Speechless.....save up, borrow, beg or steal but buy a pair now!

After much deliberation, and hours spent reviewing in-ear monitors for my 32Gb Ipod Touch, I finally took the plunge and bought the Super.Fi 5 Pro in black, and boy am I happy I did.

I had narrowed my choices down to Shure SE420's, UE's Triple.fi 10 and a new brand called Sleek Audio who have released a model called the SA62's. I am not an Audiophile, but really appreciate clear, vibrant and powerful music so I had to fold up my Sennheier PX100's and make my choice.

Naturally these models each hit a different pricepoint, and therefore I chose on the bang per buck basis. The previous reviews on Amazon kind of reaffirmed what I thought, and that was that UE's range offered studio quality, great customer service and although not a budget model, their Super.Fi 5 Pro's seemed to be the best match.

Everything you need comes in box, with a wide range of different sleeves, and foam covers, 3.5" jack etc. I tried the pre-fitted mid-size sleeves and thought I had the best fit possible, that was until I replaced them with the foam sleeves, which although they feel cheap do a much better job, as they expand to fit your canal and completely remove any outside noise. The choice is yours.

So, the million $ question, how do they sound?

Well after just an hour of listening to various types of music, from Ian Brown to Faithless, Radiohead, Elbow and Foo Fighters I am lost for words, they are truly stunning and I will never look back. I can only imagine what their custom IEM's sound like.

Don't worry about not having enough bass, as there is bucketloads. I will update this review once I have tried them with my Arcam Solo Movie to see whether there is any difference from 256kbp Mp3 over CD - I expect there will be :)

These IEM's are streets ahead of my admittedly high expectations, buy them now and see what you've missed out on.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Bose what are you doing!

Recieved these earphones for £50 & thought i was getting a bargain; FAR FROM IT! The in ear design is uncomfortable and takes getting used to which shouldn't be the case, Sound quality is not what you expect, i have an Audi with a Bose system and the sound is great, earphones however are a different story, the volume is equalised so that if you are in a noisy environment the volume has to be at the highest; not what you want leading to the question why have the awkward ear design? Overall i'm not going to promote purchasing these earphones as there are plenty of other examples on the market that do a better job and give value for money. I recommend The Sennheiser CX300 they have lasted me 2 years and the quality is unbelievable (look out for fakes), may purchase CX300 again or the Shure 500, Be clever don't fall for brand reputation as these are a let down!

=/

As soon as i recieved these headphones i noticed they were huge, although that has so far been the only problem. They have superb sound quality and a very comfortable fit and i would definatly recommend them. Only downside is i feel like they stick way to far out from ear.

amazing

I came across these headphones years ago have not found anything better of this type at any price, (not for won't of wasting money, why Sony sell more expensive models that sound far inferior I will never know.)I own a pair of Sennheiser HD600 £180 audiophile phones and have to do a quick a b comparison to hear any difference the Sennheiser sound slightly smoother.

sennheiser pxc350 Vs pxc450

I as usual ummmed and arrrhhed over which set to buy the pxc450s at £169 (sorry Amazon not from you on this occasion) or the pxc350s at £107 from Amazon (excellently priced). I opted for the pxc350 as my impression was that the overall quality between the two would be the same in terms of headphone coils and sound with the only difference being the circuitry of the noiseguard.

Ok so first test i was in my office and they are a noisy bunch always shouting down the phone AND CREATING GENERAL DISTURBANCE. I work below an aircon unit too so i put this on and put the cans on. I used my sony minidisc as I wanted a decent signal without too much compression to test the range. With noiseguard off the sound is unimpressive and of course noise gets in, however with noiseguard switched on the aircon sound went and i couldnt hear the office noise just the pure music which sounded fantastic in fact i found myself missing the noise of the colleagues and found myself taking them off so as not to miss to much office banter. The next test was on the train home where i used my archos to listen to war of the worlds again the noise of the train disappeared. Next a film on the train now this is a different kettle of fish as the sounds are all shifted at one end of the spectrum with voices however Arthur and the invisibles did not disappoint the headphones allowed me to enjoy the film excluding the train noise, excluding the women a seat across me on her mobile and all the kids swearing. This morning I caught the train and listened to war of the worlds now i couldnt hear the train and sometimes opened my eyes as i wasnt sure if we were moving or not then i fell asleep and woke with my mobile vibrating. The point here is that the headphones worked fantastically and it was as if i wasnt on the train I mean you can feel the movement but not all the noise. I have no doubt that on a flight will be the same all the external noise will go. These phones are true to their claim that they get rid of most of the noise 85% I mean to me it seemd all or most of the external noise went so I dont see much gain in buying the more expensive pxc450s however I have not tried those the only perceivable difference is that the 450s have the voice pass through facility so you can talk without removing the headphones but lets face it its polite to remove them if someone is speaking to you.
Pound for pound the 350s are excellent and will offer better value for money and if you think what else is available at £107 then these are miles in front of the competition. purely impressive technology contained in a well robust and"sexy" looking headset. Ok you have to get used to the sets being over your ears and they feel warmer but you get a superb sound true to the original and if the batteries run out ok you will be disappointed at the sound but I bet you run off and get a spare set of batteries. The case is well made and the phones fold flat for storage. you have space for batteries in the case and the aircraft adaptor and 6.5mm adaptor too. Dont hesitate buy them I cannot recommend them enough as Sennheiser have put everything into these.

a rip off, yet we still buy them

yep, these are a rip off, they should come in packs of 6 in a specific size as you know what size your ears are after you bout the headphones in the first place and they came with a pair of each size to try.

However, these are cheaper than Shure equivalents, then again Sony is not in the same price bracket as Shure either. It's really annoying paying £4 per piece of usable rubber (for my ears) yet, these headphones (phontopias) are really good for the money, I just better look after the rubbers better!

Useless cheap earphones

I have to say that I think these earphones are totally useless. Very tinny lacking any sort of bass definition. Admittedly, I am something of a purest, but I really think that the only positive thing you can say about these earphones is that they are better than the Apple Ipod ones. If you want some decent in the ear headphones, buy the Creative Zen ones. They are about a tenner more, but are a different ball park in terms of quality.

Poor

If you listen to alot of music then don't buy these. Very poor sound quality and not suited for even a moderately noisy environment. Volume has to be turned up high and even then they're quiet.

Great sound, dreadful mistake with cable length!!!

These headphones deliver great sound for the price - but I cannot understand why they are supplied with a really short cable - a fatal error.

Unless Seinnheiser think that their market is joggers that wear very light mp3 players on there sleeves, it is a huge error. They then provide an extension cable with a heavy dongle. This means that if you are the 90% (I would imagine) of people that need to use it, your ears get weighed down by said dongle.

This error of judgement is compounded by not supplying a clip to alleviate the weight on the ears problem. I contacted Sennheiser customer support to find out how to get hold of a compatible clip. I was given details of two suppliers of spares. Both told me that no such clip exists - good work Sennheiser customer support - an annoyed customer then given details for suppliers that don't actually have a clip anyway - therefore more wasted time. When I emailed the customer services person back, nothing - am I surprised? no.

Well, this is the first Sennheiser product I've ever bought - could well be the last.

Great headphones

Excellent quality headphones at a good price!

Great range with good battery life. Works around a lot of wireless equipment with no problems.

I have only two minor issues about this product, The headphones can open up on the band around the head which makes them slip a little. This could have been addressed to have been a more adjustable strap. The headset could have been incorporated into the base unit so the batteries could charge when not in use. Other than that, a product that does what it says on the tin.

Passable if your signal is strong

1) Not very sensitive. I live near High Wycombe, not I think an area of high signal strength, but hardly out in the sticks. The unit sometimes struggles to auto-tune, and reception is somewhat hissy. It is necessary to position the radio relative to the phones (i.e. to your head) carefully to get reasonable reception. I judge it adequate for listening to speech while sitting down, marginal for music, and not acceptable for use with the radio in the pocket while moving about.
On the other hand, the phone cable can never be the ideal aerial and I am not sure that any FM"personal radio" can perform wonderfully except very close to a transmitter. I had a similar, much more expensive (Sharp) personal radio that did better, but far from perfectly.

2) Change the batteries and it seems to forget all its pre-sets and the time unless you are very quick. Battery life is not great, but the good news is that it runs fine on (NiMH) rechargables! An interesting feature is that when the batteries run down it does not switch itself off - the sound simply cracks up. Once you have got used to it, this is maybe better - you are not cut off in mid sentence or song. However, I do not know if this means that it runs the batteries down lower than is good for rechargables.

3) The unit detects signal strength and switch to stereo when it is high enough. There is no way of over-riding of this. Stupidly, the levels at which it switches in and out of stereo seem identical (no hysteresis). So, disconcertingly sometimes switches in and out of stereo at a rapid rate if the signal is marginal - most disconcerting. The designer should be shot - no make that politically correct - fired.

So my overall verdict is passable for quite a cheap unit, if its limitations are acceptable. (They seem to have made quite al lot of changes to cost and P&P lately - I paid significantly more for both - rats!)

Pleasantly surprised

After looking for a splitter I came across this one, that thankfully, has separate volume controls (had been wondering whether these had been made. No I don't get out much). Neat. I suggest that if you do not own in-earphones then you should purchase a pair as I tested the sound quality of my headphones and found that even with the volume control up to the max the sound was very poor. Absoulutely perfectly the same quality if you were to plug your earphones straight into your ipod/MP3. Maybe it was just my headphones, I don't know...yet. The packet says for all ipods but I've just purchased a Sony MP3 and plugs in like a dream.

Excellent Value for Money

Firstly, these earplugs are the perfect compliment as an upgrade to the standard Apple earbuds.

They are very comfortable, good at sound isolation though for the price the isolation is not as good as one would expect from the more expensive Shure or Eytomic range. That said they are perfect for commuting and gym use.

I mainly listen to neo-soul, 80's and 90's hip hop/rap, r&b and rock/pop. As such having good bass response is of paramount importance for my musical taste. The KOSS Plug delivers awesome bass in buckets, mid-range and treble also very clear. When listening to a good tune you have no choice but to start nodding your head as the sound supplied by the KOSS Plugs is very infectious. There's no need to use the EQ at all

I also had a Sennhieser CX 300 which is very comparable. The Sennheiser's are more of a natural fit for my ears and the bass is a bit more tighter more controlled compared to the KOSS Plugs. I personally prefer the KOSS for sound quality and the Sennheiser for fit.

The only criticism i that wearing my KOSS plugs whilst working out in the gym, the plugs tend to lose their shape due to sweat which need replacing say after four months.

Very good value

Very comfortable headphones that fit well without falling out. The bass and sound quality is excellent for headphones of this price. They come with a little carry case too if you're in to that sort of thing. It's pretty good quality and definitely stops the wires getting bent and worn.

These headphones make sound explorable.

Having spent years listening to music through ipod headphones, something felt missing. The first night of listening through these sennheisers, I'd found out what it was. Firstly, I have to comment on how incredibly comfortable these are. They are wonderfully soft and you would soon forget you had them on. The sound these produce (and bear in mind, i've only tried them on my ipod) is amazing, I can only compare it to being immersed in an ocean of sound. Listening to The Verve, I was picking up previously inaudiable sounds and getting taken under by the sonic waves. These headphones make sound explorable, and I'm looking forward to the journey ahead. One drawback is that they are terribly anti-social. Listening to the Rolling People at full blast may also deafen your neighbour, but one redeming factor, for you, not your neighbour, is that for someone that likes to hear what's going on the outside world, is being sonically aware of your surroundings (i'm going to test this claim further at the airport) - I would get dizzy with sound if they were closed. Anyway, for a first time headphone buyer I'm very happy with my choice and once I'm deep in the musical woods in a few years, I think I'll see what other sounds are available. Enjoy. Oh, one last thing; the ear-parts (not very techincal i know) are a kind of sand colour (they would have been cool all black and grey) though the picture above doesn't show this. Have I got a different colour than what's advertised or is it not very clear on the picture?

good but not brilliant

ok, this is not a top of the range earphone, but it does give a decent sound quality. it tends to look poorly built, but so far I have not had any problems with it.
it is not sound isolating, which is not very good, because when you are listening to music, you will still everything around you, unless you put it on full volume.
the volume control button seemed useless to me, and a bit annoying cause if your earphones are in your pocked or something, it might turns it down, so everytime you gotta check to see if it is on high.
Not bad for earphones, they do the job required, the sound quality is OK, but my old Philips did a lot better job, for almost the same price.
if you want very good earphones, invest a bit more and get a better one. if you want it for not-so-regular use, then this should be good.

Well worth the money

I bought these headphones 2 years ago mainly to use with my 8-track recorder, and I wasn't disappointed. When recording I use a wide variety of effects and different depths of frequency, but the V300 copes with these extremely well, providing a clear treble sound and a warm, powerful bass sound. Even when cranking up the volume the speakers fail to distort or hiss.

The build and finish are solid and they are very comfortable to wear. The adjustable sliders on either side do a great job ensuring anyone can put them on without causing any discomfort. The length of the cable is quite long, providing some manoeuvrability, whilst the removable jack adaptor means you can plug these into both 1/4 and 1/8th inch sockets.

Even at £10 dearer these would still be great value for money. You can't go wrong with them.