twister6
Android Expert
This is a review of Logitech Ultimate Ears UE 600vi earphones: UE 600 Noise-Isolating Earphones - Logitech
The choice of headphones is always a matter of personal preference and taste. But one thing will be common with all of them: no matter how much you will try to convince yourself that your pair of budget earphones sounds pretty good - as soon as you get a chance to do A/B comparison with a premium one, you will never going to look at your cheap earphones the same again. The problem is where do you set a limit for a premium pair since the price of top earphones can quickly get out of control in multiple hundreds of dollars. I personally always look into a quality earphones as an investment that will last for many years of use with your different phones and tablets, and the limit doesn't have to skyrocket and rather can stay in $100 reasonable range. Recently I got a chance to review a pair of UE 600vi earphones which I found to be one of the top sounding and the best fitting earphones I have ever tested, and for the price of $72 on Amazon its a great deal for such a piece of technology.
The earphones came in a very attractive package, nothing over the top but definitely with a premium touch. Included with UE 600vi was 5 pairs of silicone tips and 2 pairs of bonus original Comply tips which I found to be a huge surprise. You also get a detachable shirt clip, a hard protective case, a very detailed user documentation, and another interesting booklet labeled ALL ACCESS with pictures of a lot of different artists wearing UE earphones. The earphones itself have on-chord controls which include volume up/down and multifunction play/call button. Intended for seamless integration with Apple products, this is still a very functional remote for Android users. Yes, volume will not work because of Apple's own implementation of controls and built in resistors, but multifunction button is very capable! First of all it will play/pause any song of your default audio player as well as video player. With addition of the free app from Google play: JAYS Headset Control, I was able to add double-/triple-click control of skipping to next/prev song and also fine-tune time delay between clicks. The chord design of these is actually tangle resistant which I found especially useful when storing UE 600vi inside of the included hard protective case. There are a few other details that make these standout, such as in addition to letter designation of right vs left, they actually changed the right earphone to include "red" inner plastic part where red=right. The earphone plug is L-shaped and slightly angled which takes away a chord tension/strain when removing headphones - one of the common failures when chord stretches and breaks at the 3.5mm connector plug. Also, design itself is very light weight, and the shape of earphones has by far the best fit I have ever experienced, even with soft silicone tips. As a matter of fact, the design works great in both straight down and over the ears directions. I have been testing these for a few days, and can wear it for hours without even noticing them in my ears. Although it's hard not to notice it since one of their main functions is to provide noise isolation. You can't miss that!
The noise reduction of almost 26db is noticeable the second you plug these into your ears where everything gets pushed into background, attenuated to a level where it won't bother you. But the magic happens when you start playing the music. As soon as you hit play - you get exposed to one of the clearest sounds you ever heard. The power comes from a custom tuned single driver that brings an incredible crisp clarity to your ears. With so many earphones on the market where they only concentrate on delivering pounding bass, the first second you start listening in these you will notice somewhat lack of bass. It's there, but not as pronounced, and rather more balanced without any built-in enhancements to boost it like in other earphones brands/designs. What I have done right after receiving these to go through 12 hours burn in period where you play white-noise loop to burn-in earphones (very useful source of that which plays in the loop: White Noise Burn-in). That made a definite improvement in low frequency sound. Still, don't expect a pounding bass, since these earphones are more about true reproduction of the sound rather than enhancements which you can do yourself with Eq setting. The mids and highs coming out of these headphones are beyond crispy clear. You will hear details that you never heard before. In addition, per Logitech/UE own reference of 3D soundstage, you get a wider sound which is so hard to achieve with in-ear headphones since you are limited by acoustic space between your ears rather than sound traveling/bouncing around your room before reaching your ears. I don't consider myself a particular audiophile, but based on comparison testing, especially with my recent review of Klipsch S4A II, UE 600vi really stand out above the rest in the same category. Of course, it wouldn't be fair to compare UE 600vi to their other flagship UE 900 model where you have quad-driver design or other premium brands/models that cost 4x-5x as much. But in my opinion 600vi stands head and shoulders above competition in this $100 headphone category, with some which cost twice as much.
Overall, I highly recommend UE 600vi for a reason that it's a great value for such a premium sound. The design details is just a bonus, and the ability to use it's built-in media control in full capacity with Android phone is just an icing on a cake. Forgot to mention, it also makes great calls and people on the other side where very impressed with sound quality and lack of background noise considering the mic is placed with on-chord remote control and not right next to your mouth when using earphones hanging down. Of course, this is just my opinion, and I'm sure there will be some people who are so used to exaggerated bass they will find these not their cup of tea. But if you want a super clean and clear sound with just right amount of bass without any exaggeration - give UE 600vi a shot!
Here are the pictures:
The choice of headphones is always a matter of personal preference and taste. But one thing will be common with all of them: no matter how much you will try to convince yourself that your pair of budget earphones sounds pretty good - as soon as you get a chance to do A/B comparison with a premium one, you will never going to look at your cheap earphones the same again. The problem is where do you set a limit for a premium pair since the price of top earphones can quickly get out of control in multiple hundreds of dollars. I personally always look into a quality earphones as an investment that will last for many years of use with your different phones and tablets, and the limit doesn't have to skyrocket and rather can stay in $100 reasonable range. Recently I got a chance to review a pair of UE 600vi earphones which I found to be one of the top sounding and the best fitting earphones I have ever tested, and for the price of $72 on Amazon its a great deal for such a piece of technology.
The earphones came in a very attractive package, nothing over the top but definitely with a premium touch. Included with UE 600vi was 5 pairs of silicone tips and 2 pairs of bonus original Comply tips which I found to be a huge surprise. You also get a detachable shirt clip, a hard protective case, a very detailed user documentation, and another interesting booklet labeled ALL ACCESS with pictures of a lot of different artists wearing UE earphones. The earphones itself have on-chord controls which include volume up/down and multifunction play/call button. Intended for seamless integration with Apple products, this is still a very functional remote for Android users. Yes, volume will not work because of Apple's own implementation of controls and built in resistors, but multifunction button is very capable! First of all it will play/pause any song of your default audio player as well as video player. With addition of the free app from Google play: JAYS Headset Control, I was able to add double-/triple-click control of skipping to next/prev song and also fine-tune time delay between clicks. The chord design of these is actually tangle resistant which I found especially useful when storing UE 600vi inside of the included hard protective case. There are a few other details that make these standout, such as in addition to letter designation of right vs left, they actually changed the right earphone to include "red" inner plastic part where red=right. The earphone plug is L-shaped and slightly angled which takes away a chord tension/strain when removing headphones - one of the common failures when chord stretches and breaks at the 3.5mm connector plug. Also, design itself is very light weight, and the shape of earphones has by far the best fit I have ever experienced, even with soft silicone tips. As a matter of fact, the design works great in both straight down and over the ears directions. I have been testing these for a few days, and can wear it for hours without even noticing them in my ears. Although it's hard not to notice it since one of their main functions is to provide noise isolation. You can't miss that!
The noise reduction of almost 26db is noticeable the second you plug these into your ears where everything gets pushed into background, attenuated to a level where it won't bother you. But the magic happens when you start playing the music. As soon as you hit play - you get exposed to one of the clearest sounds you ever heard. The power comes from a custom tuned single driver that brings an incredible crisp clarity to your ears. With so many earphones on the market where they only concentrate on delivering pounding bass, the first second you start listening in these you will notice somewhat lack of bass. It's there, but not as pronounced, and rather more balanced without any built-in enhancements to boost it like in other earphones brands/designs. What I have done right after receiving these to go through 12 hours burn in period where you play white-noise loop to burn-in earphones (very useful source of that which plays in the loop: White Noise Burn-in). That made a definite improvement in low frequency sound. Still, don't expect a pounding bass, since these earphones are more about true reproduction of the sound rather than enhancements which you can do yourself with Eq setting. The mids and highs coming out of these headphones are beyond crispy clear. You will hear details that you never heard before. In addition, per Logitech/UE own reference of 3D soundstage, you get a wider sound which is so hard to achieve with in-ear headphones since you are limited by acoustic space between your ears rather than sound traveling/bouncing around your room before reaching your ears. I don't consider myself a particular audiophile, but based on comparison testing, especially with my recent review of Klipsch S4A II, UE 600vi really stand out above the rest in the same category. Of course, it wouldn't be fair to compare UE 600vi to their other flagship UE 900 model where you have quad-driver design or other premium brands/models that cost 4x-5x as much. But in my opinion 600vi stands head and shoulders above competition in this $100 headphone category, with some which cost twice as much.
Overall, I highly recommend UE 600vi for a reason that it's a great value for such a premium sound. The design details is just a bonus, and the ability to use it's built-in media control in full capacity with Android phone is just an icing on a cake. Forgot to mention, it also makes great calls and people on the other side where very impressed with sound quality and lack of background noise considering the mic is placed with on-chord remote control and not right next to your mouth when using earphones hanging down. Of course, this is just my opinion, and I'm sure there will be some people who are so used to exaggerated bass they will find these not their cup of tea. But if you want a super clean and clear sound with just right amount of bass without any exaggeration - give UE 600vi a shot!
Here are the pictures:
