The Ultimate Ears 700 is one sweet sounding pair of micro earphones if you can pay the price of admission.
Sometimes you just want to enjoy your music during your daily commute but just can’t find peace and quiet even with your headphones on. Living in the city, there are myriads of sounds and noises that may disrupt your music listening experience.
Enter the Ultimate Ears 700 noise isolating earphones — a little wonder that is designed to deliver great sound quality and terrific noise-isolating properties that allow you to enjoy your music in peace.
While the name Ultimate Ears may be relatively new in the local scene, it has a long 14 year history of producing professional quality in-ear monitors for musicians.
Now part of Logitech, the veteran earphone maker is bringing its expertise to making high-end consumer grade earphones.
But are these premium pair of earphones all that? Let’s take a listen and hear how they fare.
Out of the box
Small and compact in design, the Ultimate Ears 700 (UE 700) is tiny in comparison with other earphones in the market. In fact, the metallic silver ear pieces themselves are roughly the size of a 10sen coin.
Granted these aren’t the type of earphones that will get you noticed but its small size makes it very portable and easy to stow away when not in use.
The earphones come with a handy carrying case, which keeps them from turning into a tangled mess in your pocket.
HANDY: The earphones come with a carrying case for storing them during travel. Also included are three pairs of soft silicon ear cushions of varying sizes to fit your for ears. The smallest set of ear cushions fit me well and it provided great sealing while keeping itself securely in place even when I was exercising or moving.
CHOOSE ONE: There are three pairs of soft silicon ear cushions of varying sizes to fit your ears. There’s an additional pair of soft foam tips that conform to the shape of your ear, which we found really comfortable to wear and provided much better noise isolation compared to the silicon ones.
It even comes with an attenuator which limits high-volume bursts such as instances when an airplane’s sound system switches from playing a movie to broadcasting the captain’s announcement.
The thing I liked best about the earphones is how well it isolates noise. Once you put it on, it is like stepping into a little soundproof room where you can enjoy your music uninterrupted.
Of course, the drawback to this is you can’t hear a thing around you, so its best to put them on when you’re not moving around.
In use
The UE 700 makes for a good pair of travel earphones because of its size. Even after wearing them for an hour I didn’t feel any discomfort in my ears.
The cable is sufficiently long enough that you can plug it into a music player in your pocket without it being stretched or pulled as you move about.
NIFTY: The earphones come with a sound level attenuator which limits high-volume bursts in an airplanes’s sound system. Trying on the UE 700 for the first time, I was completely blown away by the sound quality and accurate audio reproduction.
There is definitely a distinct difference in the level of sound quality in the UE 700 that I’ve not heard in other earphones I’ve used to date.
The earphone’s dual drivers certainly helped boost typically flat sounding tunes, adding a sense of depth and weight to them.
Music in general just sounded smoother and more full.
Selecting a few tracks from my music collection, I could definitely tell the difference between the UE 700 and my regular earphones.
Creed’s One Last Breath, an electric guitar heavy song that usually causes my earphones to sound muddy was crystal clear on the UE 700.
I have to say that I was quite impressed with the performance as I was able to hear every single instrument clearly without one overpowering the other.
Above all the music and instruments going off at once, the vocal quality in the songs was maintained. Coldplay’s Viva La Vida sounded quite true to life without any hint of distortion.
However, the highs came off particular harsh especially the crashing cymbals and at times even the vocals of particular songs.
Despite this, I particularly liked how the earphones handled the chorus that went on throughout the last third quarter of the song as it showed off the diverse vocal range capability of the earphones.
Speaking of vocal range, the UE 700 also performed particularly well when handling vocal duets, masterfully giving each voice room to perform in their own space.
For a more bass heavy track I fired up Greenkeeper’s Vagabond and came away pleased with the excellent “kick” the earphone’s lower register provided even though it wasn’t as full ranged or deep as a pair of headphones. Still, it is commendable for a very tiny pair of earphones.
In my jogging test, the earphones held up pretty well and kept in place even as I ran. However, there was a slight but noticeable tugging noise caused by the weight of the cable swaying as I worked out, which I found quite distracting.
Needless to say for the optimum listening experience, it’s best if you sit down and stay still.
Conclusion
All in all, the UE 700 is an excellent pair of earphones with solid build quality and an amazing audio performance for its size.
It makes for a good pair of travel earphones that provides superb noise isolation — great if you travel on long flights often.
However, the biggest stumbling block is the price — at RM999, you can get another a high-end music player such as an iPod touch.
Still, if audio performance is everything and you are prepared to pay top ringgit for the quality, you will get what you pay for with the Ultimate Ears 700.
Pros: Superb audio quality; comfortable fit; includes attenuator that limits sound bursts.
Cons: Expensive; distracting noise when performing strenuous activities; sounds harsh at the higher ranges.
ULTIMATE EARS 700
(Ultimate Ears)
Noise isolating earphones
Speaker type: Advanced dual micro armature drivers
Frequency response: 10Hz - 16.5kHz
Sensitivity: 113 dB SPL/mW, 1kHz
Impedance: 40 Ohms, 1kHz
Cable length: 46in
Weight: 11g
Connector: 3.5mm
Noise isolation: 26dB
Price: RM999
No comments:
Post a Comment