Logitech Ultimate Ears 700 – The Musician's Choice

Logitech Ultimate Ears 700 - The Musician's Choice

Last month, we had a special feature on computer peripherals from major computer peripheral manufacturer Logitech, which included, among other things, a handful of in-ear headphones from their Ultimate Ears sub-brand. While Logitech has been making personal audio products for a while, it is recently that the company has forayed into the premium audio segment, which it did by buying Ultimate Ears back in 2008.

Ultimate Ears was the brainchild of Jerry and Mindy Harvey, who founded the company in 1995, in Irvine, California. At that time, Jerry was the stage monitor engineer for the rock band Van Halen. Stage monitors are speakers set up on stage that face the musicians, so that they can hear themselves and their band-mates properly while performing. The drummer of the band, Alex Van Halen, complained to Jerry that even with powerful stage monitors, he could hardly hear the rest of the band over the din of the crowd. This led Jerry to design a pair of in-ear monitor headphones that would block out ambient noise and provide detailed sound from the rest of the band. Other musicians that were touring with Van Halen started ordering copies of the headphones, and pretty soon, the couple had to start a separate company to keep up with the demand.

With the rising popularity of Apple’s iPods and other portable MP3 players, Ultimate Ears decided to release a consumer version of their headphones in 2004, which became very successful. They continued to partner with established audio brands like Altec Lansing and M-Audio for their consumer products, until the company was eventually acquired by Logitech for a cool US$ 34 million.

Purposeful Design

While the other Ultimate Ears models in our Logitech special feature either came in colorful designs or had special features like in-line playback control, the 700 looks so simple that you wouldn’t think that it was the highest pair of headphones in the group. They look pretty much like your average in-ear headphones, coming in a plain black with small and light silver buds. One of the buds has a red mark on it, signifying the right channel, although both have the usual “R” and “L” indicators as well.  

Inside the 700’s box you’ll find a sturdy hard case, with no less than five pairs of silicone ear cushions and two pairs of Comply foam tips. Comply is Ultimate Ears’ proprietary material for its in-ear headphones. It acts much like memory foam, conforming perfectly to the shape of your inner ear, providing excellent sound isolation, comfort, and a secure fit – much more than any rubber or silicone tips we’ve used before.

A Top Performer For Top Performers

Internally, the Ultimate Ears 700 has two custom sound drivers in each earbud, a design that is similar to the original in-ear monitors that the company produces for professional musicians. The setup created a nice, distinct soundstage that was admittedly a little on the bright side, which is understandable given the size of the drivers. However, the sound separation was mostly the case only for music genres with simple instrumentation and vocals, like jazz and light/folk rock. We noticed that it started to waver once we played tracks with heavier sounds like hip hop and rock, where the multiple audio tracks began to blend into each other a little too much, affecting detail and clarity.

From the sound and feel of things, we think that the Ultimate Ears 700 is still, at its core, more attuned for musicians onstage rather than casual audiophile - the type of music it reproduces really well indicates this. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean it did poorly in the other genres, far from it. Overall, these are an exceptionally comfortable pair of in-ear monitor headphones that have great sound to boot.

For more information on the 700 and other models of Logitech's Ultimate Ears lineup, check out our Logitech special feature or their official website.