Customer Reviews

Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5 Noise Isolating Earphones

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I wanted to upgrade from my Sennheiser CX-300, which I enjoyed for the past year, but I knew that better sound was possible. I bought these after much research. I was willing to pay more than this and was considering the UE 700 and several Shure models, but several comparison reviews convinced me that these would be the best price/performance choice.

When they arrived and I tried them, I was initially disappointed. They sounded a bit better than the CX-300, but not $100 better, and they were lacking the bass of the CX-300.

Ok, I thought, live and learn. Later in the day I was looking through the reviews here and saw Jeffrey Chan's comment that "The SuperFi.5 sounds better for me when worn with the armature body up and cable over the ear". I tried that, and WOW! For me, this position was perfect for creating the proper seal.

Suddenly these sounded incredibly better than the CX-300. There was plenty of base (but not at all muddy). Instrumentals and vocals were crisp and clear, even at the lowest listening levels. Separation between instruments is distinct and spacious. The sound isolation is excellent.

Since then (about a week ago), I've been listening to music from several genres and several decades, hearing subtleties I had never heard before. It is like musically, everything old is new again.

Bottom line - if these don't sound gorgeous, they aren't correctly positioned or sealed in your ear.

I am not an audiophile, but my previous headphones were the Ultimate Ears' Super.Fi 3 and these are much crisper in sound. I went through a pair of wires for the super.fi 3 and instead of buying a third set, I decided to upgrade to Super.Fi 5. Most of the review concentrates on comparing both.

The cable is much more delicate but it allows the wires to be wrapped much more easily. This may be a problem at the gym, but I have yet to try. It is also a lot shorter than the Super.Fi 3.

The package did not come with any booklet (the Super.fi 3 did) and the headphone case is pretty pathetic for what you pay. It looks like a dental floss package w/o the floss inside. The Super.Fi 3 came in a nice aluminum(?) or metallic-feeling case, but it scratched pretty easily. It was also bigger.

You are also given a set of four different-sized pairs of rubber buds, a pair of foam buds, a cleaner, and a spare foam bud. Unlike the Super.Fi 3 as well, there isn't a set of staggered buds.

I am happy with my purchase, but it was twice the price I paid for the Super.Fi 3. If you aren't an audiophile, and budget is a concern, you can probably get away w/ the Super.Fi 3. But I made the change and there is a pretty significant difference in sound quality.

First the good: excellent midrange resolution. Much, much better than the typical earbuds included with portable electronics. The midrange is also free of obvious frequency aberrations. The low impedance makes them very easy to drive, i.e., they will play loudly from pretty much any electronics. (Please don't play too loudly. Once damaged, the lost hearing doesn't come back.)

Now the bad: top end is pretty severely rolled off. Extreme low end is also rolled off. Low end is a bit muddy. The SuperFi.5 is good, but not as good as I expected.

The foam and Silicone earpieces sound very different. The foam is less clear. My best guess would be that they either dampen the sound in the ear canal differently or they point the sound tube differently with respect to the eardrum. The foam has much greater attenuation of external sounds.

As another reviewer noted, the cable handling noise is pretty severe. This means that vibrations and physical impacts on the cable are audible through the earphones.

What range of sounds is produced is very good, but the frequency extremes are lacking and the top end in particular is peaky at certain frequencies and missing at others. A frequency response graph would probably show this pretty clearly.

My reference is the Sennheiser HD600 played over Cardas cable from a Pioneer Elite source, improved Assemblage DAC-3 DAC and Headroom headphone amplifier. See [...] for details.

Update: The SuperFi.5 sounds better for me when worn with the armature body up and cable over the ear. Instrument sounds are more natural. It seems that the ear pieces are significantly deeper in my ear canal that way too. This probably depends somewhat on the shape of your pinna (outer ear) and ear canal. Cable handling noise also seems decreased since the cable is up and out of the way, though over the ear cable routing is a little less convenient to me.

If the earpieces are deeper when worn armature up, then the sound levels are higher, so that's a confounding factor in evaluating sound quality. Sound intensity falls off as the inverse square of distance, and even small differences in sound level make an enormous difference in perception.

Pros: Sound quality
Noise reduction
Quality of make
Style

Cons: Price
Foam tips (based on personal experience)

Overall: Excellent product though pricey. I highly recommended this to anyone looking for great sounding monitors that also block out a large amount of noise and are willing to pay quite a bit of money.

Full review:

I recently bought the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 because I had heard that Ultimate Ears is an excellent brand for monitors. I was not let down by these earphones. They provide excellent sound quality and even better noise reduction. They are on the pricey side but I personally believe that they are worth it. Some downsides are that the foam ear tips don't provide as good a seal as they were hyped up to give, (this is a personal opinion and could change depending on the ear canal size). The quality of the wire is very good and it is not coated with the sticky kind of plastic, therefore the wire does not stick together and is less likely to get tangled. The case was a nice touch though for this price i would have liked to get the metallic case that comes with the Triple.Fi monitors. The silicone tips that Ultimate Ears provides formed a good seal for my ear and they provide a relatively large array of sizes for different ear canal sizes. The only downside I found, besides the price, was that when you push the earbud into your ear at some point the sound disappears but when the seal is placed properly the sound comes back. This is just a minor setback and could very well be an isolated case

I own a pair of UE 3 professionals. I have been very happy with the sound quality and the durabilty of that set of headphones. I tried this pair hoping I would have a similar experience. The right headphone was constatntly at a lower volume. I thought maybe that it was the recording but when I changed to a different set the right channel worked better. The cord was also flimsy. I have gone through many sets and the most common part to fail is the cord. This did not inspire confidence.

The problem is that the cable is straight and the strain relief isn't good. So if you use them with an iPhone or iPod touch that you put in a pocket, you WILL destroy the cable in 3-4 months. It kinks and then one channel cuts out and then it's all over. I've sent a pair back to UE and they gave me a new pair for free (after warranty, so big props to Logitech), but really if the plug were an L-plug like it is un the Triple.Fi 10's this wouldn't be a problem. I've actually broken my 2nd pair and may try another warranty... just wish it weren't necessary.

Sound is great though... but durability stinks with poor strain relief on the plug connector.

first off let me say that these things are TINY..... when i got them i was surprised at how small they felt in my hand. the box it came with is a good sturdy box with a lot of plastice inside and outside of it. the headphones comes with 6 pairs of buds from small rubber oens to foam ones (there the best). they come with a case to, but its one of the cheapest cases ive ever seen (it is like i VERY then plastic floss box).

the design on them are well done. they feel sturdy and well weighted. the cord is thick and strong. the only thing for me thats wrong with the construction is the jack on them. if i touch the jack or move it a little bt it screws up the sound.

the actual sound on these are pretty sweet.
-the treble is crystal clear and loud.
-the bass isnt to loud but its pretty good for the size of the headphones
(i just want to say that people need to stop saying "the bass isnt good inof". cuase a couple of things. 1. these are headphones, you are expecting a 3 mm drum to produce bass that youll find in a 1 inch drum in the over the ear type headphones. you cant compare the bass of earphones and the bass of headphones).
-the sound the earphones produce is crystal clear and can be turned up really loud (although i do not recomend that)
-and the eartips (the foam ones) do a very good job to isolate sound and make the bass stronger.

in all these are good headphones for under 100... although i would recommend to mabye save up a little more and buy some for 150... (monster turbines etc.)

pros-
-great bass
-even better treble
-clear sound
-cord is thick and strong
-good design

cons-
- the case it crap

I highly recommend this product; I bought it again as a replacement of the first one I bought 3 years ago. The reason I had to replace it was because I lost it in a flight, it worked perfectly and I got the same one; I didn`t have any reason to change brand or model since it was excelent (and it got cheaper in 3 years...), and the new model has a little control on the cable to change the music in the iphone and a microphone. Really good!

I loved, loved, loved these earphones. They went quiet while listening to music so I could answer my iPhone, which was great. Sound was great, especially for the person calling me... always a problem with earphones. Simple touch on a switch located on the cord answers phone, then touch it again and the music comes back on. My problem with them is the connection at the earpieces is not put together very well. The rubber slips out at the slightest tug revealing the delicate wiring. A simple further tug pulls the wiring off completely. Just made me sick. If you buy them, superglue the part at that connection, and maybe you won't have to throw them away like I now have to. They were the best ones I've ever had, and believe me, I've had lots, most of which I've lost. I was watching these babies like a hawk though because I liked them soooooo much. I got them on a supersaver with Amazon, so they were $59... but now they're like $99 and I just won't go that high for something so delicate.

I had a problem with my Ultimate Ears SuperFi 4 buds and returned them to Logitech for repair. Ten days later I received a package containing the SuperFi 5 as a replacement. I have been extremely happy with the SuperFi 5's. They are a real step from the 4's. They sound much better, have a much better fit, more comfortable for longer periods and appear to have a better build quality.