Hi!
Welcome to Lachlan Likes A Thing.
a show where I take a thing and see whether or not I like it.
Now the thing we're looking at in this video is the Logitech UE 900 quadruple balanced
armature in-ear earphone.
Now before we go into the review there's something really important that needs to be said right
at the beginning of this video, and it's this: there is a quality control issue with these
earphones.
Over at the audio forum Head-Fi a number of people in the UE900 have reported issues with
these earphones.
The first and biggest issue is that on some of these earphones the sound will cut in and
out, and this seems to be due to some residue being left on these detachable cables coming
out of the factory.
Now if your earphone has this issue some users have reported that you're able to solve this
problem by getting some kind of device, perhaps an earwax removal tool, and brushing at the
connectors until the residue is removed.
Now my pair of UE 900's has this problem and I've tried different things.
I've tried brushing at the connectors, I've tried connecting and disconnecting the connectors
and despite all of this the situation has improved slightly but they still cut in and
out occasionally.
Now a lot of users have said that this issue only pops up with earlier units of the UE
900 with serial numbers starting with 123.
Well my unit starts with 124 which means that it is a later unit and this problem still
has not been solved.
Now Logitech has been good apparently about replacing units with this problem.
That said I still think for a $300-$400 earphone this is really unacceptable for it to be coming
out of the factory with this issue and if this issue has been widespread these should
have been recalled.
Now another issue with this earphone is that a lot of users have reported the black faceplate
on the plastic will very quickly wear away to reveal the underlying silver plastic colour.
Now my pair thankfully hasn't had this issue but honestly this is something that should
have been identified and it should have been fixed before this earphone even went onto
the market.
Now there's another issue with this earphone and it's basically a design issue.
There's a very tiny pinhole in the nozzle of this earphone and if that pinhole becomes
blocked by earwax or any other material the sound of the earphone will change.
Now a lot of people have said that they prefer the sound of the UE900 with the pinhole blocked.
And, you know, they've done modifications to deliberately block the pinhole.
I haven't done that myself because I kind of want to sell this earphone after making
this review but basically if you like the sound of the earphone out of the box and you
don't want to change it's only a matter of time before that pinhole gets blocked by earwax
and because it's such a tiny pinhole it might be very difficult to clean.
Now again, apparently Logitech has been good about replacing earphones with these issues
but it still takes time and it's still a hassle and it never should have happened in the first
place for such an expensive earphone.
Now if anything comes up, if there's any updates, I'll update the description of this video
to give you some more information, otherwise you can follow the link in the description
of the video to the UE 900 thread over at Head Fi and you can read about some of the
issues yourself.
Now I hate to start the review on such a negative note but I do know that a lot of people only
watch the first 3-4 minutes of my videos so this is something that's really important
for you to know before you buy these earphones.
Now here's what I can say about the UE900's.
It's very light weight, it's very comfortable, the noise isolation on this earphone on this
earphone is very good if you are travelling in noisy environments.
The design does stick out more than some other designs like the Westone 4R so you do get
a bit more wind noise and you can't necessarily sleep your side with this earphone but all
in all it's quite ergonomically designed.
In terms of the accessory selection it probably has one of the best accessory selections I've
come across with an earphone.
You get lots of different eartip sizes, you get this really nice carrying case, that.
you know, lets you put an extra set of eartips and an airline adaptor, and it snaps tight
- you know, this is really nice stuff.
You get two sets of cables, you get the blue cable with an iPhone remote and you get a
black cable with no remote, and you know, this cable is very high quality, it's a braided
cable, and it feels real nice.
You know, all in all it feels like Logitech really pulled out the stops to give you a
really premium feeling package so it's such a shame that there's so many problems with
the UE 900.
Now in terms of sound I've heard three quadruple balanced armature earphones.
The UE 900, the Westone 4R which I've borrowed from a friend, and the Sony XBA-40 - and out
all of them the UE 900 does sound the cleanest and the most coherent.
So it does sound like Logitech has done a good job of making sure all the four drivers
in the earphone are quite coherent and aligned properly.
Now that said it still doesn't sound as coherent as something like the VSonic GR07 or the Sony
7550 where they just use one single dynamic driver so they don't have any issues there.
But one thing that the quadruple balanced armature earphones have over dynamic drivers
is that the soundstaging is quite amazing.
In terms of instrument separation and layering of the sound and the way they paint a picture
of what's happening in the soundstage, these are really amazing and the UE 900 is especially
good in this regard if you listen to a lot of electronic of synthesised music.
Now in terms of sound signature the UE 900 has quite a strong bassline and then a really
quite severe scoop in the lower mids that means that male vocals and a lot of vocals
lack a little richness.
And then the treble, with the high frequency sounds, is very fast and very clean.
Now what that means is that sometimes the UE 900 sounds a little unnatural and to my
ears, at times, it sounds a little tacky almost, because the kind of timbre or the way things
really should sound don't quite sound right on the UE 900.
So I think it sounds better with synthetic instruments than it does with natural vocals,
and if you particularly love your vocals, you particularly love to engage with a singer's
voice, perhaps the UE 900 is not the best earphone for you.
But it's still a pretty good all-rounder and most music does sound pretty amazing coming
from the UE 900.
Now overall the UE 900 is a good earphone apart from those issues and it is a really
nice complete package.
It is quite an expensive earphone though so for $299 dollars which is what I paid in Australia
for it I do think you can get better bang for your buck in terms of audio quality.
So something like the HIFIMAN RE-400 or the Vsonic GR07 or the Sony 7550 I think all offer
a similar degree of sound quality, on a same kind of tier as the UE 900 without costing
nearly as much.
The thing with the UE 900 though is that you do get all these fancy things, you get detachable
cables, you get the really good noise isolation on these earphones so if that's really important
to you you pay more and you get something quite good.
Now if you prefer a warmer sound I would direct you to the Westone 4R, I do think that they're
a bit more of a better all-rounder than the UE 900 but particularly in terms of very very
densely layered music, very densely layered electronic music I do think the UE 900 really
shines.
Now if you want more bass punch, if you want something more visceral I do think you should
also have a look at the Sony XBA-40 and I do have a review up of that.
I'll have a review of the Westone 4R soon so if you want you can subscribe to my channel
and you'll be updated when that comes up.
Thanks to everyone who has liked my other videos and subscribed to my channel, it really
helps when you like my videos.
And you can talk to me on Facebook at facebook.com/lachlanlikesathing and at Twitter @lachlikesathing.
Anyway, happy listening!