Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pro™ Consumer Headphones

I bought these strictly based upon reviews, without ever hearing these at all. All I can say is I'm very impressed with the results.

Perhaps the most popular in-ear headphones being purchased by iPod users everywhere are the Sony EX-71LP's. I own several pairs of these and they're great because they sound a helluva lot better than the headphones that come with the iPod and they're cheap (less than $30). There's tons of bass and tons of treble too. This is great for those who don't know better about audio and don't care about saving their ears, but here's where the UE Super.fi Pro's come in.

Sound
This is the top of the line model that UE carries, which is only trumped by their completely professional model that requires the purchaser to send in an impression of their ear for precise fitment. So, this should sound like a professional quality set of headphones, and they do.

In comparing these with the EX-71LP's, it's like apples and oranges. The UE's have a very well balanced sound that is tuned to accentuate tonal subtleties. You can fingers plucking strings where you hadn't before, you can hear the bass line more clearly, etc. The treble is not extraordinarily turned up and the bass isn't thumping. Everything is simply well balanced. If you want to crank up the treble or bass, those can be done through your source's equalization settings and these headphones will handle them, but in their untweaked natural state, they do a fairly good job putting out a very very clean balanced sound.

Vocals tend to come out right in center stage where they should be. They're not lost amongst tons of bass and treble like they are in the 71's. The imaging you get from these is astonishing.

Treble is not ear piercing, and it's probably slightly less crisp than I'd like for it to be. But at the end of the day, long term monitoring sessions will kill your ears so I'd rather listen to lower levels of treble so I can listen longer.

Bass is not heart-pounding, but it's present. It's enough for you to hear it and hear each bass note succintly, but it's not enough that you're going to say "wow, that's some good bass."

Again, the key here is that the monitors are well balanced. Not any one element on the EQ is overemphasized over the other. A properly adjusted source will help you emphasize or de-emphasize those elements if you wish. The headphone's job is to give you unadultered sound the way the artist intended.

Earpieces
There are several different earpieces that come with the unit. I'm recalling by memory but I believe there are 3 sizes of silicone ear buds (small/medium/large), one set of foam ear buds and one set that of silicone ear buds that are sort of doubled-up. The sound is different with each of these, and there will inevitably be one that fits you the best. I found that the standard medium ear buds fit the best and sound the best. Next up from that are the doubled up silicone ear buds which have very good sound isolation, but slightly decreased bass performance. The foam ear buds are actually pretty uncomfortable and feel very scratchy. The bass performance is pretty poor as well.

Cord
The cord is decent length and is made from a relatively kink-free material. There are plastic tubes leading from each earphone to help keep the cord over your ear. There is also an adjuster that lets you draw the two earphones together closer. The real nice thing about the cord is that it's removable and replacable! That means you can get a longer cord and/or if your connector ever gets messed up, you can get a new cord real easy. I can't tell you how many headphones I had to throw away after I rolled my chair away from my mixer a little too far and yanked the cord too hard causing it to disconnect.

Case
The all metal case is pretty nice looking. It's got a bottom compartment for holding the earwax cleaner, sound attenuator, and 1/8th inch to 1/4 inch phono adapter. The top compartment is supposed to hold the headphones but it doesn't work very well. Although it does a great job winding up the cord, the compartment in the center doesn't hold the headphones very well because the plastic loops leading from each headphone are too rigid and cause them to stick out. I'm afraid of breaking them or causing them to lose form if I just smash the cover over them so it takes a awhile to get them stuck in there just right.

Cons
There are only two problems I had with the UE's:

1. The metal case doesn't fit the headphones very well.

2. Identifiers for Left and Right are almost impossible to see. I had to put a piece of tape on my left headphone just so I know which is which.

Final Thoughts

These headphones retail for $250 and people think I'm crazy for buying them. But, I'm a musician and I use these for performing live and casually listening to my iPod. So to me, I get more than enough uses out of them. Whether the $250 investment is worth to you is a question of how much you love sound quality. If you've got the means to spend this much on a pair of headphones, I'd also suggest looking at the other in-ear headphones and maybe even the Bose headphones if you don't mind big cans on your head. These will never replace my studio monitor headphones I use for mixing and recording, but they're a great portable solution. By the way, these do not provide enough sound isolation for recording, unless you keep the volume levels down. Otherwise, these are an excellent choice.

Note: I bought mine on ecost.com for $181 on sale. They have them on sale every once in awhile so be on the lookout.