Review: Ultimate Ears 5vi

Each time I test out a set of super high-end iPod earbuds, my personal sentiment ends up being the same: “if only these had a microphone and play/pause button for use with iPhone, I could use them on a daily basis.” But as it stands, earbuds in the two-three-four hundred dollar range don’t (yet) typically come with those iPhone-specific features.



Etymotic’s brilliant-sounding $179 hf2 earbuds have until now been the only option for iPhone users in that price range, and as fantastic as the hf2 may be, having options is always a good thing. Enter the SuperFi 5vi from Ultimate Ears, whose $189 price tag makes them the most expensive iPhone-specific earbuds I’ve ever gotten my hands on. And the 5vi sounds brilliant in its own right. Crisp all across the range from high to low, the kind of expansive sound that gives you the vague illusion you just might be wearing full-on headphones instead of tiny earbuds.



So does the 5vi measure up to the hf2 in terms of audio quality? After putting them head to head on several different types of music, the answer is “not quite.” But the two come really close, with the differentiation only noticeable if you’re listening closely. Close enough that while the 5vi doesn’t quite grab a “five star” rating, it’s a strong enough product in its own right that I feel comfortable recommending the 5vi to those users who prefer its styling over that of the hf2.



To put things in perspective, the 5vi doesn’t measure up to Ultimate Ears’ own $229 700 model, or even the competing $199 Atrio model, and certainly not to Westone’s $400 model – but none of those earbuds comes with the iPhone-specific features. So if you’re like most iPhone users and can’t see yourself regularly using any earbuds that don’t come with a mic and play/pause button, you’ve now got more than one great option at the roughly $200 price point.



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