Ultimate Buds UB5 headset
$49.99
This is Hawk again, reviewing the new UB5 iPhone ear buds. Brad from UltimateBuds.com asked for some volunteers to review this latest addition to the UB line. I jumped at the chance to try something new and see how they compare to the Maximo’s that I reviewed before. Let’s start at the beginning.
Patience is a virtue, and I think all of the volunteers to review the UB5s were definitely virtuous. Apparently there were some hardware issues that needed correcting, and the buds ended up shipping on the day that they “released”. I finally received the UB5s and did a quick assessment of what I had received.
Photo courtesy of UltimateBuds.com
The packaging was a nice little box. Simple and functional. You could tell that is a stream-lined, no-nonsense operation. I’m not saying that anything looked cheap or cheesy, just less flash than say the packaging for the Vibes or other headsets. Inside the box was a letter talking about the UB5’s sound and the reason they looked so much like the V-Moda Vibe Duos, a suede bag with the US5’s in it, and a little plastic bag with the large and small ear bud covers. Unfortunately, at the time that I received the ear buds, I had just moved into my house, and the letter is no where to be found (with about 1/4th of my other belongings, but that’s an entirely different matter).
Now, let me state again as I did in my last review, I am not an audiophile. I simply love listening to music, and of course, the better it sounds, the happier I am. In other words, I’ll take FM over AM, CD over vinyl, and MP3 over WAV. Other than that, it’s not a deal breaker so long as the song can be heard with some clarity.
Before I get into the actual sound, let’s go over the headset a little.
Style
First and foremost, these buds are stylish, but look like the offspring of the Apple headphones and the V-Moda Vibe Duos. That’s no coincidence either. Ultimate buds save their consumers money because they get the rights to use existing parts for their ear buds. This means less time and money are spent on development. Start to finish, a manufacturer has to acoustically create the housing, match a speaker to it, develop wiring setups, power usage… you get the idea. It’s generally a lengthy, costly, and time consuming process. The guys at UB get the housings and wiring setups that are already developed, and work from there, saving time and money.
So in this case, the housings are very, VERY similar to the Vibe Duo’s. I can only speculate (mostly because I cannot find where Brad confirmed where they got them) that UB bought the housings straight from V-Moda. One of the complaints about the Vibe Duos is that for many people, they are just too bassy or even muddy-sounding for their tastes. UB went and found a speaker that would complement and work with the housing from V-Moda, aiming for more of a true sound, expressing a full range, instead of letting them be too heavy or too high. It’s one of the reasons for the delay on them initially. They wanted them to be perfect.
The cord is almost straight out of your Apple iPhone box, except it’s black. It has the same integrated mic/clicker that the Apple headsets come with, so functionality with your iPhone is assured. I was not too thrilled with where the cord and plug met on my pair, as it seemed that it was a bit loose, and threatened to break apart or come apart, so I solved this with a piece of shrink tubing. It got nice and snug on the plug securing against any future problems. Other than that, they are built very well.
The second thing I noticed was these buds felt light! I mean, the moment I picked them up it was apparent. So being so light feeling means less chance of discomfort when wearing them for prolonged periods.
Sound
According to Brad, there was no need to do any type of “burn-in” on these ear buds, so I plugged then right up and queued up 3 songs and one album that best cover my range of musical tastes:
• Digital Underground – Humpty Dance
• Korn – Evolution
• Daniel Bedingfield – I Gotta Get through this
• Angie Aparo – The American (full CD)
The first 3 songs are varying degrees of being “bass rich”. One pumps, one thumps, and one is just heavy in general. This is to determine how strong or weak the bass is with these buds. The Angie Aparo CD covers the full range of sound and would let me know if anything else is lacking or too prominent.
I am very happy to report that on first listen, it came off pretty much as Brad had stated - full sound, warm and rich. I did think that they were a little heavy on the bass after I started into Angie Aparo, but not too bad if kept down at a little less than 1/3rd volume. At half volume, the bass was very prominent, and seemed to threaten to swallow the song down into one muddy hum, but never did. Everything stayed at the balanced point, so you could still hear the cymbal crash, or the high pitched squeak of fingers sliding up the neck of the guitar. I ramped up the volume as high as I could stand and that balance remained.
Do I think the bass is too much? No. It carries a definite strong presence, but does not overwhelm. It IS slightly more than the Maximo iP-HS2’s, but not by much. I went back and played 30-second spots from each song, alternating between each set of ear buds, and it was very close, but the UB5’s did carry just a bit more on the low-end. I would be happy with either pair in my ears when running down my playlists.
I do need to mention one observation I made when directly comparing the UB5s to the iP-HS2s. The volume through the UB5s seemed to be slightly weaker the Maximos. By way of comparison, at 1/2 volume, the UB5s were as loud as the Maximos at 2/5 volume. This should in no way deter anyone thinking of purchasing these as a replacement for the stock headphones, as the UB5s would definitely be much louder. I just wanted to put it out there as an observation. Besides, no matter what, loud is loud, and playing music too loud in general WILL damage your ears, so be smart about it.
Conclusion
I think that Brad and the staff at Ultimate Buds have a winner. The price is cheaper than most other comparable ear buds or headphones on the market today, but the sound is – in this person’s opinion- equal to, or stronger than many of its competitors. The only negative that I found was where the cord reached the plug, which is possibly the exception and not the norm, since the people of UB are assembling quality materials.
Ultimate Buds UB5 headset
$49.99
Related reviews:
Ultimate Buds UB5 headset (2009 version)
Maximo iP-HS2 iMetal isolation headset
V-Moda Vibe Duo headset