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Ultimate Ears Loud Enough Review
First Impressions: Well they look rather nice and not terribly horrible to remove from the box. Oh I like that the little case is a lovely blue (rather than the crappy dark colour UE normally give you.) What I see that I don’t like is that looking carefully it would appear that the big long “strain relief” is nothing of the sort. Yes that’s right folks it’s not attached to the cable. UE what the F! Someone care to tell me what the hell you were thinking?
Btw the review so far contains pretty much everything positive I have to say about these.
Source: 1G iPod shuffle (you know the one famed for being very powerful)
Lows: Meh, yes it has them, they are so so. When I listen to them for a little while I begin to think oh they aren’t so bad you know. Then I stick the Brainwavz Alphas in my ears and realise they slaughter the Loud Enough’s. Okay maybe slaughter is too strong a word but you get the idea, they aren’t anything special. What is good is that there isn’t a boat load of it like on most low end things.
Mids: Like the lows, it’s so so, nothing to hate or to love. Naturally there is no sibilance and jumping out at you so that’s probably got to be taken as plus points. The clarity over all is just disappointing.
Highs: Urgh, I’m not sure it even has any. I guess this is to prevent anything being harsh on a small child’s ears so I’m not going to claim this as a failing. Given the target market this is probably a plus. Nothing harsh here whatsoever.
Comfort: Was fine for me.
Fit: I assume these are little dynamic drivered things but I never got any driver flex noise happening but what I did note is that they can be a little air pressure sensitive. A build up of pressure and sound gets worse. What I don’t get is why these wouldn’t be vented given their target market. That is just idiocy.
Microphonics: I can’t say I found it overly to be a problem but a child moving about will get plenty.
Isolation: Quite a lot really. Why god only knows but with these in no child is going to hear traffic, kersplat goes the child. On the bright side they won’t be distracted by other noises either or have to turn things up loud to hear the music. Not that they could anyway.
Build quality: Aside from the idiotic strain relief issue they do look and feel pretty nice and the little case is really quite nice.
Accessories: Erm well it has that little case and a bunch of tips, really what else do you need.
Value: Well I got these for £10 and I see them going for between £15 and £18 now and really I can’t say these are good value based on their audio quality. Granted these have the special feature of being super quiet but with that strain relief or lack thereof they are not going to last hugely long.
Volume: This is what the Loud Enough exists for, it just doesn’t go loud. The 1G Shuffle can actually drive it louder than I want to listen to. Oh and they distort horribly if you force them loud. The 1G shuffle is a rare beast with a powerful amp so
Conclusion: The Loud Enough’s are a marketing department creation. Frankly it’s a badly implemented creation. Why is in not vented? Just what the hell were you people thinking making them so closed. Do small kids need isolation to block out the noise of a busy commute? The ones who may well do are going to probably not be wanting these, have a look at their site and you will realise its clearly being aimed at young kids. Their website has a bunny rabbit on it. These do manage to make things quiet enough so that the child wont me able to deafen themselves as they are rather quiet. Actually they are very quiet. So if you’re worried about your child blasting music then these will solve that problem. So would buying an impedance adapter and using that. Of course the child could figure out how to remove that though.
The Loud Enough’s are a product I want to like and I rather like the idea but it’s been implemented by idiots. That strain relief is a joke, do you think you can tell a child “no no, you have to pull them out by the plastic not the cable” yeah cause that will work! The other problem is the lack of venting and as a secondary issue caused by that is the isolation. So your child can yank the cable and burst their ear drums before being pounded into a pancake shape because they didn’t hear that bus hurtling towards them.
I don’t actually know if I will give these to my nephew as I intended, largely due to the pulling the cable and bursting his ear drums issue. (note I’m not saying it actually will burst someones ear drums just that i suspect and fear it might.) I just lack the confidence that the product is a safe one to use. So all I can really say is Ultimate Ears, FAIL!
First Impressions: Well they look rather nice and not terribly horrible to remove from the box. Oh I like that the little case is a lovely blue (rather than the crappy dark colour UE normally give you.) What I see that I don’t like is that looking carefully it would appear that the big long “strain relief” is nothing of the sort. Yes that’s right folks it’s not attached to the cable. UE what the F! Someone care to tell me what the hell you were thinking?
Btw the review so far contains pretty much everything positive I have to say about these.
Source: 1G iPod shuffle (you know the one famed for being very powerful)
Lows: Meh, yes it has them, they are so so. When I listen to them for a little while I begin to think oh they aren’t so bad you know. Then I stick the Brainwavz Alphas in my ears and realise they slaughter the Loud Enough’s. Okay maybe slaughter is too strong a word but you get the idea, they aren’t anything special. What is good is that there isn’t a boat load of it like on most low end things.
Mids: Like the lows, it’s so so, nothing to hate or to love. Naturally there is no sibilance and jumping out at you so that’s probably got to be taken as plus points. The clarity over all is just disappointing.
Highs: Urgh, I’m not sure it even has any. I guess this is to prevent anything being harsh on a small child’s ears so I’m not going to claim this as a failing. Given the target market this is probably a plus. Nothing harsh here whatsoever.
Comfort: Was fine for me.
Fit: I assume these are little dynamic drivered things but I never got any driver flex noise happening but what I did note is that they can be a little air pressure sensitive. A build up of pressure and sound gets worse. What I don’t get is why these wouldn’t be vented given their target market. That is just idiocy.
Microphonics: I can’t say I found it overly to be a problem but a child moving about will get plenty.
Isolation: Quite a lot really. Why god only knows but with these in no child is going to hear traffic, kersplat goes the child. On the bright side they won’t be distracted by other noises either or have to turn things up loud to hear the music. Not that they could anyway.
Build quality: Aside from the idiotic strain relief issue they do look and feel pretty nice and the little case is really quite nice.
Accessories: Erm well it has that little case and a bunch of tips, really what else do you need.
Value: Well I got these for £10 and I see them going for between £15 and £18 now and really I can’t say these are good value based on their audio quality. Granted these have the special feature of being super quiet but with that strain relief or lack thereof they are not going to last hugely long.
Volume: This is what the Loud Enough exists for, it just doesn’t go loud. The 1G Shuffle can actually drive it louder than I want to listen to. Oh and they distort horribly if you force them loud. The 1G shuffle is a rare beast with a powerful amp so
Conclusion: The Loud Enough’s are a marketing department creation. Frankly it’s a badly implemented creation. Why is in not vented? Just what the hell were you people thinking making them so closed. Do small kids need isolation to block out the noise of a busy commute? The ones who may well do are going to probably not be wanting these, have a look at their site and you will realise its clearly being aimed at young kids. Their website has a bunny rabbit on it. These do manage to make things quiet enough so that the child wont me able to deafen themselves as they are rather quiet. Actually they are very quiet. So if you’re worried about your child blasting music then these will solve that problem. So would buying an impedance adapter and using that. Of course the child could figure out how to remove that though.
The Loud Enough’s are a product I want to like and I rather like the idea but it’s been implemented by idiots. That strain relief is a joke, do you think you can tell a child “no no, you have to pull them out by the plastic not the cable” yeah cause that will work! The other problem is the lack of venting and as a secondary issue caused by that is the isolation. So your child can yank the cable and burst their ear drums before being pounded into a pancake shape because they didn’t hear that bus hurtling towards them.
I don’t actually know if I will give these to my nephew as I intended, largely due to the pulling the cable and bursting his ear drums issue. (note I’m not saying it actually will burst someones ear drums just that i suspect and fear it might.) I just lack the confidence that the product is a safe one to use. So all I can really say is Ultimate Ears, FAIL!
(or open it up and solder in an impedance adapters guts)
