[marone]

A few beginning points. I am in my mid-50's and have never used any device with IEM or ear buds. Never owned an iPhone or all that. Always listened to music with 'on' or 'over' the ear full size phones. I had a portable rig with an original Sony Walkman in 1980 but I only used it on the bus with the (terrible) small over the ear phones of the time and at home to keep from waking the parents. So having something in my ear canal is, and has always been for me, what earplugs are for. I have no hearing above 14khz. I have owned AKG240's and DT880's, classic versions.

I am going up the scale of positive reviews here buying as I go along and a write up of the UE 500 perked my interest, so I bought them after the SuperLux 668b that I have been listening to for the past 6 weeks.

No good way to say this, I really don't like the sound from these.

Listening to my usual demo tracks as well as just anything I like and these sound terrible. Thin. No bass. No lower mid-range. No upper extended treble.Limited sound-stage. They have a very pronounced upper mid and lower treble shelf but no extended treble and my hearing above 13.5khz is completely gone so I don't know what those of you who can hear to 18khz would think of these.

Lower mid range and down is suppressed. The frequency response sounds like a tilted table with the ends cut off.

Female Jazz vocal, rock, hip hop, Post-rock, all sound too thin. Gershwin seems to sound better but the lack of bass and extended treble was readily heard even on that track.

In addition, the sensation of something plugged into my ear canal is very unwanted. I can hear myself breathing with these things inserted. Fit is very snug but extremely sensitive to balance and frequency response. If one side is slightly loose or not in the correct and/or mirror image position, balance and sound-stage are totally altered to the negative.

I just got them today and they have only burned in for a few hours, so perhaps future listens will be better..

Packaging and shipping were good. Solid foam form to keep it in place as well as a clam-shell case to carry them around in. Well made, well constructed, but the cable could be more robust and an easier way to identify L-R would be appreciated by my poor eyesight.

Perhaps this is 'The IEM Sound' or a burn-in issue or the contrast with the 668b's, but I am rather dismayed by the sound of these so far today.

They are burning in on female vocal jazz, and I will revisit them tomorrow.

 

[marone]

I wore them again today and could not tolerate them for more than 3 or 5 minutes. Clearly this product line is ill-suited to me and my tastes, so my review won't be that helpful.

I find the UE500 to be bright, little bass, but a flat FR other wise. They are good upgrades from standard, stock and airplane IEM and iPhone, etc. and would be best on classical as their forwardness in the upper mids and lower treble would present as 'vivid' or 'detailed' with strings and woodwinds, and their lack of bass would not be missed. Soundstage seems, at this point, to be 'OK' but the 'in the head effect' really bothers me.

I can feel the air pressure in my ears increase on loud and bass heavy passages and really do not like this. I can hear myself breathe and hear the air in my Eustachian tubes. Sometimes I can hear the pulse in my ears. All of these effects are undesirable.

This is a personal preference and this may be desired by IEM owners. The isolation is very good, but I find it annoying.

They are earplugs that emit sound.

Even on the rare occasions that I travel and want to listen to sound from my mobile phone, I do not enjoy it and the IE aspect bothers me and I pull them out after 10 minutes. I prefer to be engaged with my environment rather than isolated from it.

They definitely DO sound better than stock issue, but listening to music on the go has very little appeal to me.

Conclusion:
A good upgrade from stock, especially if your musical tastes are towards Classical music or Jazz. They seem to be a decent value for the money. Build quality is good for an IEM.

Not for bassheads, in fact bad for anyone who likes bass.

 

[stainless824]

You may have gotten a defective pair. My impressions are the ue500 is much more bass tilted than the likes of ue900

 

[tinyman392]

I'd check and see if you: 1) have a proper seal (use the Sensaphonics Seal Test) and 2) don't have a defective pair.  The UE 500 is an extremely bass-heavy phone.

 

[stainless824]

Agreed. They are anything but what you've described.