Ultimate Ears MetroFi 170vi Headphones Review

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Sennheisers that I’ve reviewed in the past. They sound great, but their overly sticky cable causes many snagging issues and the headphones have been ripped out of my ears one too many times. About a month ago, they finally failed in one of these sudden yanks.

So I went shopping for new head phones, and was fortunate to find the Ultimate Ears MetroFi 170vi headphones which are reasonably priced (less than 50 UK Pounds). Actually, not only are they reasonably priced, they are the cheapest I could find in the Apple store for my iPhone. I look for headphones (for my iPhone) that include a microphone because although I know I could get more bang for the buck with just the headphones, the convenience is just too great with a microphone on the cables, particularly during the winter.

So, how did they compare? Being the ‘cheapest’ I was expecting a sound quality worse than anything I’ve ever heard… but no, quite the contrary. It was some of the best sound quality I’ve heard (price adjusted). Really. I’ve tried heaphones at twice the price that were about the same (and without a microphone). Yes, the gummy ear plugs are painful in how stiff they are, regardless of whether you use the right size for you, but once you manage to wedge them in your ears, the sound is actually not bad at all. Bass is crisp and punchy without being too ‘boomy’, middle and treble don’t get washed out. Acoustic music sounds good AND electronic music doesn’t sound lame.

As a bonus, the cables aren’t sticky!!! They actually clean up pretty tidily (is that a word?) and I haven’t managed to get these into the sort of mess that my old headphones used to get into. Construction quality seems to be pretty good and in the month and a half I’ve used them, they haven’t failed me. I highly recommend these.

Update (2 months later):

The sound and durability of these is still impressing me but just discovered a MAJOR flaw.. the bud will come off in your ear. Yes. I had to like get tweezers and pull it out of my ear. Upon further inspection it seems that it is held merely by a small lip (friction) which once the bud gets old, the fit is ‘loose-ish’. I don’t know what to say.. they are great value and perhaps if you super glue the buds in they’re great, but this left me really bothered.

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