Review: Ultimate Ears super.fi 4vi

Posted by: danc on Aug 20 2008

Question: What do Scotch, Cars and Headphones have in common?
Answer: Once you get a taste of the good stuff it’s hard to go back.

Yup, once you taste The Macallen 25, Johnny Walker Red will never again pass your lips.
Once you drive a Lexus, you might sooner walk than ride in a Yugo.

And once you try the Ultimate Ears super.fi 4vi earbuds the stock earphones that shipped with your mp3 player will be collecting dust in the drawer.

The super.fi 4vi are the ultimate for listening to music. These are, without a doubt, the most comfortable and among the best sounding headphones I’ve ever used. With one exception, they are truly the ultimate in earbuds. Let’s take a quick look at them.

In the package:

The earphones come nicely packaged. In the box are-

-the earbuds themselves
-a simple but functional plastic carrying case
-a universal tip kit that includes two sets of medium soft your types one set of small large and dual flange soft selecting your tips (thereby assuring the right fit and comfort),
-a “sound level attenuator” to lower the overall volume level for noisy sound sources.

The earphones are both simple and attractive. The cord is light but thick enough that it won’t get tangled around itself. At 45 inches long I find it to be the absolute right length- long enough to be comfortable but short enough to remaining manageable. The plug is narrow enough to fit into a first-generation iPhone without the need for an adapter.

The multifunction button is just below the point where the single cord breaks off into a “Y”. It answers and ends calls, pauses, resumes and advances music, and pauses and resumes music.

The inline microphone sits in a proper distance below one of the ear to pieces. As a result, when wearing the 4vis it dangles close to the user’s mouth. The earphones themselves are compact, light, machined aluminum that looks both simple and classy.

All of this is nice but what comes to your phones what really matters is sound quality and comfort. This is where these Super.fi 4vis excel.

Ultimate Comfort:

The super.fi 4vi ship with an assortment of different tips. Finding the right one took only a few seconds. Because the tips slip on and off easily, while remaining snug enough that they will not accidentally fall off, it was easy to try each of the tips out before making a decision.

Once I did it was immediately apparent that these are by far the most comfortable in-ear buds I have used. Even after long periods of listening I had none of the ear fatigue/discomfort that other earbuds can cause.

Ultimate Sound:

The earbuds shut out enough outside sound to ensure you don’t need to turn the volume up too far, even in somewhat noisy environments. At the same time, they do not isolate the listener so completely from outside sound so as to be hazardous. (This was a definite concern with my other favorite earbuds, the Etymotic hf2.) According to Ultimate Ears “The changeable ear tips provide -26dB of isolation and passive noise isolation.”

The sound from them is exceptional. These earbuds allowed me to hear things in long-familiar tunes that I had never before noticed. The combination of comfort and sound make these a truly ultimate an listening experience.

Slightly Less Than Ultimate Microphone:
Unfortunate, I was less impressed with the performance of the microphone. I have used a number of different wired and cordless headsets over the past few months and the super.fi 4vi performed somewhere between the the middle and bottom of that list. At one point, in fact, I was using them while driving (of course with only one of the earbuds actually in my ears) and my secretary asked me to either call back later or switch headsets.

Although I’m not able to do a scientific comparison, I would say that they’re on par or perhaps slightly better than the stock headphones that ship with the iPhone and they are far below the sound quality that comes from the noise canceling microphone on the Etymotic HF2s.

Summary:

So how did these rank with other earphones have been using lately?

When I’m looking to listen to music, podcasts or a movie, these are now my earphones of choice. Period. Nothing comes close.

For use with my iPhone as a telephone, I can see using them for a casual conversation if need be (particularly if I am in a quiet environment), but if I am planning on doing a lot of talking I will likely use a different headset.

Bottom line:
If you care about the quality of your music and want to enjoy your music with comfort, these are most definitely worth a look

The Ultimate Ears super.fi 4vi are available from Ultimate Ears.

They retail for $149.99 and come with a 1 year warranty.

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