the Sonys but clearer and much better controlled and defined. The vocals are SUPERIOR, not recessed at all plus no sibilance. The highs are more refined without being too rolled off, you can clearly notice these are audiophile in-ear phones. The UEs comfort is excellent and the isolation is as good as with the Etys.
I you can afford them and still looking for the perfect in ear phones, don't think it twice, give them a try, you won't regret it.
 Did not compare to Shure, and I prefer my Sennheisers Earbuds April 19, 2006
22 out of 37 found this review helpful
Good product, great engineering, neat disgin, replacable cord, but not flat sounding, its like having the Bass and Treble at +3dB all the time. Some may like this effect. It muffles the voices, violins, and horns, but with rap, hip hop and metal, they are fine. I own the Super.Fi 5 Pro and have decided to not keep them, after comparing some parts of Pink Floyd, namely The Wall where the airplane engine transitions to the baby crying, that baby has to be there in your lap, and the UE's tend to mute the baby, so you have to wonder where the baby is. It doesnt sound as real.I also like to refernce blues and wind instruments and used some Miles to see if I likes the mids, and though the highs are crisp, the mids are a little muted, but not in a bad way.I just felt that honesty is an important quality, the ear phones I own by Sennheiser(CX-300, these are my wife's old set), my Sony 71SL(keep these for backup in a drawer at home) and the Shure e4c(wife's new set I owned briefly). My next try will be the Shure e5c product, I felt the highs were too bright on the UE product and the bass too enhanced by their porting design, though effective, it has harmonic qualities that render the powerful low end rather muffled in loud passages. Yo-Yo Ma's Cello sounded less than distinct off the Digitally remastered recordings I used. The UE Super.Fi 5 Pro would make great headphones for the DJs, Stage performers and other folks who need loud sound over the tonal flatness an audiophile may seek from a more 'reference' sounding acoustic driver. I missed the horns and flutes that my old Shure e4c were able to reach while i really have to drive the UE hard to try and get those notes, by which point I feel I may be over driving the speaker. There is a point at which the ported design in such a small scale can become ineffective when putting two drivers into such a small space. This makes me skeptical of the the Shure 2 way product as well, I understand why its a challenging to make both drivers sound correct to my ear thru the same pipe into my ear canal.Stay tuned.
The ones to beat! Best overall in this price range. August 13, 2007
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
Ok... I'll confess that I'm somewhat of an audiophile--I enjoy good sound. I've been in search of the perfect headphones for travel and have tried quite a few along the way and most had some serious flaws:
- Sennheiser closed back studio phones (HD-280): too big to travel with but otherwise decent sound and isolation.
- Bose QuietComfort 2: Way overpriced, provides isolation only at lower frequencies, so-so sound, and they broke.
- Sennheiser PXC 300: Similar sound to Bose above but at a much more reasonable price and more durable. Same problem with limited isolation.
- Sony MDR-EX71: Cheap but boomy muddy excessive bass, fragile "J" cord, poor overall sound, limited isolation.
- Etymotic ER-4: Great isolation, nice mids and highs, but weak bass, fussy fit, uncomfortable after a few hours, not very sensitive (some players can't drive them very well).
- Shure E3c: Similar to the Ety ER-4s above with slightly better fit.
- Shure SE310: New version of E3c above, better bass, better sound, but a REALLY stupid J cord that's way too short and gets too heavy with the extension.
- Sennheiser CX300: Cheap, OK sound, but nasty stiff cord that suffers from bad "microphonics" (rubs against your shirt and you hear it in your ear).
Ok... so after trying all of the above, I finally tried a pair of Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pros and WOW! These literally seem to combine the best attributes of all the other in-ear canal phones and add a few improvements of their own.
First of all, the sound is glorious. It's well balanced with deep honest bass, clear mids and precise highs. You can listen to them for hours and hours without fatigue because nothing is over emphasized or distorted. They sound significantly better than both the Etymotics and Shures in the same price range and that's saying quite a bit.
One warning on the good sound: The Super.fi's will reveal any flaws in your player and source material. So if you listen to a lot of poorly ripped (i.e. 128Kbit or less) music and/or have a cheap player, you might be happier with headphones that are a bit less honest and revealing.
The Super.Fi 5's are also far more sensitive than any other in-ear phones I've tried. That means you don't have to turn your player up as far which both improves the sound (you're not stressing the player) and improves battery life. Because of the high sensitivity and ideal impedance, there's far less need to use an external headphone amp with these compared to the Shures and Etymotics which is a big cost and hassle savings for those who might be considering one.
They're easier to get in and less fussy with fit than either the Shures or Etymotics I've tried. The bass with both of those requires a near perfect fit, but with the Super.Fi's, it's easy to get good bass.
They're also more comfortable than other in-ear phones I've tried. If it weren't for the great isolation, you would almost forget they're in your ears.
Speaking of isolation, it seems like a touch less than with my Etymotics but still a lot more than say the Sony or Sennheiser canal phones. And there's no comparison to something like the Bose or any other over the ear noise cancelling headphone.
They also seem very durable. The cord is thick but doesn't suffer from excessive microphonics like other thick cords I've tried. Plus the cord is a $20 replacement item if you manage to kill yours which is very cool. With most headphones, you have to throw them away if the cord dies. That and the 2 year warranty make these a good long term investment.
They don't have a dreaded "J" cord with one earpiece lead being much shorter. I've yet to find anyone who likes J cords. Someone needs to explain that to Sony, Shure and others who still use them?
The DO have a cool little piece of stiff wire in the cord near the earpiece that lets you hook the wires over your ears if you want to make them extra secure. Ultimate Ears are the only ones I know of with that feature.
They also come with a nice metal case, a cleaner and a generous assortment of eartips. Replacement tips and parts are reasonably priced.
In summary, They do everything well!
It took me FOREVER to find the PERFECT pair. August 19, 2006
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Let me first start off by saying I spent 180 dollars on these, and after the first few songs I played them with, they were already worth the money. I had used a pair of 50 dollar Sony plugs for about 2 years and they sounded alright with OK bass, but they started shorting out after a lot of use, so I moved on to a more expensive pair and bought the Shure E2C sound isolating headphones. They got good reviews and everything, but they definately were not worth the money! It also took me seriously forever to pick the right size material to insert into my ear. I could never get them to fit comfortably for more than 10 minutes! I would always find myself adjusting them, it was annoying! At first I thought I liked them, then I thought they sounded better with a different size plug, then I thought, "I can't even really hear the bass that well at all. The quality was good but the bass would get distorted sometimes, and it simply just wasn't really there." After about only a month of having enough with those, I sold them. I came across Ultimate Ears, and I was trying to make a decision between this pair the Pro or the less expensive pair that also concentrates more on the bass. Let me just say that I am a bass head, and after I ordered these, I felt worried that what if the other pair had better bass, but there is such a thing as too much bass believe it or not, especially for plug earphones. Right when I put these on, the comfort, the bass, the sound, the treble, everything is PERFECT! I can't be more satisfied. These seriously are the best sounding headphones I've ever had on. I also am a DJ, and I think these sound better than my big Technics MDR-V700 DJ headphones! They come with all different size pieces to put on the ends of the plugs, but I haven't even needed to try those sizes. I put the headphones on however they came in the box, and they seriously fit absolutely perfectly in my ear. They kind of suction into your ear for a perfect fit making them hard to fall out. The wire is a plus too because you can bend and wrap the chord around your ear any way you want! Seriously, these are worth it.
Darn near perfect! (A comparison between UE Super.fi 5s and Shure E3s) September 19, 2006
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
I received my UE Super.fi 5s about a week ago, and am pleased to report that they have proven everything they were built up to be. Having used a pair of Shure E3s for the last year or so, and had been very pleased with them, I give the edge to the UE Super.fi 5s for the following reasons:
1. Two drivers (UE) are better one (Shure) -- Common sense dictates that dual drivers (assuming they are quality drivers, which UE's most certainly are) have the ability to offer a richer, more nuanced sound than their single-driver counterparts. Indeed, with the UEs, the highs are crisp and well-separated, making every string of the guitar and every key of the piano easily distinguised; conversely, the lows are rich and lush, yet never over-power the higher range. With dual drivers, they lows and the mids/highs are delivered by their own means, and, as such, never overlap. And while the Shure's are very good earphones -- and definitely the best single-driver earphones available today (particularly when compared to the Etymotic E6s, that are tinny and almost devoid of bass response) -- they simply cannot compete with UEs twin amatures.
I performed an improvised side by side comparison, by hooking up both earphones to a spliter, then listening to the UEs in my left ear and the Shures in my right ear, and what I heard truly surprised me. The Shures, which I loved for the last year, sounded fuzzy and muffled, while the UEs sounded vibrant and lush. There truly was NO comparison -- the UEs flat out kicked the Shure E3s bee-hind!
2. Efficiency, thy name is Ultimate Ears -- With my E3s and a good clean seal on the earcaps, when outside in my hometown of New York City, I would have to turn the volume on my Sony NW-407 up to 22 or 23 (the max is 30) to get the full range of the earphones and adequately block out the ambient sound. (In NYC, one can never truly block out ALL the sound, nor would one want to...get squished by a bus, taxi or an oversized pedestrian in a hurry.) With the UEs, I was very pleasantly surprised to attain the same level of volume with my Sony turned up to 13 or 14, sometimes less, depending on the bit-rate of the particular mp3. It became instantly obvious that the UEs are far more efficient earphones, and will only become more so as I find the best possible seal from the earcaps.
3. Size matters -- Here's where the E3s win a point: they fit more snugly and comfortably into the ear canal than do the somewhat oversized UEs. It's not that the UEs are uncomfortable, it's just that the Shures are MORE comfortable. I have yet to wear my new UEs for any extended period of time, so I cannot ably judge how long it takes before they start to irritate. And, perhaps, they won't, for the flexible earloops on the UEs tend to hold the earphones in place better than the Shures, which have no such fixture. As such, the UEs tend to remain firmly in place, and thus are less likely to rubs the inside of your ear, which is the major source of discomfort with in-the-ear monitors.
4. Some miscellaneous points: One thing that I did not like about my E3s was the cord was too long. As a result, it tended to get tangled up or caught on my arm, or worse, caught on some thing you pass, and ripped from your ear. Plus, the Shure's cord is thicker, and more noticeable when walking. The UE's cord is a perfect length and perfect gauge, feeling light around your neck, and virtually unnoticable after you hit your stride....the Shure carrying case is actually preferable to the UEs shiny chrome case, in that the Shure case has a secure spindle to wrap up the cord, and the UE case does not......The variety of different earcaps is about the same, except the UEs came with a pair of double-flanged silicone cap in addition to its L/M/S silicone caps and one pair of foam caps; both the UEs and the Shures caps are well-made and you are bound to find a good fit among them....Both owner's manuals are informative and user-friendly...I have not had to call upon UE for customer service, though have read in many a place that they are friendly and helpful; I once called upon Shure, and they, too, were extremely accomodating (replacing the earphones after the left channel inexplicably died).
5. Conclusion -- Unless something signficant happens over the course of the warrany period (2 years for UEs), I have to give the nod, decidedly, to the UE Super.fi 5s over the Shure E3s, with the big swing coming in the Sound Department, where the UEs truly trounce their single-driver-ed cousins. (I suspect, though, that the Shure E4s, which have dual-drivers, are an excellent pair of earphones, though the UEs beat them on cost (by about $15-$20, depending on where you shop), and carried the day.) And, at the end of the day, it's ALL about the SOUND!
Hope this informs your decision. Enjoy!
|
|
|
2005-2007 Zone1electronics All rights reserved.
| |
