*Reserved for update and remold of my UE Super.Fi 5
EB's*
Sent them off to China on August 30th. Hoping they'll arrive either Friday or Saturday.
Set Arrived in China September 29th. Wow, talk about a looong mailing.
Modifications complete October 27th. Asked me for final artwork and payment.
EB's sent via fedex October 29th. Expecting delivery November 2nd. That will be a little over 2 months total from start to finish.
EB's arrived indeed on November 2nd. Been doing listening and now its time to give what some of you all have been waiting for.
ULTIMATE EARS SUPER.FI 5EB RESHELL REVIEW
Alright guys, I've put about 10 hours of listening into these guys to bring about this review. I've listened to them incessantly yesterday and this morning while also getting some pictures together. First lets start with the pictures:
Hmm. I wonder what's inside?
A bag full of goodies!
Well.. The low end looks good but the high end? Heh.. It's definitely improved over the original shelling still.
Hey! My impressions came back to me! But they've been cut in half! Hey, I wonder whats in that black container?
Aw Jeah! Hello angels, you look very lovely today.
See all the goodies here. The 16mm dynamic driver, the balanced transducer, and the little crossover. Wires still look finer and more brittle than the hairs inside my ear.
Lookin' Good!
Seru is written in Kanji on the right IEM. Seru is the translated name of my girlfriend. Other side says Sexy.
Alright so I know some of you want to know how it is. Well firstly the build quality is spot on. There's no problems with appearance and the fit is *perfect* (right a little more so than the left). The dynamic driver looks almost shoe horned in though and appears to have barely fit. That's ok though because they *were* able to get it in. There is indeed also a hole at the bottom of each IEM to control bass. I had to look for it to find it. It's a rough hole though, no smoothness around it. Definitely an afterthought once they probably tested them before shipping would be my guess. Some might like to know that the socket is attached physically to the housing. No more socket pulling out with the cable like what caused this whole mess in the first place.
The cable is completely portable. The black vienna is probably the best choice cable of the bunch. The connector is *really* nice although it looks kind of rough where the wire goes into the 3.5mm jack connector. This cable has ZE Phone written on the Y splitter like the purple storm. I'm starting to think all these cables are just outsourced ZE Phone cables since they are a Beijing company.
The biggest thing. I didn't realise how much better the fit would be on these. The EBs are such a heavy IEM that they would slip out and lose seal with the lightest movements. I kept reaching for my $20 clip ons for quick listening because they were so frustrating to get right. Not so with these. Being my first custom they took time for me to learn how to insert but now its litterally 2 seconds to put in each, and the fit is perfect. I worked out with them yesterday and they dont go anywhere. It's truly remarkable and by far the best thing about doing this. I've fallen in love with them all over again. For anyone getting an EB I say go ahead and reshell. It makes the experience *so* much better.
Now for the sound. Now let it be disclaimed that I in no way am saying these are neutral. They aren't. They are still a *very* warm sounding IEM (just look at that frequency graph). Most of the improvements came from simply having a better seal. But the bass is much more controlled, and most of the muddiness is gone. The transducer does it's work more easily now and the IEM sounds much closer to neutral while still giving me the bass depth I need for my music preferences. For tight bass forming a beat I used La Roux In For The Kill. Great new band btw. Anyways, the beat was much better, it had that tight punch without being as sloppy as it was before. For rolling bass I used Muse's Hysteria and their new Uprising. Again the bass was MUCH better controlled and not near as muddy.
For movie tryouts I used the anime Gunslinger Girl as its a high quality sounding DVD that features many different kinds of weapons. The footsteps, gunshots, and other tapping sounds were alot more solid and defined. I used Afro Samurai Resurrection due to it being Blu-Ray. Again, the transducer works alot better here with the diaphragm more clearly displaying its power in explosions while the transducer is able to flex its muscles in the various sword dances throughout the movie.
The downside is that I should have picked red artwork rather than silver. I thought he diaphragm was going to be black on both sides. My bad. Red would have showed much better and with this writing I can't get the artwork hardly to show on camera. Just in person.
These IEMs are so much improved. The EBs really needed it. They went from an uncomfortable, muddy, but powerful IEM to a comfortable, tight, and more refined IEM that still provides the bass punch that we bought these for in the first place. These IEMs will probably benefit from the reshelling more than most will, and I definitely recommend it just for the improved fit alone.
Thats it for my reviews guys. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I'm very new to this
EDIT: Oh, and don't mind the time stamps, the date on my camera is messed up. All pictures were taken 11/2/2009.
About Cables.
I'm reposting this up here so other people can see it without swimming through this thread.
MaoDi may wish to copy this information into his first post for informational purposes. I received pictures of all the available *custom* cables last night so I can put a picture to the words on the order page.
I'll order them from cheapest to most expensive. All cables are 1.2 meters long and are available in black in addition to the color shown.
Cable 1. The Weiguang
Looks and feels very similar to the original black UE cable. Costs a mere 150 Renminbi or a few cents short of $22 USD.
Cable 2. The Purple Storm
Yes, lavender, not purple
I've heard from another user here that the cable sounds a bit bass heavy, though whether or not the average user would notice or not I wouldn't know. Costs 290 Renminbi or roughly $42.50 USD.
Cable 3. The Pastoral
The prettiest cable to me. Bit thicker. But I think it's the best choice of the bunch because the braid design gives it the flexibility of the purple storm, while at the same time the cable doesn't appear to produce the "heavy bass" effect that the purple storm has be told to. Also comes with a convenient clip to keep the cable from tugging on your IEMs. Costs 360 Renminbi or roughly $52.75 USD.
Cable 4. The Vienna
Thickest cable of them all. Pretty much non-portable. Comes in a nice big-bird of sesame street yellow. At least black is still available
Costs 480 Renminbi or $70.30 USD.
NEW PICTURE
Vienna Black
The cable I ultimately ended up with since they didnt have the pastoral available upon order completion. Doesnt klook near as bad as the yellow vienna.
