Ultimate Ears Ue-5c: 2005 Stereophile Recommended Components - A List

[Welly Wu]

I received my subscription copy of the April 2005 Stereophile today and they just ranked the Ultimate Ears Ue-5c in their A List of recommended components for headphones and headphone accessories on page 118. A very concise excerpt:

"They offered excellent isolation from external sounds, were easily comfortable for long listening sessions, and combined a smooth midrange and mellow highs with addictive, larger-than-life bass. 'Highly recommended,' concluded JA." (Vol.27 No.12 WWW)

 

[funnytimes]

cool, what were the other recommended headphones/headphone amps?

 

[Welly Wu]

The usual list - HeadRoom BlockHead & MAX, Benchmark Media Systems DAC1, Grace Design Model 901, Musical Fidelity X-Can V3, Sennheiser HD-600, SHURE E5c, Sugden HeadMaster. They rank the Grado SR-60 as C but it has $$$ and a star next to it meaning that it is of particular value for the money.

So, the Ultimate Ears Ue-5C = A List. I wonder when John Atkinson is going to review the Ultimate Ears Ue-10 PRO...

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welly Wu I wonder when John Atkinson is going to review the Ultimate Ears Ue-10 PRO...

That would seem like a no brainer to me, because I'm sure he would get to keep them!

 

[TooNice]

Is the UM2 anywhere on that list?

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welly Wu The usual list - HeadRoom BlockHead & MAX, Benchmark Media Systems DAC1, Grace Design Model 901, Musical Fidelity X-Can V3, Sennheiser HD-600, SHURE E5c, Sugden HeadMaster. They rank the Grado SR-60 as C but it has $$$ and a star next to it meaning that it is of particular value for the money. So, the Ultimate Ears Ue-5C = A List. I wonder when John Atkinson is going to review the Ultimate Ears Ue-10 PRO...

That's interesting, I remember reading an impressions thread on the Musical Fidelity X-Can and it didn't stack up too well against the SR-71, which is a fraction of its size.

 

[some1x]

Was it X-Can original or V3? Also, MF seems to be quite popular with most of the magazines....

 

[purk]

Quote:

Was it X-Can original or V3? Also, MF seems to be quite popular with most of the magazines....

The X-Can is V3, and stereophile seems to like it a lot in order to give the Class A recommendation. I, however, feel funny that the X-Can V3 is in the same class as the Max and Blockhead.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by some1x Was it X-Can original or V3? Also, MF seems to be quite popular with most of the magazines....

The list refers to the V3, and so does the impressions thread I was referring to.

 

[rsaavedra]

I went to the Ultimate Ears website and found a list of clients, pretty impressive:

http://www.ultimateears.com/clientele.htm

Interestingly, the top model (UE-Pro) measurably has a listed response of up to 16 KHz. After that the upper-most treble plumets, not "rolled-off" but basically nonexistant, see chart at bottom of this page:

http://www.ultimateears.com/UE-10_PRO.htm

This is not puzzling after all, since also measurably, most adults can't hear above 16 KHz. Also, logarithmically speaking, the range 16Khz - 20KHz is just 3.33% ( 1/30th ) of the complete audible spectrum.

More importantly, in that same chart the response of the UE's appears very commendably flat all over from the lowest bass up to those 16Khz, in fact way flatter than responses of Shure's and Ety's as reported by Headroom's graphs.

PS. Finding pretty amusing the fact that Headroom describes the UE-10 Pros as "Perfect Headphones", still listing the Etys ER-4S as "World's best sealed headphone"

.

 

[Welly Wu]

Marketing slogans...hey, I don't begrudge anyone from earning a living too!

 

[toaster]

i wonder if sensaphonics will be making their headphones available through headroom as well.

 

[Blitzula]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsaavedra PS. Finding pretty amusing the fact that Headroom describes the UE-10 Pros as "Perfect Headphones", still listing the Etys ER-4S as "World's best sealed headphone" .

Ah, Headroom. UE10: "The perfect headphone". ETY 4S: "The world's best sealed headphone". HD-650: "Simply the world’s best headphone."