Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro review

Ultimate Ears isn’t known as well over here as  it is in the United States. If you’re looking into earphones from this company, it’s likely that you’ve done at least some research.

Lots of professional musicians and sound engineers use their earphones, so they must be good, right? We find out how the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro earphones shape up in this review.

Looks-wise, they’re not exactly conventional, being a little long and more angular than the average. Think an ‘L’ shape and you’re most of the way there.

You might think that that this’ll make them fall out of your ears all the time, but Ultimate Ears has come up with a cunning design tweak to stop this from becoming an issue.

A couple of inches of the cable coming out of each of the Super.Fi 5 Pro’s buds are reinforced with flexible material that keeps its position.

This does mean it’s more necessary than ever to wear them over your ears, but this is how we’d recommend using any IEM earphone if you’re out and about anyway, in order to minimise microphonic noise.

This may make the cable wear out more quickly if you’re a bit rough with it, forever tweaking the position of the over-the-ears cable segment, but the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro’s cable is fully removable so you’ll only need to replace the cable rather than the earphones themselves.

It’s a stroke of genius that we’d like to see adopted in more high-end earphones since it’s almost always the cable that breaks first.

Sonically, the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pros are highly competent right from the bottom rung of the bass ladder to the top of a soprano’s wail. Yes, you can get a fair bit more detail by opting for an Etymotic earphone or Ultimate Ears’s new 700 set, but then you’d be missing out on the Super.Fi 5 Pros’ main attraction – their exciting, punchy sound.

Yes, it could be a little more natural but if you’re after thrills – refined ones, mind – the Super.Fi 5 Pro earphones are a superb choice. There’s no juvenile bass boom, present in the rival Denon AH-C751 ‘phones or the stablemate Super.Fi 5 EB set, but these earphones are all the better for it. These earphones aren’t too far off the £400 RRP Shure SE530s in bass terms, so there’s entirely no criticism to be made there.

The Super.Fi 5 Pros’ sound is instead made so punchy by subtle changes of emphasis throughout the whole frequency range. If you’re looking for sheer accuracy, the q-JAYS and Etymotic ER range are worth a look, but for a fun, yet still high-end, listening experience, the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro earphones justify their price tag with aplomb.