Pros: Big bass, crisp sound, comfortable, replaceable chord
Cons: Bass heavy sound is not for everyone, ear placement can be tricky
The Bottom Line: With its stronger lows, crisp sound, and comfortable fit, the Super.fi 5 EBs are a good choice for people who want a strong bass listening experience.
kyuushu's Full Review: Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 EBâ„¢ Professional Headph...
The Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 EBs are a good choice if you want a bass-laden sound experience. With its strong bass, it works well with devices that typically lack bass - such as the Ipod and other MP3 players.
I have to admit, as much as I love my Ipod, the bass it produces with most earphones is rather weak. To compensate for this shortcoming, I've always tried to use earphones that produce stronger bass. The Super.fi 5 EBs are built just for this purpose. What's more, the over all sound is excellent - sounding clear and crisp. Needless to say, if you like Hip Hop, Rap, Electronica, House, or a style of music in which bass plays a key part, these earphones will definitely make your music sound that much stronger. On the flip side, if you would rather have a more balanced sound, these are probably not for you.
The Super.fi 5 EBs are what I would consider expensive - as they go for about $180-$200. But if you use earphones as much as I do (for work and for lesiure), then getting a good pair is well worth the money. Still, you might be wondering how much of a difference there is between a pair of "cheap" earphones and the Super.fi 5 EBs. The difference in this case is pretty significant. Up until a month ago, I've been using the Sony MDR-EX75 earphones which typically costs about $30-$50. While these weren't exactly "cheap," they are still considerably less in cost than the Super.fi 5 EBs. The Sony earphones sound pretty good for their price, and in some cases better than more expensive earphones. Like the Super.fi 5 EBs, the Sony earphones are heavy on the bass and are ideal for the Ipod. But there is a massive difference when you compare their sound. The Sony earphones sound good, but the Super.fi 5 EBs are much more crisp - with a higher definition in sound and clarity. When using the Super.fi 5 EBs, songs that you've heard millions of times before sound new and even better. When I first put on the Super.fi 5 EBs, I listened to Bob Marley's live performance of "Woman Don't Cry." This song sounded good on the Sony earphone already, but with the Super.fi 5 EBs, I could hear the treble notes from the cymbals and the deep sound from the bass guitar much better. It sounded like a different song almost - so much more clear than what I heard on the Sony earphones.
One of the questions I had with these earphones was whether or not they would sound good with other devices. I tried them on a Creative Muvo Mp3 player, an Onkyo Home Theatre system, a Samsung HDTV, and on two seperate windows-based PCs. I watched videos, listened to many types of music, and played video games with them. All in all, the bass was definitely much more pronounced - and in the case of my stereo system, the bass was a bit too much. So the lesson here is these Super.fi 5 EBs are probably best suited for Ipods and other devices where the bass is weak. For general purposes, they might be a bit too bass-heavy for most people. Indeed, if you consider yourself a person who wants a more balanced sound out of your earphones, the Super.fi 5 EBs are not for you. My wife thinks they are too base-heavy, while other people say they sound great. It's all a matter of taste. In my case, I really like that bass boost these provide.
Because the Super.fi 5 EBs use two sound drivers per ear, the earphones themselves are a bit larger than what some people are accustomed to. This means they are slightly heavier as well. To help the earphones fit better in the ear, each earphone's chord is molded into a hook-like shape near the base of each earphone. You simply wrap this hook-shaped part of the chord around your ear when wearing the earphones (the chord is stiff here, but it is still maleable). It can be tricky to do the first few times you wear the Super.fi 5 EBs, but it doesn't take long to get the hang of. Once they are in your ears, the feel pretty good, and if not, you can always try the different sized ear fittings that are provided.
Another point of concern is the relatively short chord the Super.fi 5 EBs use. At 46 inches long, it is just long enough so that I can have the Ipod in my pant's front pocket and the earphones in my ears without much excess slack. For someone who is short in height (5 4"), this is actually a good thing since it lowers the tendency of the chord to snag on something as I move about the house. But if you are over 6 feet tall, you might need an extention chord if you wanted to have your mp3 player in your pants pocket and still wear the earphones at the same time.
Included with the package is an assortment of silicone ear fittings that you often find with other earphones. They come in 3 sizes: small, medium, and large. They also include one pair of foam-type ear fittings which fits much better than the silicone, but wears out over time (at which point you could just by some cheap replacement foam fittings). Ultimate Ears also includes a a sound-level attenuator - which is basically a small plug adaptor that prevents sound from being too loud (useful when plugging the earphones into something in which the audio level is unfamiliar). There is also an earpiece cleaner as well as a metallic carrying case. Lastly, if you happen to damage the chord, you can seperate it from the earphones and replace it ($25 from Ultimate Ears). This is a nice feature if you are afraid of spending a lot of money on earphones only to have the chord go bad quickly. But you shouldn't worry about that as the chord, as well as the earphones themselves are built with sturdy materials.
So if you're in the market for some higher end earphones that are bass-heavy, these should definitely be ones to consider. Although they may sound a bit too bass-heavy with certain devices, they do improve the sound of Ipods and other mp3 players that lack strong bass output.
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