Let me give some input on the SE5 ult after several hours of listening/ABing.
The first few minutes I put them on, it was not hard for me to capture the sound signature of a "SE5 WAY", it's still that warm, smooth, spacious and natural sounding CIEM. The extension on both ends are still one of kind. So actually I didn't get caught up by this new toy honey moon felling, I guess I will not ever get that again. However it didn't take me long to hear the change/improvement over the SE5 ref.
SE5 ult vs SE5 ref:
The most significant difference is the mid section, specially upper-mid portion. It's being pushed back quite a bit, but still far from sounding recessed. The vocals are still very involving and lush. But it's not hard to find that this change in the mid section results in a more coherent, neutral, balanced, and accurate CIEM compared to SE5 ref. As a result, the treble, specially the lower treble is more pronounced, providing a better sense of airiness and transparency (for those who get the “closed”, "blocking" type of impression about ref, this will be solved to a large extent in ult). The focus of the instruments and vocals is a lot sharper with a greater sense of sparkle. So now the SE5 ult is fantastic for listening to music that is composed of more string-instruments (this doesn't mean it's bad at what SE5 ref is capable of doing at all) . To my ears that seems to be a reduction in the mid-upper treble region, and combining with the reduction in the upper mid, you will get a much CLEANER presentation than SE5 ref. You do not get the feel of this "overly presented micro detail" in the music with SE5 ref anymore (specially in the songs with careless and dirty mixing/mastering). This really impressed me, because it must take a lot of time and effort to get this right. The overall resolution and detail is on the same level as SE5 ref, though they are presented in a more accurate way to my ears. The width of the soundstage of SE5 ult didn't change much compared to SE5 ref. But the depth and front-to-back distance really increased due to the less emphasis in the upper-mid section. Thus you will feel the vocals on ult are more laid back compared to SE5 ref, but the overall fullness of the presentation improves, because on SE5 ref I do get the feeling of "thinness" in certain songs. The dynamic and ADSR is slightly better on the SE5 ult too. The bass of SE5 ult actually also sounds more neutral than SE5 ref (I know, it seems impossible to have improvement in every department in SE5 ult). There is a slight reduction in the sub-bass and a slight increase in the mid-bass. So not only you get the earth-quake type of rumble from SE5 ref, you also get a faster bass with better punch and texture. So overall SE5 ult is really smoother CIEM compared to SE5 ref, but not sounding brighter. The overall brightness of SE5 ult is again very dependent on the songs you play, I would say the overall brightness is similar to SE5 ref, it's just presented in different way. The brightness of SE5 ref is primary determined by its pronounced upper mid region, while the brightness of SE5 ult is from it's overall combination of upper-mid, lower and mid-treble. So if you listen to guitar music, ult is brighter, but if you listen to a vocal pop song, it might actually become warmer than before. So don't expect SE5 ult to sound like NT6. It's still a balanced, warm CIEM with perfect tuning for natural, realistic sound.
The best way I can describe SE5 ref vs SE5 ult is LCD 2 rev.1 (as ref) vs LCD 2 rev.2 (as ult). The change is not day and night, but it's definitely an improvement over the older version. But this all comes down to personal preference. I actually preferred LCD 2 rev.1 over rev.2 when I was comparing the two because I was too obsessed about its creamy/toxic vocals. This is exactly the case for SE5 ref vs SE5 ult. If you are those people who think the extreme "creamy, sponge type" of forward vocal defines how SE5 should sound, than you might like ref better than ult (like I did for LCD 2 rev.1). So the newbies might find that SE5 ult is less "characteristic" compared to SE5 ref, you might think it's a boring version of SE5 ref. But I think I am now more "mature" about what I want to hear in a CIEM, so now the important aspect for me is accuracy and neutrality which truly determines whether a CIEM is versatile and can play wider genres of music. So I will choose ult over ref. any day and I think ult is totally worth the extra 400 euro.
So well done Grzegorz! I don't know how you make a CIEM sound even better with less complicated design/procedure (from the way of how the electronic components are structured SE5 ult)
Will update more when I have more findings. So far I enjoy it very much!
