I remember having made an enthusiastic review about UE Triple.fi 10 Pro exactly two years ago, this very period of the year. Coming from cheaper stuff and not having experimented much with tweaks, and also having never heard (back then) serious stuff, I was very excited about their sound and gave them a very enthusiastic review (one of my first).
Two years of "education" later, my super-tweaked Altec Lansing were almost dead (cable issues) when the Amazon deal popped out, and thanks to a fellow USA Head-Fi'er I managed to buy a cheap Triple.fi VI to replace the Altec.
I wish to give some quick impressions, both about build quality and sound quality, and an equally quick overall comment.
The cable looks like crap. It's incredibly poor quality, it's thankfully very flexible but also extremely fragile, cheap at the tact, similar to that of Klipsch Image X10 but probably even more fragile. Two years ago, UE used to put on cables that were very stiff (horrible in this regard) but also very sturdy, which felt very expensive and nice looking. Aren't they able to make everything right? They must be saving a lot of money on the current cable, I don't know how much it will last on my pair, but I am disappointed.
Thankfully, due to the TF wearing style, it's not too microphonic and it's pretty flexible, so I don't hate it too much when walking.
Sound quality is disappointing. I am very impressed about how much IEMs have improved during the last two years. If TF10 came out now they wouldn't be allowed to cost more than 150$-200$.
The tone leaves something to desire: there is too much midbass prominence (reminds me to rubber balls hitting the floor), although not as nausea inducing as Altec Lansing in Bass mode (I used them in HD mode). The bass manages to be pretty deep and big sounding, but it's too prominent over the rest of the spectrum. The midrange is more recessed than I remembered using complys, vocals are a bit too far away (a few rows behind), they don't involve me much. Treble isn't too prominent as I was lead to believe when I had my second pair matched with an iMod and Minibox E+ (bg not burnt in and minibox' own charater made the overall sound very sibilant), it's on the soft side and not distracting. Often sound subdued actually, but overall it's pretty acceptable. The soundstage is pretty good for a IEM, microdetails aren't anything to write home about when using mp3 players (I was using Sansa Clip), but scale impressively when using them out of a serious DAC. Soundstage scales well too out of good sources and amplification. Unfortunately, the tonal flaws are too apparent and apply to basically any kind of music, spoiling a lot of it.
General comments? They aren't better than my Altec HD mode + Long comply tips (40$) nor the Head Direct RE252 (200$). I'd say the Triple.fi are an acceptable listen for a 100$ tool, but they need to revise their regular price since in today's IEM market, putting them at 379$ is not too fair to the buyers.
Two years of "education" later, my super-tweaked Altec Lansing were almost dead (cable issues) when the Amazon deal popped out, and thanks to a fellow USA Head-Fi'er I managed to buy a cheap Triple.fi VI to replace the Altec.
I wish to give some quick impressions, both about build quality and sound quality, and an equally quick overall comment.
The cable looks like crap. It's incredibly poor quality, it's thankfully very flexible but also extremely fragile, cheap at the tact, similar to that of Klipsch Image X10 but probably even more fragile. Two years ago, UE used to put on cables that were very stiff (horrible in this regard) but also very sturdy, which felt very expensive and nice looking. Aren't they able to make everything right? They must be saving a lot of money on the current cable, I don't know how much it will last on my pair, but I am disappointed.
Thankfully, due to the TF wearing style, it's not too microphonic and it's pretty flexible, so I don't hate it too much when walking.
Sound quality is disappointing. I am very impressed about how much IEMs have improved during the last two years. If TF10 came out now they wouldn't be allowed to cost more than 150$-200$.
The tone leaves something to desire: there is too much midbass prominence (reminds me to rubber balls hitting the floor), although not as nausea inducing as Altec Lansing in Bass mode (I used them in HD mode). The bass manages to be pretty deep and big sounding, but it's too prominent over the rest of the spectrum. The midrange is more recessed than I remembered using complys, vocals are a bit too far away (a few rows behind), they don't involve me much. Treble isn't too prominent as I was lead to believe when I had my second pair matched with an iMod and Minibox E+ (bg not burnt in and minibox' own charater made the overall sound very sibilant), it's on the soft side and not distracting. Often sound subdued actually, but overall it's pretty acceptable. The soundstage is pretty good for a IEM, microdetails aren't anything to write home about when using mp3 players (I was using Sansa Clip), but scale impressively when using them out of a serious DAC. Soundstage scales well too out of good sources and amplification. Unfortunately, the tonal flaws are too apparent and apply to basically any kind of music, spoiling a lot of it.
General comments? They aren't better than my Altec HD mode + Long comply tips (40$) nor the Head Direct RE252 (200$). I'd say the Triple.fi are an acceptable listen for a 100$ tool, but they need to revise their regular price since in today's IEM market, putting them at 379$ is not too fair to the buyers.
