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In the rarified world of high-end audiophile equipment, there are companies selling gear designed years, or even decades earlier. Sometimes it's great, as with a classic tube amp, but other times, well, it's just outdated. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ has a close audition of the Ultrasone Tio in-ear headphones and finds that while there's lots to like about the audio reproduction, there are a lot of areas for improvement too. And doubly so when taking the price into account...
Check it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJ6mb8
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0:00
Classic studio earbuds, but do they hold up? Let's check them out
0:03
Oh, Dave Taylor here, and I'm checking out these. These are classics. These are the Ultrasone
0:18
Tio in-ear headphones, and they're almost 10 years old now, which leads to the question
0:24
do they hold up? So let me talk about these. Let me talk about the technology
0:29
then we'll get to the sound, and you might be a little surprised by what I have to say
0:32
Now, they are based on a balanced armature or BA design, so it's not a triple driver
0:38
it's not a quadruple driver, it's a single driver, and its goal is to give you really
0:43
accurate and precise reproduction of the music. They are 18 ohm, only plugged in
0:49
no Bluetooth, no fancy technology here, 106 decibels of sensitivity, 19 to 21,000 hertz
0:56
reproduction, and an SPL of 117 decibels, so all the specs are there, right? Aluminum housing
1:03
in fact, here's a close-up of the earbuds. You can see it's a pretty simple design. They're
1:09
super light, and their whole feel is just kind of retro, and you can see the wire by how bent it is
1:18
This is a rubber-coated wire, but I kind of wish they had one of these more fabric-oriented or
1:24
different kinds of wire technologies, because this does have a tendency to be messy, and it can also
1:30
bend and move in awkward ways, because it has memory, as you can see. It knows where I've
1:35
folded it in the past, so it's going to go back to that same position. It also has a flex-supported
1:44
connector, but again, this feels honestly like it's plastic. It doesn't feel like it's aluminum
1:49
or metal at all, which is a bummer. It does come with a lot of ear tips, so let me start here. It
1:57
comes with this really cool little leather carrying box, and you unzip it, and I'm just going to sort
2:04
of let these cascade onto my table. Comes with a lot of ear tips. First, two little adapters. You've
2:12
seen these before. Probably you won't need them, but the ear tips are obviously super important. So
2:18
it comes with seven pair of ear tips. It comes with two pair of comply foam ear tips, if you like
2:25
those. Remember to pinch them before you put them in your ear, and then it has two pair of conical
2:33
and three pair of regular silicone tips. So different styles and shapes. Again, you can see
2:42
in this close-up the different styles of ear tips. As with anything you put in your ear, it is super
2:49
important to spend the time to try out different sizes and styles to get the ones that work best
2:54
for you. I will say they go pretty far into your ear. It's a little disconcerting. A lot of earbuds
3:01
seem to be fairly shallow, but these, you push them in, and they go in your ear. Now, the goal is
3:08
obviously to isolate the ambient noise, and ostensibly the comply foam do that the best
3:15
but they're not noise canceling. They don't do a great job of shielding you against the ambient
3:21
noise in your environment. However, they are really good in their reproduction, so they get
3:26
pretty darn loud. If you really need to do that, you're good. The cable itself is 1.2 meters. Again
3:33
a little on the short side, and it does have an inline single button controller, not even the
3:40
sort of standard three button. So push once, and it's pause play. Push twice, it's next track
3:46
and push three times quickly, and it's previous track. So it gives you some functionality. Hidden
3:52
in here is also a microphone, so you can use this for calls. It's a voice-optimized mic, and I found
3:58
that it actually sounded really pretty darn good, and you don't have to do this thing. I see so
4:03
many people do this, and it's just so frustrating where they're talking like this, because the mic
4:08
has to be within one inch of their mouth, or they don't think it's working. You don't have to do
4:12
that. In fact, really, you look kind of daft when you're doing that, so don't do that. Just trust
4:18
that your devices work the right way. There is an Android app, theoretically, that helps you manage
4:25
and tune your headphones, and how they work for you. I couldn't find it. There's definitely nothing
4:30
on the iPhone side. I'm not exactly sure what it would deliver, because again, that was something I
4:36
was unable to find in a Google Play search, but theoretically, it's there. So let's talk about the
4:42
sound, and then I'm going to talk about whether it's really worth its darn premium price tag
4:48
Just so you know, these are $499 earbuds, and you're looking at them, and looking at the design
4:54
and you're like, no way, but way, seriously. Okay, so to listen to these, I started with some classic
5:01
Joe Pass Jazz, and man, they sounded really good, but Joe Pass, his style of jazz isn't bass-heavy
5:09
It's very mid-range, very highs, you know, and it just was just really clear. There's a really
5:15
lovely precision to the sound reproduction. However, there's not much bass. There's not much
5:21
soundstage. You don't get a big expansive feel for your music. It's just really accurate. So then I
5:28
thought, well, what do I have that has a really solid bass line? And I thought, let's try this Skyfall
5:34
soundtrack from Thomas Newman. There's some tracks on that that are just fantastic to listen to
5:40
Not so much with these, though. There was just like the entire bass response just wasn't there
5:46
and I even messed around with the equalizer on my music source, and just didn't find that there was
5:51
a lot going on. Now, for studio monitors, for something you're going to use as an audiophile
5:58
that might be perfect for you. You might listen to music that doesn't have a lot of bass, or doesn't
6:03
need that really big, strong bass signature. It's not EDM. It's not trance, but if you're a more
6:11
modern listener, I would say most modern audio people, especially people that are going to drop
6:16
500 bucks on a pair of in-ear headphones, they're looking for that full sound reproduction. So they
6:22
want that bass. If they turn up the bass on their EQ, they want it coming into their ears, and they
6:28
want to be able to enjoy that part of the music, too. And these just weren't delivering that. So I
6:34
gotta say, overall, this is, to me, representative of this like very niche part of the audiophile
6:41
market, where there's companies that just make great gear, but they're still packaging it, and
6:47
designing it, and shipping it, and including all the features that were relevant 25 or 30 years ago
6:54
You know, these are tired old earphones, and they might be in-ear headphones, and they might be
7:02
something that audiophiles really love, but the company could really do with a major rev on the
7:08
entire system. They could do with adding some bass to the reproduction, having a different style of wire
7:14
having a three button, not one button controller. You know, the audio is there. It's really a clean
7:23
precise sound, but it's just, I feel, not really worth that price tag. So let me get back to the
7:29
price, but before I get there, let me ask if you could subscribe to my channel. As is hopefully
7:35
super obvious, I am really candid and honest. I am not just shilling products. I'm not going to tell
7:41
you to buy something that I don't think is fantastic, and this is a great example of it
7:45
There's things to love about this Ultrasone Tio, for sure, but there's things you really want to
7:51
know about before you go ahead and run your credit card. So go ahead and click or tap on that
7:56
subscribe button, and join my channel. I really appreciate you doing that. All right, well, these are
8:04
the Ultrasone Tio in-ear headphones, and as I said, they are $499.99 at Amazon.com, and I'm going to
8:14
be candid. I get a lot of gear. I get gear all the way from $19 earbuds all the way up to $1,200
8:21
or more headphones, and when I put these in and I was listening to them, and then I did my research
8:27
to go and look and see what the price was, I was surprised. I did not anticipate that these would be
8:32
anywhere near that expensive. So take that with a grain of salt. If you are, again, an old-school
8:40
classic audiophile, you might just say, you know, pshaw and patooey to everything I'm saying
8:45
That's fine. That's your right to do that, but if you're a modern listener who wants a full spectrum
8:51
and a big sound stage and a lot of presence regardless of the kind of music you choose to
8:57
listen to, then I'm not sure these are going to be a great choice for you, particularly at their
9:01
price point. So hopefully Ultrasone has a next-gen product on its way out in the very near future
9:07
and I look forward to checking that out because, boy, the pieces are here. It just needs to be
9:13
updated. That's all I got. I'll catch you in my next video
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai