[paseawright]

I have been reading Head-fi a bit over the past few months, which I think is going to hurt my wallet

I used to use cheapy earbuds, but getting a Walkman phone that came with low end IEMs converted me. For the past year and a half I have been using CX300s. I love them - comfortable, I like the J cord and the "sub woofer in your ear" quality of those and the Walkman ones which made me love IEMs in the first place. However, reading Head-fi, I reckon I could do better....

So I think I want Super.fi 5 Pros. Do you agree or should I be thinking about others? I only ask as £100 still seems like a slot of cash considering I spent less than £20 on the CX300s. Going anything over this would be too much I reckon.

Source will mainly be laptop in the office. I will be pulling them in and out of my ears a lot to talk to people, which the CX300s are great for. Occasionally I will use them with Zen Stone Plus on the move. Would rather not need an amp (sorry audiophiles!). I mostly listen to indie, rock and electronica (my last.fm profile - HERE).

I am UK based and will probably be buying online. Other things I have spotted:
Klipsch Custom 1 for £50 (bargain?) or Custom 2 for £100
Ety ER6i for £60 (I think reputed lack of bass will annoy me)

 

[Scott549]

The Super.fis are a significant upgrade from the CX300. I had an issue with the comfort, though.

 

[callanish]

T-500 comply foamies help the comfort issue. As for driving them at 21 ohms you should have no issues with needing an amp. The end result going from Cx300's will be a lot more clarity in sound, less bass, but less boomy bass which is a good thing. Overall, the Super-fi 5 pro's will be a big improvement. The only issue that's been mentioned is the comfort level and getting a good seal with with the UE's. I found the comply T-500's to be a good way to solve both issues.

 

[paseawright]

Right, so I got my Super.fi Pros today. A bit undecided if it was money well spent so far...

For comfort they are not as bad as everybody makes out. The tips that come with them are hard. Not very nice at all. The bi flange was probably the best fit for me, but hurt my ears after a few tracks. Foams were lovely, but given the amount I will be pulling them in and out of my ears at work will cost me a fortune in the end. Reckon I will try some T-500s though*. At the moment I am using them with my medium CX300 tips which I am well used to. They are a good bit softer than the UE tips and are very comfortable. The cables over the ears seems very natural too, so as far as I am concerned equal in comfort to the CX300s.

Sounds wise - I think the bass thump of the CX300 has spoilt my ears. Mids and highs seem to overwhelm everything on these! To my ears they sound a lot more harsh - probably because the CX300s were hiding a lot of the detail. On pop and rock I miss the bass, but for more dancey where the bass is more natural to be there they sound fantastic. I think I need a while to get used to them more than anything.

* Any recommendations for cheap T-500s to the UK?

 

[dranoel4190]

yeah it really needs some getting used to especially coming from the cx300. i had mine for more than a year. but eventually i sold it because primarily of the fit together with the minor issue on the bass impact. now im using superfreqs and i got the bass that i really wanted

i would also suggest trying the cx400 and cx500. imo they are a great upgrade from the cx300. less bass (but more than the sf5pro) but more detailed than the cx300.

 

[coldpower27]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dranoel4190 /img/forum/go_quote.gif yeah it really needs some getting used to especially coming from the cx300. i had mine for more than a year. but eventually i sold it because primarily of the fit together with the minor issue on the bass impact. now im using superfreqs and i got the bass that i really wanted i would also suggest trying the cx400 and cx500. imo they are a great upgrade from the cx300. less bass (but more than the sf5pro) but more detailed than the cx300.

Hello there, I am new and just wanted to ask how do you find the Ultimate Ears Super Fi 5 compared to the Creative EP-630 as that is what I have now but am considering an upgrade to these in the 180-250 range.

So far I have my hear set on the UE Super.Fi 5 Pro, but is there any others in this price range worth considering?

 

[DARKHAVEN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paseawright /img/forum/go_quote.gif Right, so I got my Super.fi Pros today. A bit undecided if it was money well spent so far... For comfort they are not as bad as everybody makes out. The tips that come with them are hard. Not very nice at all. The bi flange was probably the best fit for me, but hurt my ears after a few tracks. Foams were lovely, but given the amount I will be pulling them in and out of my ears at work will cost me a fortune in the end. Reckon I will try some T-500s though*. At the moment I am using them with my medium CX300 tips which I am well used to. They are a good bit softer than the UE tips and are very comfortable. The cables over the ears seems very natural too, so as far as I am concerned equal in comfort to the CX300s. Sounds wise - I think the bass thump of the CX300 has spoilt my ears. Mids and highs seem to overwhelm everything on these! To my ears they sound a lot more harsh - probably because the CX300s were hiding a lot of the detail. On pop and rock I miss the bass, but for more dancey where the bass is more natural to be there they sound fantastic. I think I need a while to get used to them more than anything. * Any recommendations for cheap T-500s to the UK?

I'm sorry you are dissapointed, but its no surprise the CX300 has more bass than the UE 5 Pros. The CX300s are very well known for huge bass. The problem most people have with the CX300s is although they have a very large quantity of bass, the quality is very poor. Muddy, bloated, inaccurate, and blurs the other frequencies. You're ears have been trained to this, so naturally the UEs will sound harsh, they are not. If you think those are harsh, you should try Etys... Anyway, since you are a bass-head (I am too), I would recommend two headphones if you can afford them. Get rid of your UE 5 Pros and get the UE 5 EBs. These are the extended bass version of the UE 5s and will be much more toward your liking. They are also cheaper then the Pros. If you want huge bass with overall fantastic sound throughout all the frequency range, get the Atrio M5/M8. The Atrios are your best bet, far and away. Final suggestion if you can't spring for either of those two is get the Sennheiser CX500s, they offer better overall quality than the CX300s. If it were me, I would go with the Atrio M5s, without a doubt. Cheers!

 

[Motty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paseawright /img/forum/go_quote.gif Right, so I got my Super.fi Pros today. A bit undecided if it was money well spent so far... For comfort they are not as bad as everybody makes out. The tips that come with them are hard. Not very nice at all. The bi flange was probably the best fit for me, but hurt my ears after a few tracks. Foams were lovely, but given the amount I will be pulling them in and out of my ears at work will cost me a fortune in the end. Reckon I will try some T-500s though*. At the moment I am using them with my medium CX300 tips which I am well used to. They are a good bit softer than the UE tips and are very comfortable. The cables over the ears seems very natural too, so as far as I am concerned equal in comfort to the CX300s. Sounds wise - I think the bass thump of the CX300 has spoilt my ears. Mids and highs seem to overwhelm everything on these! To my ears they sound a lot more harsh - probably because the CX300s were hiding a lot of the detail. On pop and rock I miss the bass, but for more dancey where the bass is more natural to be there they sound fantastic. I think I need a while to get used to them more than anything. * Any recommendations for cheap T-500s to the UK?

I also went from the cx300 to the super-fi pro (although I did stop off at the shure e2c on the way), and I found the super-fi pro to be an upgrade over the cx300. Yes there is less bass than the cx300 but the bass is more refined and the mids and highs are better.

On the comfort issue there are a couple of things you could try: the first is to try the flip mod where the cables are detached and switched to the other driver, in essence you put the left driver in your right ear - there is a whole thread here http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/ult...e-help-275161/). And the second thing is to try alternative tips like the comply tips or the shure balck olive mod. These tips *may* improve comfort for you, but everyone is different.

oh and "welcome to head-fi, sorry about your wallet".

 

[paseawright]

Thanks DARKHAVEN and Motty.

I don't think I am disappointed with them a week and a half in. A definite upgrade, I think I just needed a bit more time to listen to them and get used to the differences.

I almost think I should have stopped off somewhere in between on the way to them. I might have to keep an eye on eBay and see if any good value CX500s or Atrios come up to do some other comparisons.

Comfort I am sorted for - find them great using the CX300 tips or some cheapy ones I got from eBay. They are good enough that I wonder what others don't like about them! (Apart from the horrible standard tips.) Got some t-500s on order, so looking forward to trying them too.

 

[DARKHAVEN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paseawright /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks DARKHAVEN and Motty. I don't think I am disappointed with them a week and a half in. A definite upgrade, I think I just needed a bit more time to listen to them and get used to the differences. I almost think I should have stopped off somewhere in between on the way to them. I might have to keep an eye on eBay and see if any good value CX500s or Atrios come up to do some other comparisons. Comfort I am sorted for - find them great using the CX300 tips or some cheapy ones I got from eBay. They are good enough that I wonder what others don't like about them! (Apart from the horrible standard tips.) Got some t-500s on order, so looking forward to trying them too.

It's funny, but I am sort of the same way. I bought the SE530s and Triple.Fis, and now I want a pair of Atrios and maybe even Etys. The fun part of this hobby (obsession) is that each pair of headphones gives you something different, a different sound and feel. To me, there is no such thing as "I bought the best IEMs out there and now I'm done." We work up to the best, and then come back down to the middle and so it goes...

 

[paseawright]

I am loving the Comply tips with the 5 Pros. Make them even more comfortable. They give me a more perfect seal which helps with the bass and seems to give them a softer sound.

For everyday use I think I am going to have to stick with the silicon tips though, and they are easier to insert and remove, which I end up doing a lot at work.

 

[paseawright]

Well after using them for a few weeks now I stuck in my CX300s to see how they now sounded to me. They sounded awful! Half the music seemed to be missing, and I was turning them up to try to hear parts of the music that is clear as a bell with the SF5p.

So I am pleased the upgrade was worth it.

 

[wicker_man]

The comments in this thread are helpful, I used to use CX300s and wanted to upgrade to something a step up in sound quality, but when they broke, I purchased some JVC Marshmallows temporarily while I decided what to go for.

I liked the comfort and bass of the CX300 (although I did think it was a bit muddy too), and also the behind-the-neck cord, but not many 'higher end' (compared to CX300) have that style cord. I was considering the UEs (most likely used or from the US because they were over my budget) and also some older Shure e3c or e4c (but they apparently lack bass) and newer SE210 too, along with Mylarone X3i from Jaben.

I still haven't decided yet, ideally I would like to test potential purchases but unfortunately I don't know anywhere locally where I can.

 

[oarnura]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paseawright /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well after using them for a few weeks now I stuck in my CX300s to see how they now sounded to me. They sounded awful! Half the music seemed to be missing, and I was turning them up to try to hear parts of the music that is clear as a bell with the SF5p. So I am pleased the upgrade was worth it.

I had the same experience with the JVC fx66. Once you go to the UE (super.fi 3s) you miss the bass then your ears get used to the clarity and real bass of the UEs. Once I tired the JVCs back after a few weeks with the UE just to compare, I realized how crappy they were.

Enjoy