Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5

The Super.Fi 5 come with a small plastic box with rounded edges. The included silicon tips are typical Ultimate Ears quality: thick and sturdy, yet soft and comfortable, with no injection mold ridges. Due to the thickness of the silicon material they might isolate a tiny bit more than thinner tips, but this might also depend on one’s ear canal shape. All in all, their isolation is pretty much average, same level as most other canal-phones out there provide.

Contrary to the older dual driver Super.Fi 5 Pro and EB variants, the new Super.Fi 5 use single armature drivers to reproduce audio. Time doesn’t stand still; armature technology is getting better, so it must not be a bad thing having fewer drivers in a phone. The Phonak Audéo for example shows that a single armature can even surpass some dual- or triple armature phones in certain aspects. In general the new SF5 don’t have to fear the comparison to their more expensive dual driver siblings in the SF5 range. The one detail where the new SF5 completely stomp all over the older SF5Pro and SF5EB (as well as the Super.Fi 3 and Triple.Fi 10, for that matter) is comfort and fit. My personal opinion is that the SF5Pro and EB are the most uncomfortable and anatomically incorrect phones ever created. Their designers appear to never have seen a human ear in their life, which resulted in phones that are – both form- and comfort-wise – a blend of Lieutenant Uhura’s humongous “communicator” earpiece in Star Trek and the head screws of Frankenstein’s monster.


As strange as it seems, the Super.Fi’s armature drivers need some time to settle down. I was honestly shocked how muddy and clogged they sounded right out of the box, but they got better over time – a lot better. After a few hours of listening they sounded fine – something I experienced with only one other armature phone before, the Shure SE530. Usually armatures don’t change their sound characteristics, but as it seems there are exceptions to this rule. Maybe it’s not only the phones but also the listener’s brain that “burns in” and gets accustomed to the new sound. In any case – give them some time; don’t judge them by their sound after the first few minutes you listen to them.

Ultimate Ear’s claim that the SF5’s bass goes down to 15Hz is of course not true, the bass starts at about 27Hz. This is good enough, since portable players (and even professional sound cards) usually can’t reproduce frequencies below 20Hz anyway (and hardly any music track contains frequencies below 30Hz).



So… who are the Super.Fi 5 actually made for? Ultimate Ears’ claim of the SF5 being made for “fashion minded consumers who listen to a variety of music genres” seems about right. In my opinion the SF5 are a good upgrade for people who used some of the inexpensive, higher quality dynamic driver phones like the V-Moda Vibe, MylarOne X3i, or people who want a less analytic, sterile sound than the q-Jays, Etymotics, or similar ones provide. The Super.Fi cater to people who like an “euphonic” loudness curve style that works well with portable players. They are tuned for “fun”, not for analyzing sound waves – which clearly must not be a negative thing, depending on one’s personal taste.

If you’re fed up with your dynamic driver earphones’ lack of instrument separation, dynamics, punch, or treble, but also don’t want overly analytic phones that aren’t “exciting” to listen to, then you should take a good look at the Super.Fi 5. They are really nice performers in general. Maybe not the best choice for critical listening, mixing, and mastering – but great for enjoying music on the go. All in all, they’re really precise compared to dynamic driver earphones and they’re really fun sounding for single armatures. Over the last few weeks I have grown to like them a lot - in my book they're a keeper.

source by anythingbutipod

13 comments:

  1. wow.. barang baru ya sob?
    keren banget ni!
    kira-kira berapa harga nya?
    thanks info nya...!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @kwangkxz
    thanks for coming :D

    @abe
    thanks bro ^^

    @belly
    makasih kembali sob ^^
    agak mahal sih,,nyampe 7 digit nih T-T

    @Z tech
    yahuuu

    @RS mata aini
    sama2 :)

    @able
    thanks bgt sob :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3 Studio earphones' cable is too short for tall users.

    dsi r4

    ReplyDelete
  4. assalamualaikum,
    sudah lama saya tidak berkunjung ke blog Anda
    ternyata postingan demi postingan semakin menarik saja
    saya merasa sangat ketinggalan tidak mengikuti update postingan Anda :)
    semoga kunjungan saya kali ini kembali mempererat silaturahmi
    ohya, sekedar mengingatkan, banyak postingan baru di blog saya
    saya tunggu komentar Anda di kangmusa.com
    terima kasih banyak atas postingan yang bermanfaat ini
    wassalam

    kangmusa

    ReplyDelete

 

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