I can't say anything at all about soundstage. In all the cans I've owned I never noticed anything like soundstage, only the "sound located in the center of my brain" feeling. (Except on "Solsbury Hill," where I get the "sound located on alternating sides of the center of my brain
I bought the Sf5P the day before an emergency cross-country trip to my grandmother's funeral. So I wore them all the way on the flight from Seattle to Phila, wore them a few evenings while trying to go to sleep in the guest room at my parents' house (you know how it is with guest beds, yeah?), and all the way back to Seattle. I found the sound quality to be clear and excellent and it only had to be at volume 6-7 on my Zen Sleek to get amazing detail. Bass was not boomy but was definitely there; you can feel the bass thumps as opposed to just hearing them, but they are like sharp taps with a pencil rather than big thumps.
Ergonomically there were a few issues with the Sf5P: 1, the memory wire around the ear was a pain in the butt, because it never seemed to want to remember the right way to go. 2, the earpieces themselves stuck out too far from my ears. 3, the cord got very easily tangled. 4, Ultimate Ears charged me $13.30 shipping for a pack of 20 replacement foamies, and they sent it fedex. (Yeah, this isn't ergonomics, but economics, and it irritated me. Why couldn't they have used first class mail for 60 cents?)
Anyway, I returned them, mostly for the #4 reason above. At that time no other dealers had the spare foamies in stock so the only option was to order them from UE. And the foamies were the only tips that fit me well.
Soooo...I got the UM2, because everyone on Head-fi was starting to groove on them. The only real difference in sound quality was that I had to go to a slightly higher volume - 9 or 10 - to get the same level of detail in the music that I remembered from the Sf5P. After I'd found the appropriate volume level (with no EQ, contrary to what others on this board have posted), sq was
just the same as the Sf5p.
The cord on the UM2 did not tangle as easily, and the Comply foam tips were easier to squish down and insert than the UE foamies were.
But there were a few issues with them too: 1. The earpiece is VERY small compared to the Sf5P, and with my long fingernails I found them difficult to insert. (I actually sacrificed my nails so I could deal with the UM2.) 2, the Y-split in the cord was very high up, which means if you wear them with the cord in the front, you look like you're wearing a cheesy cowboy hat with a cheap chin strap. 3, the only tip option that came with these was the Comply tips, which meant another lifetime of buying foamies.
After I'd returned the UM2 I discovered that the Shure tips for E4 fit it, which would have been good to know!
Now that I'm back with the Sf5P I've started wearing them with the left one in the right ear and vice versa. This makes them not stick out so far. And I can grow my nails long again
I have this great pink nail polish that I haven't yet been able to use...
...and yes, I'm a girl!
Donna
