Unique Melody Remold Appreciation and Impressions Thread

Did you have to make another topic?

Oh well, the other one was a little long/messy.

*Reserved for update and remold of my UE Super.Fi 5 EB's*

Sent them off to China on August 30th. Hoping they'll arrive either Friday or Saturday.

Set Arrived in China September 29th. Wow, talk about a looong mailing.

Modifications complete October 27th. Asked me for final artwork and payment.

EB's sent via fedex October 29th. Expecting delivery November 2nd. That will be a little over 2 months total from start to finish.

EB's arrived indeed on November 2nd. Been doing listening and now its time to give what some of you all have been waiting for.

ULTIMATE EARS SUPER.FI 5EB RESHELL REVIEW

Alright guys, I've put about 10 hours of listening into these guys to bring about this review. I've listened to them incessantly yesterday and this morning while also getting some pictures together. First lets start with the pictures:


Hmm. I wonder what's inside?


A bag full of goodies!


Well.. The low end looks good but the high end? Heh.. It's definitely improved over the original shelling still.


Hey! My impressions came back to me! But they've been cut in half! Hey, I wonder whats in that black container?


Aw Jeah! Hello angels, you look very lovely today.


See all the goodies here. The 16mm dynamic driver, the balanced transducer, and the little crossover. Wires still look finer and more brittle than the hairs inside my ear.


Lookin' Good!


Seru is written in Kanji on the right IEM. Seru is the translated name of my girlfriend. Other side says Sexy.

Alright so I know some of you want to know how it is. Well firstly the build quality is spot on. There's no problems with appearance and the fit is *perfect* (right a little more so than the left). The dynamic driver looks almost shoe horned in though and appears to have barely fit. That's ok though because they *were* able to get it in. There is indeed also a hole at the bottom of each IEM to control bass. I had to look for it to find it. It's a rough hole though, no smoothness around it. Definitely an afterthought once they probably tested them before shipping would be my guess. Some might like to know that the socket is attached physically to the housing. No more socket pulling out with the cable like what caused this whole mess in the first place.

The cable is completely portable. The black vienna is probably the best choice cable of the bunch. The connector is *really* nice although it looks kind of rough where the wire goes into the 3.5mm jack connector. This cable has ZE Phone written on the Y splitter like the purple storm. I'm starting to think all these cables are just outsourced ZE Phone cables since they are a Beijing company.

The biggest thing. I didn't realise how much better the fit would be on these. The EBs are such a heavy IEM that they would slip out and lose seal with the lightest movements. I kept reaching for my $20 clip ons for quick listening because they were so frustrating to get right. Not so with these. Being my first custom they took time for me to learn how to insert but now its litterally 2 seconds to put in each, and the fit is perfect. I worked out with them yesterday and they dont go anywhere. It's truly remarkable and by far the best thing about doing this. I've fallen in love with them all over again. For anyone getting an EB I say go ahead and reshell. It makes the experience *so* much better.

Now for the sound. Now let it be disclaimed that I in no way am saying these are neutral. They aren't. They are still a *very* warm sounding IEM (just look at that frequency graph). Most of the improvements came from simply having a better seal. But the bass is much more controlled, and most of the muddiness is gone. The transducer does it's work more easily now and the IEM sounds much closer to neutral while still giving me the bass depth I need for my music preferences. For tight bass forming a beat I used La Roux In For The Kill. Great new band btw. Anyways, the beat was much better, it had that tight punch without being as sloppy as it was before. For rolling bass I used Muse's Hysteria and their new Uprising. Again the bass was MUCH better controlled and not near as muddy.

For movie tryouts I used the anime Gunslinger Girl as its a high quality sounding DVD that features many different kinds of weapons. The footsteps, gunshots, and other tapping sounds were alot more solid and defined. I used Afro Samurai Resurrection due to it being Blu-Ray. Again, the transducer works alot better here with the diaphragm more clearly displaying its power in explosions while the transducer is able to flex its muscles in the various sword dances throughout the movie.

The downside is that I should have picked red artwork rather than silver. I thought he diaphragm was going to be black on both sides. My bad. Red would have showed much better and with this writing I can't get the artwork hardly to show on camera. Just in person.

These IEMs are so much improved. The EBs really needed it. They went from an uncomfortable, muddy, but powerful IEM to a comfortable, tight, and more refined IEM that still provides the bass punch that we bought these for in the first place. These IEMs will probably benefit from the reshelling more than most will, and I definitely recommend it just for the improved fit alone.

Thats it for my reviews guys. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I'm very new to this

EDIT: Oh, and don't mind the time stamps, the date on my camera is messed up. All pictures were taken 11/2/2009.

About Cables.

I'm reposting this up here so other people can see it without swimming through this thread.

MaoDi may wish to copy this information into his first post for informational purposes. I received pictures of all the available *custom* cables last night so I can put a picture to the words on the order page.

I'll order them from cheapest to most expensive. All cables are 1.2 meters long and are available in black in addition to the color shown.

Cable 1. The Weiguang


Looks and feels very similar to the original black UE cable. Costs a mere 150 Renminbi or a few cents short of $22 USD.

Cable 2. The Purple Storm


Yes, lavender, not purple I've heard from another user here that the cable sounds a bit bass heavy, though whether or not the average user would notice or not I wouldn't know. Costs 290 Renminbi or roughly $42.50 USD.

Cable 3. The Pastoral


The prettiest cable to me. Bit thicker. But I think it's the best choice of the bunch because the braid design gives it the flexibility of the purple storm, while at the same time the cable doesn't appear to produce the "heavy bass" effect that the purple storm has be told to. Also comes with a convenient clip to keep the cable from tugging on your IEMs. Costs 360 Renminbi or roughly $52.75 USD.

Cable 4. The Vienna


Thickest cable of them all. Pretty much non-portable. Comes in a nice big-bird of sesame street yellow. At least black is still available Costs 480 Renminbi or $70.30 USD.

NEW PICTURE

Vienna Black


The cable I ultimately ended up with since they didnt have the pastoral available upon order completion. Doesnt klook near as bad as the yellow vienna.

Nice framework, MaoDi. Now lay some bricks.

They have a rep in Shanghai and it would be oh so easy to pick up the phone and remold my Triple-Fi's.

Call me sceptical but intrigued. Bring it on.

I guess I will post a review/impressions as I think I am one of the only ones who didn't get an extra driver with the TF10

Please note how the reshelling has affected the sound. I am looking into this process!

Scott, please do. I am not interested in adding an extra driver - just very curious how the remolding works out for SQ (and isolation) (and comfort) on the Triple-fi's.

Cheers,
Paul

Thanks, MaoDi. Please ignore my request in the old thread.

UM Remold TF10 Pro

Hello everyone its review time!!!!!!!!

Lets get the background straight. I loved the TF10 Pros. In fact I instantly knew that they would be my sound signature of choice once I heard them. I even had some fit problems, but I was able to get through all the problems after ordering some dual flanges. I went through trials with other top universal IEM's like the se530, Westone 3, and the IE8. All of them were more comfortable, none of them sounded as good. They were all in the area, but if you have ever been to a concert, a good rock and roll concert you know that the mids of the se530 are just not natural. What people have been forgetting is that the best pair of headphones reproduce sound as it is performed, not synthesized. Anyway, I came to the conclusion that if the TF10's were put into the shell of lets say the se530 instead of its Frankenstein esq shell then it would be the most popular universal IEM around.

I did not do this through sam, although I was in contact with him while my phones were at Unique Melody. I did this through Hi-Fi Taiwan, which actually ended up costing me a little more than it should have, but Sam would not get back to me at the time.

Here are some pics (sorry, only have a cell phone):




I have spent about a month with my custom IEM's and have been impressed by them every day. I had a pretty good fit the the TF10, but the sound coming from these is something different. Its like going from a fairly high end violin to a Stradivarius, the music is taken to another level. Nuances are there that had previously never existed. Hearing the string vibrate till it stop, even the flavor of the wood comes in the tiniest places. That's the difference between a universal iem and custom iem. It's not the overall sound that changes, its the many nuances. The sound is let louse. The artist can perform.

The sound stage expands. You would think that it wouldn't since the TF10's sound stage is pretty big for an IEM already, but this is definitely bigger and more detailed. The sound stage is about equivalent to The Denon D2000's if that gives you an idea. Pretty good even for a full size, but there are definitely better. If you guys have ever heard an HD800 through a headroom balanced, then you would know that sound stage on the D2000's is pretty small in comparison.

The mids. They are slightly less recessed than on the TF10 pro. I think this could be because the seal is so much better with the customs than the universal. I still wouldn't call them lush, but they do have some detail. They are nothing like the Westone 3 or the se530's mids.

Lows and Highs- The lows go deeper and the Highs stay about the same. The Treble extension is not as harsh, but just as detailed as the TF10 Pro. Really not much to say, but if you are a TF10 pro fan you will still get your upper and lower extension.

The Bass- Deeper, and has more impact. Fast.

Overall the sound is thicker, more detailed and refined than its universal brother. I am pretty happy with the purchase, and encourage others who are thinking about this to take the plunge if you are thinking about going away from the TF10 because of comfort.

Thanks for the review. Well written. I need to get my order in and my impressions made.

I too want to thank you for that review. Sam is FedEx'ing me my customs tomorrow, so by the end of the week I should have them. And your review made me very excited to hear them.

Right now, my BIGGEST worry is that they won't fit right, and that I'll have to go through the hassle (and cost) of sending them back.

MaoDi...what exactly are soundbores?

Thx