Big D
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 1, 2004
- Posts
- 578
- Likes
- 10
[size=medium]INTRODUCTION[/size]
This will be my first proper Head-Fi review so I have tried to keep the word count down and would appreciate all comments and constructive criticism! My opinions are expressed below and may not match yours... blah blah blah!!
The UE-10 Pro is Ultimate Ears top of the range product costing around $1000 inc. audiology fees. Designed for the recording studio and professional on-stage use it is starting to become popular as an audiophile canalphone. I will be looking at how it performs and comparing to the Etymotic Research ER4, plus Shure E5.
I have previously owned the Shure E2c, E3, E5, Ety ER4-P&S, and Sony MDR-EX71 canalphones. Most of the testing was done with the UE-10 Pro directly out of my iRiver iHP-140 (wav files only), but also using my Pioneer VSX-C301 home amplifier.
[size=medium]MUSIC[/size]
Main testing tracks (note that not all are listed, only a selection of those I used to test)
Barber - Adagio For Strings
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
Catatonia - International Velvet
Christina Aguilera - Stripped
Coldplay - Parachutes
Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Counting Crows - Recovering The Satellites
Counting Crows - August And Everything After
Daft Punk - Homework
Daft Punk - Discovery
Faithless - Reverence
Faithless - Outrospective
John Williams - Star Wars Theme
Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Pulp - Different Class
Radiohead - OK Computer
Radiohead - The Bends
Stereophonics - Performance & Cocktails
U2 - The Joshua Tree
[size=medium]ORDERING FROM THE UK[/size]
Being the first person to order from the UK on Head-Fi I thought I should document how easy it has been to get the phones.
First of all I contacted Mindy Harvey at Ultimate Ears by e-mail. I received a reply within 2 hours answering all my questions. All in all I must have sent 20 e-mails to Mindy and Sherry at Ultimate Ears and all were responded to the same day. This really does make transatlantic shopping a breeze! I must have changed my order between the UE-5c and UE-10 Pro 5 or 6 times, yet Mindy and Sherry were always polite, helpful and happy to change things (however much I was irritating them!!)
The audiologist UE recommended was based in London, but as I live 100 miles away I got them done locally. Just use the Yellow Pages to find an audiologist but they should cost between £20-40 for two sets of impressions (in case one set is better). Remember to print out and take the Getting Impressions information to the audiologist.
I then sent these by Royal Mail Airsure (£6.99) in a pre-paid bag to Ultimate Ears in the US and they arrived in working 4 days. No courier could even get near that price. It took 12 days for the phones to be made and dispatched. I decided to have them sent to a friend in the US who then shipped them onto me, which is a slight risk. Marking down the value to eliminate import duty, which would have been around £110, means that the item cannot be properly insured. I guess this is personal choice as to how much of a risk you wish to take though it has paid for a Xin Superdual Amp!!
It took about 4 weeks in total from having the impressions done to me actually receiving the finished product.
[size=medium]MATERIALS, FIT & ISOLATION[/size]
Materials
I ordered clear colour with clear cable and full soft option. As has been mentioned by others the name is a misnomer. The outer part is made of hard acrylic and definitely cannot be deformed in any way. Any part of the phones that touch the ear are made of a very slightly softer material. At room temperature the material can be very slightly deformed, though not by much, and it isn't as if you could easily scratch the material either. Once you have had them in the ear for about 15-20 minutes they have reached body temperature. The material still isn't that soft, but is noticeably more malleable and comfortable.
The build quality is excellent and the surface is very smooth all over. There is nothing to fault at all in the workmanship. On the inner surface of the phones is the serial number and my initials.
The cable is detachable and it isn't too much trouble to remove the cable from the earpieces. There is a choice of 46" or 64" cable lengths. The cable is very thin and braided but also very sturdy. Similar to the Shure E5 cable it has a short memory wire which makes reinsertion easier (for orientation) but also to reduce microphonics. Trust me that they do nothing to keep the phones in your ear - the fit sees to that! Another thing to note is that the memory portion is about half the size of that on the E5, but it is still as effective.
Fit & Isolation
The fit is truly incredible, as it should be with custom molded canalphones. I can break the seal only by opening my mouth wide or lateral movements of the jaw, as in chewing. Insertion is really easy, taking about 3 seconds when at room temperature but once at body temperature I can easily remove and reinsert. The time it takes is reduced down to 1-2 seconds.
These are rated to deliver -26dB of passive isolation and they certainly don't disappoint. I have used them to walk into the city centre a few times, but I only cross the road at pedestrian crossings for extra safety. Pulling on the tragus (the bit people pierce) will break the seal temporarily if you don't want to remove the phone, but want to hear outside noise briefly.
[size=medium]SOUND QUALITY[/size]
This is obviously the most important part of any canalphone review so I have broken it down into various components:
Vocals & Soundstage
This for me is the most interesting thing about these phones and I will mention it first. Somehow the vocals have been brought forward from everything else which gives the impression of the vocalist in front of the instruments, almost to the point they are singing right in front of your face. To me this gives added depth that I have never heard before from a canalphone. This is not to say that the other instruments are significantly recessed. If anything I have found that the forward vocals actually makes the instruments clearer than I have heard before.
Treble & Sibilance
The high frequency driver is in a class of its own. Each note is faithfully reproduced and notes blend into each other well. Violins and cymbals did have a little less decay than I would have liked, but this is nit-picking rather than a genuine complaint.
The issue of sibilance was brought up in Lindrone's review. At the time I hadn't heard any in my week long listening. Having seen his comments I set out to see if it was there to my ears with very careful listening. I have tried quite a few tracks, but finally found a single track that I can make out very occasional sibilance on. It was Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within. Most of this track is in the mid to treble range and is challenging for any ear/canal/headphone to reproduce well yet the UE-10 Pro still handles it competently.
Mid-Range
As I have already commented on vocals above I won't comment much further but to say that I do not notice any 2-4k hump in the sound that is shown on the frequency response chart.
Bass
Bass sound is probably the easiest to talk about of all the frequencies. With two bass drivers the UE-10 Pro should deliver earth shattering bass, right? Well not quite. Remember that these are reference quality canalphones not DJ gear!!
The UE-10 Pro can deliver very heavy bass, but only if you EQ it. The bass it does deliver unEQed is very good and is palpable in the ear, the reverberation is actually felt as well as heard. Not too much, but also not leaving you wondering where it is.
Drums sound just right though the sharper, snappier sound heard in the other parts of the sound is still there in the bass region. For me this sounds good because it doesn't swamp the sound with bass in some tracks. Daft Punk's Revolution 909 is an excellent track to test bass sound. The first 30 seconds has a very low frequency bass note repeated with background street noise over the top. This is the first phone I have owned which allowed me to clearly hear everything going on clearly. Another track to consider with a very low bass note is Faithless - Salva Mea.
Music
It is really easy to break music down into components, but it is how those components fit together that determines the quality of canalphones. The points I've mentioned before will come up again I am afraid!!
Every instrument can be separated when you listen closely, so the clarity is truly amazing, especially given the fantastic bass reproduction. There is a slight trade-off here as you can't have the clarity without a loss of decay. To me the trade off is perfectly balanced.
The UE-10 Pro adapt perfectly to different kinds of music. I could switch to a single piano playing Moonlight Sonata from a Faithless dance track without a thought that one is reproduced better than the other.
[size=medium]COMPARISON TO ETYMOTIC RESEARCH ER4 AND SHURE E5[/size]
If you have made it this far I am sure you can predict my comments here. To be honest this upgrade was inspired for my search for a canalphone with detail as good as the ER4, but with the Shure's more natural sound and better bass. The UE-10 Pro, to my ears, lives up to this remit and more.
My impressions of the ER4 were that they had bass which was very reliant on the seal. If the seal broke even slightly then the bass disappeared. While I might be kind enough to call the ER4 bass as adequate most of the time, there were many times when I wanted more, especially on dance tracks. The treble was also bright and harsh, with an overwhelming sense that the sound was forced and the analytical component didn't feel musical. On the other hand the E5 had fantastic bass, with a midbass hump that was necessary to give the listener a chance to hear something other than the deep bass! It took several days to get used to the sound of the E5. First impressions were that the treble range was virtually absent. When the treble finally arrived it was still significantly weakened next to the bass, however the E5 were very musical canalphones. Both of these however had very poor soundstage.
For me the UE-10 Pro have taken the best bits of these two models, made them better, and combined them into a single, albeit more expensive, package. Analytical, but still sounding musical, with each note blending into the next in a near perfect fashion. The bass is full but not overpowering and the high end is far more extended than the ER4 without being bright. I always felt with the Etys that it was pushing itself to the limit, yet the UE-10 Pro wants to show me more. I really feel the soundstage with the UE-10 Pro, and it is unlike anything else I've ever heard from canalphones.
I think that the UE-10 Pro would appeal to both ER4 and E5 fanboys/girls as an extension of either taken to the peak of performance. There is far more to it than just meeting in the middle as the UE-10 Pro are superior in every area than either of these phones.
[size=medium]FINAL COMMENTS[/size]
I think these canalphones are fantastic and I have no regrets in spending the £580 that they cost me. They deliver a neutral sound with crystal clear detail, but the sound is easily EQed if you so desire. In spite of their clarity these are very musical in nature.
I am waiting to hear them with a portable amp and when the Superdual Amp is delivered I will do a mini-review to compare with and without the amp.
If you have $1000 burning a hole in your pocket and you are looking for a custom fit IEM then these are unlikely to disappoint. For me they provide the pinnacle of sound quality.
Plus points
- Custom Fit ensures comfort
- Amazing sound
- Low impedance so easily driven by any source
Minus Points
- Very costly
- Not possible to trial or resell
This will be my first proper Head-Fi review so I have tried to keep the word count down and would appreciate all comments and constructive criticism! My opinions are expressed below and may not match yours... blah blah blah!!
The UE-10 Pro is Ultimate Ears top of the range product costing around $1000 inc. audiology fees. Designed for the recording studio and professional on-stage use it is starting to become popular as an audiophile canalphone. I will be looking at how it performs and comparing to the Etymotic Research ER4, plus Shure E5.
I have previously owned the Shure E2c, E3, E5, Ety ER4-P&S, and Sony MDR-EX71 canalphones. Most of the testing was done with the UE-10 Pro directly out of my iRiver iHP-140 (wav files only), but also using my Pioneer VSX-C301 home amplifier.
[size=medium]MUSIC[/size]
Main testing tracks (note that not all are listed, only a selection of those I used to test)
Barber - Adagio For Strings
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
Catatonia - International Velvet
Christina Aguilera - Stripped
Coldplay - Parachutes
Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Counting Crows - Recovering The Satellites
Counting Crows - August And Everything After
Daft Punk - Homework
Daft Punk - Discovery
Faithless - Reverence
Faithless - Outrospective
John Williams - Star Wars Theme
Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Pulp - Different Class
Radiohead - OK Computer
Radiohead - The Bends
Stereophonics - Performance & Cocktails
U2 - The Joshua Tree
[size=medium]ORDERING FROM THE UK[/size]
Being the first person to order from the UK on Head-Fi I thought I should document how easy it has been to get the phones.
First of all I contacted Mindy Harvey at Ultimate Ears by e-mail. I received a reply within 2 hours answering all my questions. All in all I must have sent 20 e-mails to Mindy and Sherry at Ultimate Ears and all were responded to the same day. This really does make transatlantic shopping a breeze! I must have changed my order between the UE-5c and UE-10 Pro 5 or 6 times, yet Mindy and Sherry were always polite, helpful and happy to change things (however much I was irritating them!!)
The audiologist UE recommended was based in London, but as I live 100 miles away I got them done locally. Just use the Yellow Pages to find an audiologist but they should cost between £20-40 for two sets of impressions (in case one set is better). Remember to print out and take the Getting Impressions information to the audiologist.
I then sent these by Royal Mail Airsure (£6.99) in a pre-paid bag to Ultimate Ears in the US and they arrived in working 4 days. No courier could even get near that price. It took 12 days for the phones to be made and dispatched. I decided to have them sent to a friend in the US who then shipped them onto me, which is a slight risk. Marking down the value to eliminate import duty, which would have been around £110, means that the item cannot be properly insured. I guess this is personal choice as to how much of a risk you wish to take though it has paid for a Xin Superdual Amp!!
It took about 4 weeks in total from having the impressions done to me actually receiving the finished product.
[size=medium]MATERIALS, FIT & ISOLATION[/size]
Materials
I ordered clear colour with clear cable and full soft option. As has been mentioned by others the name is a misnomer. The outer part is made of hard acrylic and definitely cannot be deformed in any way. Any part of the phones that touch the ear are made of a very slightly softer material. At room temperature the material can be very slightly deformed, though not by much, and it isn't as if you could easily scratch the material either. Once you have had them in the ear for about 15-20 minutes they have reached body temperature. The material still isn't that soft, but is noticeably more malleable and comfortable.
The build quality is excellent and the surface is very smooth all over. There is nothing to fault at all in the workmanship. On the inner surface of the phones is the serial number and my initials.
The cable is detachable and it isn't too much trouble to remove the cable from the earpieces. There is a choice of 46" or 64" cable lengths. The cable is very thin and braided but also very sturdy. Similar to the Shure E5 cable it has a short memory wire which makes reinsertion easier (for orientation) but also to reduce microphonics. Trust me that they do nothing to keep the phones in your ear - the fit sees to that! Another thing to note is that the memory portion is about half the size of that on the E5, but it is still as effective.
Fit & Isolation
The fit is truly incredible, as it should be with custom molded canalphones. I can break the seal only by opening my mouth wide or lateral movements of the jaw, as in chewing. Insertion is really easy, taking about 3 seconds when at room temperature but once at body temperature I can easily remove and reinsert. The time it takes is reduced down to 1-2 seconds.
These are rated to deliver -26dB of passive isolation and they certainly don't disappoint. I have used them to walk into the city centre a few times, but I only cross the road at pedestrian crossings for extra safety. Pulling on the tragus (the bit people pierce) will break the seal temporarily if you don't want to remove the phone, but want to hear outside noise briefly.
[size=medium]SOUND QUALITY[/size]
This is obviously the most important part of any canalphone review so I have broken it down into various components:
Vocals & Soundstage
This for me is the most interesting thing about these phones and I will mention it first. Somehow the vocals have been brought forward from everything else which gives the impression of the vocalist in front of the instruments, almost to the point they are singing right in front of your face. To me this gives added depth that I have never heard before from a canalphone. This is not to say that the other instruments are significantly recessed. If anything I have found that the forward vocals actually makes the instruments clearer than I have heard before.
Treble & Sibilance
The high frequency driver is in a class of its own. Each note is faithfully reproduced and notes blend into each other well. Violins and cymbals did have a little less decay than I would have liked, but this is nit-picking rather than a genuine complaint.
The issue of sibilance was brought up in Lindrone's review. At the time I hadn't heard any in my week long listening. Having seen his comments I set out to see if it was there to my ears with very careful listening. I have tried quite a few tracks, but finally found a single track that I can make out very occasional sibilance on. It was Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within. Most of this track is in the mid to treble range and is challenging for any ear/canal/headphone to reproduce well yet the UE-10 Pro still handles it competently.
Mid-Range
As I have already commented on vocals above I won't comment much further but to say that I do not notice any 2-4k hump in the sound that is shown on the frequency response chart.
Bass
Bass sound is probably the easiest to talk about of all the frequencies. With two bass drivers the UE-10 Pro should deliver earth shattering bass, right? Well not quite. Remember that these are reference quality canalphones not DJ gear!!
The UE-10 Pro can deliver very heavy bass, but only if you EQ it. The bass it does deliver unEQed is very good and is palpable in the ear, the reverberation is actually felt as well as heard. Not too much, but also not leaving you wondering where it is.
Drums sound just right though the sharper, snappier sound heard in the other parts of the sound is still there in the bass region. For me this sounds good because it doesn't swamp the sound with bass in some tracks. Daft Punk's Revolution 909 is an excellent track to test bass sound. The first 30 seconds has a very low frequency bass note repeated with background street noise over the top. This is the first phone I have owned which allowed me to clearly hear everything going on clearly. Another track to consider with a very low bass note is Faithless - Salva Mea.
Music
It is really easy to break music down into components, but it is how those components fit together that determines the quality of canalphones. The points I've mentioned before will come up again I am afraid!!
Every instrument can be separated when you listen closely, so the clarity is truly amazing, especially given the fantastic bass reproduction. There is a slight trade-off here as you can't have the clarity without a loss of decay. To me the trade off is perfectly balanced.
The UE-10 Pro adapt perfectly to different kinds of music. I could switch to a single piano playing Moonlight Sonata from a Faithless dance track without a thought that one is reproduced better than the other.
[size=medium]COMPARISON TO ETYMOTIC RESEARCH ER4 AND SHURE E5[/size]
If you have made it this far I am sure you can predict my comments here. To be honest this upgrade was inspired for my search for a canalphone with detail as good as the ER4, but with the Shure's more natural sound and better bass. The UE-10 Pro, to my ears, lives up to this remit and more.
My impressions of the ER4 were that they had bass which was very reliant on the seal. If the seal broke even slightly then the bass disappeared. While I might be kind enough to call the ER4 bass as adequate most of the time, there were many times when I wanted more, especially on dance tracks. The treble was also bright and harsh, with an overwhelming sense that the sound was forced and the analytical component didn't feel musical. On the other hand the E5 had fantastic bass, with a midbass hump that was necessary to give the listener a chance to hear something other than the deep bass! It took several days to get used to the sound of the E5. First impressions were that the treble range was virtually absent. When the treble finally arrived it was still significantly weakened next to the bass, however the E5 were very musical canalphones. Both of these however had very poor soundstage.
For me the UE-10 Pro have taken the best bits of these two models, made them better, and combined them into a single, albeit more expensive, package. Analytical, but still sounding musical, with each note blending into the next in a near perfect fashion. The bass is full but not overpowering and the high end is far more extended than the ER4 without being bright. I always felt with the Etys that it was pushing itself to the limit, yet the UE-10 Pro wants to show me more. I really feel the soundstage with the UE-10 Pro, and it is unlike anything else I've ever heard from canalphones.
I think that the UE-10 Pro would appeal to both ER4 and E5 fanboys/girls as an extension of either taken to the peak of performance. There is far more to it than just meeting in the middle as the UE-10 Pro are superior in every area than either of these phones.
[size=medium]FINAL COMMENTS[/size]
I think these canalphones are fantastic and I have no regrets in spending the £580 that they cost me. They deliver a neutral sound with crystal clear detail, but the sound is easily EQed if you so desire. In spite of their clarity these are very musical in nature.
I am waiting to hear them with a portable amp and when the Superdual Amp is delivered I will do a mini-review to compare with and without the amp.
If you have $1000 burning a hole in your pocket and you are looking for a custom fit IEM then these are unlikely to disappoint. For me they provide the pinnacle of sound quality.
Plus points
- Custom Fit ensures comfort
- Amazing sound
- Low impedance so easily driven by any source
Minus Points
- Very costly
- Not possible to trial or resell
