Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 4 Sound Isolating Earphones

Reviews: Multimedia

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Cameron Baker
Kurtis
Ultimate Ears
Sep. 29, 2008

Specifications

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Comfort & Design

I'll start out by saying that these are, by far, the most comfortable in-ear headphones that I have ever experienced. I've tried Sony EX-71's, both the standard and (older) in-ear Apple buds, and Shure SE110 and SE210 pairs, and these have every single one beat in the comfort department. Like I said before, they weigh nothing, so they don't notice when they are hanging from your ears. You can wear the cable straight down or over the back of your ear; I preferred the over-the-ear method, as I experienced less cable noise when doing so.

My ears are sized between a small and a medium tip on most phones I have tried out, and the mediums provided by Ultimate Ears seem to fit just right. I also had great luck using the dual-flange tips to get a slightly better seal, but the difference in sound quality was negligible. The silicon is quite a bit softer than that of my Shure tips, and they just slide right in. No forcing. Your mileage may vary, but I was - and am - in heaven every time I pop the super.fi 4's in.

It's probably a good thing that the silicon tips are comfortable because they consistently came unattached from the earphones and remain in my ears when I would take them off. I had to push the barrel of the headphone body into the tip, reattach, and pull slowly to remove them. This was an awkward inconvenience.

Even though the tips are softer than average, I still wish Ultimate Ears would have included some foam tips to allow for more fitting options. This is listed as part of the "fit-kit" for the super.fi 4's on their website, but I found only the tips described in the last section. Foam tips can give many people a better seal and they are much easier to adjust to when moving to an in-ear headphone.

I also wouldn't mind an adjustable length cable so attaching to a microphone or remote wouldn't leave you with too much cable to handle. I used to order Sony "SL" buds from overseas when I couldn't find them here just for that purpose.

Sound Quality

Sonically, the super.fi 4's perform very well for a set of phones in this price range. They have a pretty smooth low-end profile, providing a good amount of bass that doesn't overpower you. They do a good job in the mid and high ranges as well, giving you a nice, all-encompassing sound profile that went great with all types of music I listened to while testing.

Compared to my Shure SE210's, the UE phones represented more of a jack-of-all-trades role. The Shures were a little more detailed to my ears, but they lacked the warmer low-end I found in the super.fi 4's.

If you combine the huge comfort advantage with sound that really pleases across the board, I'd choose the Ultimate Ears earphones to fill most of my listening duties throughout the day. These really are some of the best headphones I have experienced in a long while.

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Page 1: Introduction, First Impressions
Page 2: Comfort & Design, Sound Quality
Page 3: Conclusion

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