Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro EB

These ear phones are similar to the 5 Pros, but they have Extended Bass, thus, the EB.

They are priced at $199.99, have an impedance of 11 ohms, a sensitivity of 119 dB/mw, and weigh a little more than half an ounce.

These phones are curved, and have a large enclosure. They fit reasonably well, but are harder to keep in the ears than other phones.

Like their 5 Pro brothers, the 5 Pro EBs have two drivers, one for the high frequencies and one for the lows.

Most in-ear phones use what are called Balanced Armature drivers, instead of dynamic drivers. This allows for a better frequency response in spite of their small size.

The 5 Pros use two balanced armature drivers, while the 5 Pro EBs use a dynamic driver for the low frequencies, and a balanced armature driver for the highs. The balanced armature drivers are more expensive than dynamic, thus the higher cost for the 5 Pros. But, as you will see below, the performance difference was unexpected.

Look at that frequency response! Pretty flat (comparatively) all the way out to 10 kHz. Good bass response too, and that is what they are designed for. Overall, the response is better than the more expensive 5 Pros, and that seems a bit odd.

At 20 Hz, THD+N was about the same as with the 5 Pros.

At 1 kHz, the performance was actually better than the 5 Pros, not having a fourth harmonic.

At 10 kHz, about the same as the 5 Pros.

For IMD, notice that the peaks on either side of the 2 kHz fundamental and the second harmonic at 4 kHz are very small. This is really good performance. Again, it's surprising, in that the 5 Pros perform somewhat lower, but are more expensive.

I gave the UE Super.fi 5 Pro EB ear phones a 9 for sound, but only a 7 for fit. If you can keep them in your ears, they are great product. In fact, these have the best value/performance ratio in the set of six phones tested here.

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